Just Like You: Living With Neurodiversity

Episode 1 - Autism

Just Like You – Autism is a Mid-America Emmy Award–winning short documentary that offers an intimate look into the daily lives of three children living with autism, alongside their siblings and closest friends.

Through honest storytelling, the film explores what it feels like to navigate sensory sensitivities, communication differences, and social challenges, while also highlighting joy, humor, connection, and friendship. By centering the voices of children themselves, the film invites viewers to move beyond assumptions and see each child as a whole person, not a diagnosis.

With insight from former NFL quarterback Trent Green and autism advocates, the film provides context and understanding while keeping the focus where it belongs: on real kids and their relationships. The presence of siblings and friends helps illuminate how understanding and acceptance are built.

The film helps viewers better understand autism in everyday settings such as school, home, and social environments. It is designed to reduce fear, build empathy, and create space for more compassionate conversations among peers, educators, healthcare providers, and families.

What began as a single film quickly demonstrated its impact. Just Like You – Autism has been used widely as an educational and empathy-building tool and continues to serve as part of a broader effort to foster inclusion and understanding through storytelling.

Episode 2 - Down Syndrome

Just Like You – Down Syndrome is an award-winning short documentary that follows three young people—Elyssa, Rachel, and Sam—as they share what everyday life looks like while living with Down syndrome—not just in how they are perceived, but in how they experience the world.

Through honest, age-appropriate storytelling, Elyssa, Rachel, and Sam speak directly to the camera about their interests, friendships, challenges, and aspirations. With unfiltered candor and warmth, they offer insight that only young people living with Down syndrome themselves can provide, reminding viewers that their lives are full, complex, and uniquely their own.

The film helps viewers better understand both the differences and the many similarities shared between individuals with Down syndrome and their peers. It is designed to reduce misconceptions, build empathy, and create space for more inclusive and respectful conversations among classmates, educators, healthcare providers, families, and communities.

What began as a single project quickly demonstrated its impact. By centering the voices of young people themselves, the film became part of a growing body of work dedicated to fostering understanding, inclusion, and empathy through storytelling.

Episode 3 - Walk Beside You Promise

Just Like You – The Walk Beside You Promise is a powerful short film that invites viewers to take a stand against bullying and exclusion by choosing empathy, understanding, and human connection.

Through simple, resonant language and intentional reflection, the film centers on a single idea: beneath labels, behaviors, and differences, we share a common humanity. It challenges viewers to look beyond surface judgments and recognize both the vulnerability in those who hurt and the strength in those who are hurt.

At the heart is The Walk Beside You Promise, a pledge to resist superiority and judgment, to honor each person’s unique path, and to choose compassion over assumption. Rather than asking viewers to fix, rescue, or correct one another, the film encourages something quieter and more profound: to walk beside one another with humility, curiosity, and care.

The film affirms that we all have at least two things in common, a heart that feels and a brain that learns, and calls on viewers to use both in service of empathy. It reframes kindness not as passivity, but as an active, courageous choice that can change cultures, classrooms, workplaces, and communities.