I am friends with TikTok personality Nicole Parish (@soundoftheforest).  Nicole is a professional artist who also happens to have autism.  Her TikTok account, on which she speaks openly about the challenges that face the autistic community and ways she copes with being neural atypical, had amassed nearly two million followers—until tonight (December 1, 2021) when TikTok banned her account for “numerous Community Guidlines violations”.  

Nicole is a professional artist who paints what she’s passionate about—bugs.  Nicole has always had two passions in life: painting and bugs, and she’s figured out a way to combine the two in a way nobody else has.  She is featured in numerous galleries, including the Meyer Gallery in Park City (https://www.meyergallery.com/artist.php?artist_id=256 Anthony’s Fine Art in Salt Lake (
https://anthonysfineart.com and Lark & Key in Charlotte, NC (https://larkandkey.com

Nicole started her TikTok simply as a way to ask questions about the neurotypical world she lives in but struggles to understand.  She didn’t think she’s really get any followers; she just thought it might be a nice outlet for hers. Since joining TikTok, Nicole has read and abided by TikTok’s Community Guidelines (I happily let my 6-year-old watch her videos), but she has had her account frozen several times because her videos include the words “autism” and “autistic”.  When she reached out to TikTok about these issues in the past, they’ve always unfrozen her account.

However, apparently TikTok has a policy that if your account is frozen too many times, for whatever the reason, your account will be banned from the platform, and it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to get it unbanned.

Unfortunately, this appears to be what happened to Nicole Parish tonight, December 1, 2021.  It is incredibly saddening to her and her followers.  Her account was a glimmer of light in world of social media that is far too often dark.  It is unfortunate that we live in a world where the words “autism” and “autistic” are flagged for being inappropriate, and an autism advocate can get banned from a popular social media platform for discussing autism.  Shutting down the discussion is counterproductive to everything Nicole has stood for.

Here are some links to recent articles that have been written about her:

https://www.southwestart.com/featured/21-under-31-nicole-parish

https://utahstories.com/2020/05/nicole-parish-local-artists-turns-to-painting-insects/

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/07/26/who-is-sound-of-the-forest-on-tiktok-artist-spreads-autism-awareness-on-social-media/?amp

https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/oreepc/this_autistic_girl_talking_about_her_insects_she/