ALEXIS Henry is like many nine year olds in her class.
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She adores her new puppy, playing with friends, trampolining and learning at school.
But she also has some differences. Alexis received a diagnosis of autism around six, generalised anxiety disorder soon after, ADHD when she was seven and Tourette syndrome just before she turned eight.
"Lexi would get upset alot when she had a meltdown at school, or when her tics got bad and she'd fill up with anxiety," her mum, Dyan Henry, said.
"She would come home and ask 'How come I'm different? Why don't other kids do that? My friends tell me to stop smelling my textas - and I can't'."
Mrs Henry and her husband Chris wanted their daughter to know she wasn't alone - and for her peers to better understand and accept children who are neurodiverse or have invisible disabilities.
They had struggled when they received Alexis' autism diagnosis to find an explanatory book they felt didn't negatively label children and wasn't too clinical - and wanted to improve the breadth of resources available.
"With tics for example there's books about getting a diagnosis but they're all written for parents, not kids and peers," Mrs Henry said.
"We can Google, we can go on online forums. Kids can't.
"All we knew about tics was what we saw on tv - people swearing and hitting themselves - we didn't know anything about it to be able to teach kids it was fine and they were still normal."
The Toronto couple started writing Just like you except a little bit different: a story about me, last August, a 30-page book inspired by and with input from Alexis that covers behaviours associated with all her diagnoses. Mrs Henry illustrated the book.
"We hope if a teacher reads it to their class the kids might be able to recognise something in their classmates and know, for example, that whenever there is a really loud noise and James hides under the table he's not weird, that's just how he processes things," Mr Henry said.
"Parents might read it and notice 'My child does that'.
"Maybe it could help with bullying and build acceptance."
Mrs Henry said the message of the book is "this is who we are".
"It's saying 'I might do things that look different or odd to you but I'm no different to you - underneath we're all the same and worthy of the same things'."
Alexis is "proud" of the book, which covers some of her behaviours including making noises, repeating phrases, sniffing things, food aversion, and her heightened empathy.
"I want to help people understand they're not the only one."
The Henrys have raised $795 of their $3000 goal to publish the book through Tellwell and want to see it available at every school.
Details: gofundme.com/1ltzm3poqo