Rachel Barcellona - Model, Singer, Activist

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Rachel Barcellona is an activist and beauty queen set to compete for the title of Miss Florida later in June. At the age of three, doctors told her and her parents she was on the autism spectrum, Fox 13 previously reported. Now, at 22, she is the first person with autism to compete in the Miss Florida pageant, according to WFLA.

Barcellona told the local station: "I was basically promised that I would never graduate any school really or have any friends. Pretty much everything bad was going to happen to me because I have autism. [My mom] was like 'I will be dead before that happens.'"

Barcellona has been competing in pageants since the age of five. But she took a break from the glitzy competitions during middle school after experiencing anxiety and depression, WFLA reported. A friend persuaded her to get back into the contests when she was attending Dunedin High School.

Soon enough, Barcellona was winning pageants. She won the title of Miss Florida International in 2016 and the title of Miss Southeast International in 2017, according to Suncoast News. She is Miss Manatee River 2019.

A prominent advocate for inclusion, Barcellona had made more than 300 public appearances to promote the cause by 2017. She has walked New York Fashion Week and traveled to England and Canada as an autism advocate.

Barcellona has also served as a board member for the University of South Florida Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, as an international ambassador for the Unicorn Children's Foundation and as an ambassador for inclusivity non-profit Help Us Gather. She currently works with children at the Glazer Children's Museum.

A keen opera singer, Barcellona has performed at Madison Square Gardens three times. She recently performed the National Anthem at a Tampa Bay Lightning game at Amalie Arena.

In April, Barcellona spoke at the United Nations' World Autism Awareness Day event at the agency's New York City headquarters. She discussed her experiences growing up with neurodiversity, and described how the world of pageants helped her "come out of her shell."

23-year-old Aimie Footman is already through to the semi finals which will kick off next week.

Aimie has Asperger Syndrome, suffers with Crohn’s Disease, social anxiety and OCD, but she's still going after her goal of being crowned Miss England 2019.

She was entered in the South West Regional semi-final of Miss England at Bristol’s Grand Hotel on 16 June, but when it was cancelled Aimie was transferred to the wild-card semi-final in Leicester on 15 June. She is travelling up to Leicester on the 13 June to prepare for the semi final.

Aimie said: “I want to break down the stereotype of Asperger’s and autism and show the world that this type of disability does not have to hinder you."

Despite the odds stacked against her Aimie has been determined to live a full and productive life. At the age of 11 Aimie suffered with severe glandular fever and as a result missed nearly two years of school.

When she returned to school she was on the receiving end of some negative comments and experiences and then at the age of 14, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s and Crohn’s disease - which resulted in even more prejudice and a chronic episode of bullying increasing her social anxiety and OCD.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing our autism series with you and the push to end what some are calling an epidemic.

Today, in part one of our series, we are introducing you to a young woman making history as the first contestant in the Miss Florida pageant with autism.

At just three years old, Rachel Barecllona was in and out of hospitals. "Everyone was focused on the just the diagnosis and nobody cared about helping me, she says.

Now, 22 years old, Rachel is using her platform with the Miss Florida pageant to advocate for people like herself. "I myself have autism and I'm working to help our society accept those with disabilities, Rachel says.

Rachel is now working with Safe Minds, a national non-profit organization working to end what it calls an autism epidemic.

Doctor Walter Zahordony, works with an autism surveillance system out of New Jersey evaluating environmental risk factors. While some argue the spike in numbers is simply better awareness, he says it's more than that. "There is no doubt that there is better identification and wider diagnosis but that doesn't explain the sharp increase in autism prevalence," Dr. Zahordony says.

Rachel is now fighting for the Autism Era Act. It would be a complementary bill to the Autism Cares Act that congress just passed in September. It focuses on effectiveness, responsiveness and accountability to better meet the needs of the autism community.

Safe Minds Resolving the Autism Crises

We envision a world where people with autism are safe, healthy, and full participants in life, and the development of moderate to severe autism can be prevented.

We are dedicated to eliminating "I Don't Know" from medical professionals' vocabulary when it comes to the causation of autism and the treatment of its many co-occurring conditions, from gastrointestinal disease and seizure disorders to wandering behaviors and suicidal ideation. Please join us to save and improve lives now.

SafeMinds is focused on identifying the environmental factors that have contributed to the increase in autism prevalence, finding treatments for commonly co-occurring medical conditions with autism, and researching how to prevent the development of autism.