Light It Up Blue For Autisum

Have you been seeing lots of blue manicures today?  If you have, you probably know that it is World Autism Awareness Day.

All of you have seen my lovely 17 yr old daughter, Bria, featured often on this blog.  What you may not know is that Bria is cognitively delayed.  Although her primary diagnosis is a speech and language delay, many of her symptoms fall within the autism spectrum.  She is socially delayed, does not like to be touched and prefers solitary activities.  She has limited conversation skills and holding a one on one conversation can be emotionally stressful for her.  She has abnormal obsessions and disruption in routines can cause emotional disruption.  Although she is a very emotional girl, the language of emotions is foreign to her.

We first knew something was "different" about Brianna when she was young and was not communicating the way we saw her peers communicate.  When she was still not talking at 2, we had her evaluated.  She has been in special education since the age of 3 and at 16 years, she was functioning at the level of a 7 year old in most cognitive areas.

I know the moment that I realized that Bria might be on the Autism spectrum.  It was a day when she was about 5 years old.  I was sitting watching TV and Bria came over, sat next to me on the couch and snuggled up to me.  Sounds normal doesn't it....except for the fact that it shocked me.  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  You see, although I had not recognized it until that moment, having Bria snuggled up to me was a foreign feeling.  I could count on one hand the number of times I could remember her initiating this kind of contact.          

Despite all of these hurdles, Bria is the sweetest girl you could know, and very loving in her way.  She has a strong sense of right and wrong (sometimes to her detriment) and is willing to stand up for what she believes in.  Considering all that she struggles with, she is a very happy girl and I cannot imagine having a "normal" 17 year old girl. She delights me every day.

All this to say that this day resonates with me.  So I thought I would show you a special polish that I purchased on a special girls tips.

   
This photo was taken in the early days of my mani obsession, so please forgive the poor picture quality.  I will make it up to with the rest of the pics (tee hee)

This is Different Dimension Light It Up Blue layered over Nina Caribbean Blue.  Light It Up Blue is special for several reasons.  First and foremost, Missi donates $2.00 for every bottle sold to Autism Speaks.  Secondly, this light blue jelly with blue, holo and white hexes is a lovely glitter polish.  But what made this so special to Bria is that it GLOWS BLUE in the dark!  I tried to capture this on her nails, but wasn't successful, so I did some bottle shots.  Check it!

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If you want to see better swatches of this amazing polish, check Chalkboard Nails post HERE 
 

This final pic shows that Light It Up Blue, although it does have a light blue tint to the suspension,  is sheer and is best layered over another polish unless you want to use multiple coats. 

This polish made Bria sooo happy.  She would hold her nails under a light and then run into a dark room to check them out.  She even convinced her teacher at school to turn off the classroom light for a moment so everyone could see her glowing nails!  They were very popular.

If you are interested in this awesome polish, you can purchase it at Missi's Etsy store HERE.

Thanks to all the nail bloggers who have shown their support for this day!
 Tina