About Alyssa

 Marriage, motherhood, neurodiversity, and the ongoing search for where I set my phone down — and possibly my sanity. Looking at it all through the lens of love and humor. 

Alyssa Schmidt is an author, speaker, and advocate writing about life inside a neurodiverse family - the love, the misunderstandings, the sensory overload, the resilience, and the moments of connection that somehow hold everything together.

Married to a man who was late-diagnosed autistic after nearly two decades of marriage and years of parenting together, Alyssa writes from the unique perspective of someone who spent years loving her family deeply before having the language to fully understand the dynamics shaping their lives. Her work explores what happens when families begin to reinterpret years of communication struggles, emotional overwhelm, anxiety, burnout, and connection through a new lens - not with blame, but with compassion.

With a background in education and nearly a decade of experience supporting individuals and families in the disability community, Alyssa brings both professional insight and deeply personal experience to her work. She currently serves as the Volunteer Coordinator at a domestic violence and sexual assault center in Wisconsin, where she continues her passion for building compassionate communities and helping people feel seen.

Alyssa is also the author of the children’s book Theodore Edward Makes a New Friend - a story she first created years ago for her son to help him understand differences, build empathy, and learn to love people exactly as they are.

Her upcoming nonfiction book, Before We Had the Words, is a heartfelt exploration of marriage, parenting, late diagnosis, communication struggles, and learning to love one another more fully inside a neurodiverse family. Through storytelling, speaking, and writing, Alyssa hopes to help neurodiverse families feel less alone while also helping others better understand experiences that are often invisible from the outside.

Her work blends honesty, humor, reflection, and encouragement, because sometimes the most meaningful stories are the ones that remind us we’re not the only ones struggling to hold it all together.

When she’s not writing, Alyssa can usually be found reading, drinking coffee, reorganizing something she absolutely did not plan to reorganize that day, snuggling her pets, and enjoying plenty of quality time with her husband and son.