Saffron "Saffy" Canny-Smith (aka NeuroSparklySaffy) is a disability advocate and content creator. She is also a late-diagnosed autistic woman with ADHD and chronic illness.
Sharing her lived experience online to nearly 20,000 Instagram followers, she shows the highs, lows and, importantly, middles of her life.
“I want my account to be a space that people enjoy going to. I also want it to reflect that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies,” she says.
As a teenager, Saffy experienced her first bout of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). She mentions struggling with her identity as a teenager diagnosed with ME/CFS.
“I pretended all throughout the school day that I was normal. Ultimately, it made me sicker and really unhappy,” she says.
“I spent that whole time in intense denial. I wouldn't let my parents talk about it with anyone outside our family.”
When asked what she would tell her younger self, Saffy believes she wouldn’t have listened to advice.
“The reality is, I would not have taken advice, no matter what you said.”
“For a lot of people struggling to accept their identity, you go through a period of denial or confusion, until you accept it,” she says.
Later on, Saffy was diagnosed with ADHD. A couple of years later at the start of 2025, she started feeling unwell and spoke to her doctor, who suggested an autism diagnosis.
At first, Saffy was uncertain. “She thought that as well as my ME/CFS coming back, I was in an autistic burnout. It all happened at the same time, so I had this feeling of, is she suggesting that my chronic illness is all in my head?”
Coming to terms with her ADHD and autism diagnoses made Saffy rethink her perspective.
“If this is my attitude towards myself getting an autism diagnosis, this internalised ableism did exist and I hadn’t worked through it.”
“That really pushed me to relearn a lot, which was good for me.”
Saffy started sharing her experience with autism on social media. This brought her to an online community that encouraged her to be herself.
“It's a space full of autistic people that embrace their autistic identity. There are disabled people that call themselves disabled and happily acknowledge it.”
Saffy talked about the challenges that come with chronic illness and autistic burnout.
“I can appear fine one day and cancel plans the next day because I can’t get out of bed,” she explains. “It can fluctuate that much. It can fluctuate within hours.”
Acknowledging her changing needs has helped Saffy become a passionate advocate for accessible spaces. After a recent trip to the United States, she was inspired to make a difference with local venues back home.
“I started helping the Yarraville Festival, volunteering to make it more accessible.”
She introduced a sensory room to the festival and is hoping to do more in the coming years.
“I have this massive list of all the things I want to do. They're categorised into no cost, low cost and expensive,” she says. “So much of the time, accessibility is affordable.”
Looking back on her advocacy, Saffy is proud of the community she’s cultivating.
“When I have a squiz at new people following me, I often see that they’ll have in their bio something related to chronic illness, disability or neurodivergence. This makes me feel good – I think yay, it’s a community of people who all get it.”