About

Being diagnosed on the autistic spectrum at the age of 3 hasn't slowed Alex Applewhite’s ambitions one bit.  Speech delay and reading comprehension, would be challenges his mother worked with him to overcome and succeed. 

 

By the time he was 4, Alex, had a love of numbers more than a love of words.  He excelled in math where he was adding and subtracting double digit numbers and multiplying single digit numbers by the time he entered kindergarten.  Alex could read at a first grade level, however if it wasn't about Thomas the Tank Engine then he wasn't interested.

 

Alex loves learning, and reading was no exception.  Conquering his speech delay, made way for missions to explore through the use of spoken language.  Learning to read words was never a major challenge, he was reading 2 grades ahead, it was understanding the meaning behind the words that gave him some angst.  This battle between comprehension and reading would take Alex several years to grasp.   

 

There would be a revolving door of traditional schools for the next 7 years.   Finding the right educational fit was not an easy task.   Reading comprehension was something he just wasn't grasping with his teachers.  Until finally, his mom made a point to teach herself ways to create a way for him  to understand what he was reading.  By the 2nd grade Alex was learning he could turn any story they read together into a play.  Assigning parts to each of them and as they read he learned how to dissect what the characters meant or thought based on how the text was written.  As Alex's mother continued this, the light bulb clicked and Alex began to use these tricks in anything he read. 

​

 

 Alex, being the inquisitive boy that his parents encouraged, one day at the age of 8, came across an episode from the YouTube series, Talking Tom and Friends, called "Superhero Picnic".  From this episode, he was inspired, more like driven, to create his own superhero characters.  Alex would then begin basing many of his protagonist and antagonist characters on old friends and classmates and some of their characteristics. 

 

Around this same time, Alex became apart of a non profit organization, CEO Superheroes.  This organization, along with some amazing instructors, would help Alex tap further into his creative talents.  CEO Superheroes, base their program around S.T.E.A.M. initiatives for children.  This was perfect because they promoted not just technology but the arts, something Alex was excited about. 

 

Alex would take instruction from Aurelius Raines II, whom Alex really took a shine to at first meeting. Mr. Raines would expand Alex's knowledge of  animation with intro classes in coding and later 3D printing.  Raines would take Alex under his wing to teach him to code, which sparked him learning to create a video game based off his Kid Dynamo character using the Scratch coding platform. He even had one of his son's create a Kid Dynamo Sprite for the game.  Mr. Raines saw how determined Alex was about this world of Kid Dynamo, and began teaching him the basics of animation.   Along with the help of his parents, family members, and his CEO family, Alex's support system has allowed for his creativity to thrive and flourish.  

​

Being neurodivergent, sometimes  makes it challenging for Alex to try new things when something doesn't come easy for him.   He is a  homeschool rock star and as he continues to learn new ways of learning it allows for him to expand his creative talents.   Being able to create through his own lens also gives him a chance to be his own superhero.  To see what hard work, determination and focus can bring has only fanned the flame for Alex.  Now that his dream to share his own characters through digital art and story, with the world, has become a reality, there is no stopping him.