‘Random things will catch his imagination’: B.C. boy with autism publishes online magazine

Adam meets a seven-year-old who’s reporting and publishing an on-line magazine from a unique perspective.

VICTORIA, B.C. — Like all good reporters, seven-year-old Clement Gray is full of questions and will do whatever it takes to get an answer.

“Ah!,” the boy exclaims after running up to a rose bush and touching a thorn after wondering if prickles are actually prickly.

“Yeah.”

Yeah. They are.

Clement’s dogged investigations have uncovered the truth about a neighbourhood cat that crosses his path.

“That cat loves to invade house,” Clement says he uncovered that the feline sneaks in basement doors searching for food and cuddles.

The seven-year-old’s nose for news knows no bounds.

“This hole is new,” Clement points to the ground, before sitting down and peering into the hole in the grass to confirm his statement is factual.

Because of all this, Clement’s mom Jessamy Tedlie agreed to help her son publish his reporting.

“Whenever he showed an interest in anything I could frame as loosely academic, we just go for it,” Jessamy says.

The magazine’s title was inspired by Clement’s nickname, Lemon. The first issue featured coverage of a birthday party.

“So, I could tell people who weren’t there about it,” Clement says.

Clement reported that cupcakes were served, balloons popped, and one girl cried during a game to get a goodie bag.

“Random things will just catch his imagination, and he’ll want to tell people about them,” Jessamy says. “That’s how we decide what the next (article) is going to be.”

Seeing as Clement is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD, his writing process is unique.

The boy dictates his reporting, his mom types it verbatim, and then he chooses pictures to illustrate the article, before she posts it online.

Clement has reported that deer crossing sidewalks are “adorable,” when his little sister falls off her bike onto the sand, it sounded like “zoom” then “flop,” and in an article titled “Bottle Butts,” moms who store water bottles in the back of their pants can be both funny and fashionable.

“It was really hot with the under seven-year-old set!,” Jessamy laughs.

While Clement is trying to reach readers of all ages, if you ask why he reports, he’ll tell you it’s to show how “fun and cool” it is to be neurodivergent.

“It gives them a different point of view,” Clement says.

Clement is also distributing his magazine a different sort of way, by printing tiny QR codes, and sticking them to Little Free Libraries in his neighbourhood for people to find, which leads to a recent article advising readers that scanning random QR codes can lead to viruses.

“It may be potentially dangerous,” Clement says before reassuring his site is safe.

Like all good reporters, Clement will never stop searching for unique angles to report on news you can use.