Tisha Campbell Shares The Heart Behind Her New Memoir, ‘The A Word’
For Tisha Campbell, writing “The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love” was about more than sharing her journey in a book. It was also about Tisha returning to a version of herself she’s longed to have again.
Rolling Out hosted a Cover Conversations and book release at their headquarters in Atlanta. Actress and comedian Pretty Vee moderated the conversation, which became an affirming space for Tisha to be vulnerable and share beyond the depths of just the book. Throughout the event, she talked about how she’s navigated motherhood, autism, finding purpose, advocating for her son, and even a full-circle moment of returning to one of her first loves as a child.
Way before she was known as a great actress, Tisha Campbell opened up with a personal story. She wanted to be a writer. When she was about six or seven years old, she had a journal full of poetry she had written. Her brothers took her journal and shared it amongst the kids at their school. Tisha would be walking around school, hearing classmates recite her writing. From that moment, she felt exposed, and it fueled a fear of vulnerability at a young age that stopped her desire to become an author.
But here she is years later writing again. And with no ghostwriter, she’s sharing one of the most personal moments of her life with the world.
“I wanted them [her kids] to know me as Mommy,” said Tisha.
In today’s society, people think they know a celebrity by the videos they share on social media or the things they read in tabloids, and in some cases that can extend to their families. But for Tisha, one thing she prided herself on was making sure that she kept her kids from what she says is “Hollyweird.” And after all of these years, it was her son, Xen’s choice to come forward and allow his mother, Tisha, to share the journey following Xen’s autism diagnosis in this new book.
It was on the set of “My Wife and Kids” when Tisha first received the news of her son’s autism diagnosis. She shared how she ended that call and continued working on set as if she didn’t just receive major news. The cast did not know of her personal circumstances. Instead, she leaned on her close friend, Holly Robinson Peete, to navigate this in the early stages of the diagnosis. During that time, Holly was one of the few celebrities openly talking about autism with her son RJ’s diagnosis.
A big piece of advice Holly shared with Tisha is that “time is not on your side” when it comes to early intervention with this condition. The current CDC estimate is 1 in 31 eight-year-olds (3.2%) compared to the 1 in 150 around the time her son was diagnosed with autism. And Tisha expressed that it took almost six months just for Xen to be seen and evaluated.
But Tisha wasn’t only focused on what Xen needed. She talked about the importance of understanding who he already was. She shared a story about her son that’s become a full-circle moment from his early childhood. It was revealed that when Xen was younger, he had a special interest in lining up animal figurines. Tisha and her family embraced this interest by fostering encouragement through books, creative lessons, and other opportunities. And now Xen is in school studying to be a zoologist, as he wants to be a college professor and teach the study of animals. As Tisha shared more, I believe this was a defining moment (whether she knew it at the time or not) where it went from figuring out how to make the world work for Xen to figuring out how to make sure the world understands Xen.
This is what makes “The A Word” so special. The core of the book is a mother’s journey of advocating for and navigating a life with a son who was diagnosed with autism. But through Tisha Campbell’s humor, it exposes a bigger message: embrace uniqueness, make room for people, don’t mask yourself, it’s okay to be vulnerable, and don’t mistake advocacy for taking away someone’s voice.
Tisha Campbell’s “The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love” is available for purchase now!
