Kate Winslet: Why I Wrote The Golden Hat

The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism is about the importance of self expression. But I also want this book to help people understand the gravity of a situation where there is so little progressive therapy, teaching or research. The world is still struggling to know where to place people with non verbal autism. Often they are institutionalized and never experience being part of a community, especially one in which they can learn to communicate and realize their full potential.

Proceeds from the book will go to the Golden Hat Foundation, a charity Margret Ericsdottir and I set up. Our immediate aim is to improve awareness about the capabilities of people living with autism. Our longer-term goal is to provide assisted-living campuses where those with severe autism can receive educational direction and job training in an environment that takes their individual strengths into account. We hope these campuses will serve as models to demonstrate these individuals’ intellectual capabilities and in doing so encourage society to recognize how much we can learn from them. —K.W.

“I’m sorry about Batman & Robin.”

“We are all equal.”

“A hat is a hat, ’til it’s on your head;
then it becomes you: it is how you’re read.”

“I’m more than a pretty face.”

“Is anybody listening?”

From The Golden Hat, by Kate Winslet with Keli Thorsteinsson and Margret Ericsdottir. Copyright © 2012 by Golden Hat Foundation. Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, New York.