Teddy bears made from Olly and Heaths baby clothes, old glasses

We’re twins, but we’re not identical twins. We have different personalities because if everything was the same it would be boring. Together we like going to Red Kangaroo soft play and we love bowling. Once we both got exactly the same score – sixty eight. To have fun we go on technology. We love our X-boxes and phones. We play Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite. In Roblox we look like normal people. That’s our style.

At school we are not in the same classroom, and we play with our friends. We would like to be in the same class.

Both of us have autism and sometimes it’s hard to find our place in the world. We need support, understanding and emotional help. Sometimes it’s nice being a twin and sometimes it’s annoying.

Talcum powder

We love each other and we work together. We are Team Martin!

Being in Team Martin means being nice and teamwork. We are a happy family. It goes wrong when we argue and Mum and Dad argue with us to stop us arguing. Two wrongs don’t make a right! Team Martin phrases include: ‘When we fall out, we fall back in’, and ‘Be good, be kind and use your manners’.

We do get up to trouble though. It’s mayhem in this house!

When we were younger, we flooded our whole bedroom with water from the bathroom. It only took us ten minutes.

Mum didn’t know until she went in and water pooled around her feet on the carpet.

Fleece blanket den, teddy, Xbox controller, headphones

Olly

I have a teddy, Browny who was given to me when I was born. It helps me sleep so I keep it in my wardrobe. I am sensitive to light and I like the dark. I build a den in my bed at night to block out light and it helps me with my sensitivity. I sometimes need quiet and peace. I want space!

Heath

I want to play! When Olly won’t play with me I get annoyed. I play music in the middle of the night. I like music from the movie ‘The Bad Guys’ (a Dreamworks cartoon). It’s about a wolf, a tarantula, a shark, a piranha and a snake. When I play the Xbox, I bounce on my feet and the noise is so loud that it shakes the ceiling and the light below. So now I have to play the Xbox downstairs.

Tooth, skateboard wheels, cartoon accident motif

We go to the beach sometimes and once I nearly drowned. I got too far and I could not swim. I went under the water but the current was pulling me. I went back down and my uncle dragged me back up.

Olly says I’m the one who has all the accidents. I knocked both my front teeth out at school and they’re filled at the moment. My mouth and teeth completely felt fine. When I was little, I was on a skateboard and I fell and the skateboard hit me and my front baby tooth came out – even the root.

I probably have all these accidents because I run everywhere. I am a bit like Sonic the Hedgehog. I like it when I run because I can feel the air. But don’t worry about me, I have these new shoes to try and stop me from falling, so I don’t really fall that much now.

Lego model on a hill

I was completely silent until I was four years old. My Mum tells me I used to use Makaton sign language, but I don’t remember how to sign now. Not talking was to do with being autistic. I didn’t feel the need to talk. I was happy in my bubble.

It was Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on the Hill’ that actually helped me begin to talk. I listened to it again and again and again and the words just came with the music: “I’m on my way, driving at 90 down those country lanes”.

Sometimes I need help with my anger and how to control it. It gets in the way. Daddy gives me squeezes and it helps to get the anger out and my Mum puts ‘Castle on the Hill’ on and it helps me to calm down. I like listening to other music now too, like Dua Lipa.

Bird box, animals in space model, animal toys

I like real animals and I also like animals like dragons and Pokemon. I collect Pokemon cards.

When I was at school I made this big shoebox into a rocket ship, about the animals that have been into space. These include a dog called Laika and a nameless tortoise.

I love penguins, because of how they swim. The white bit on their chest makes them camouflaged from underneath, because it looks like the sky. The black bit on their back makes them look like the sea from above.

We give up our lunchtimes sometimes to litter pick so animals don’t get hurt. I love animals and I hate litter on the ground. You can get bags and put them all together and put them in bins at supermarkets so they can reuse them. That way, no sea animals or land animals can get hurt.

Olly’s Books

I read a lot. Mama calls me an absolute bookworm.

I like books like Jack Stalwart but my favourite is ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ about a boy who gets into trouble.

‘Diary of a Wimpy kid’ is real to me. Everything in there has happened to a person. Those kinds of things happen to me too and I relate to it a lot.

I’m into horror books a bit as well. I like Goosebumps. I like the vocabulary and I like being scared.

At the moment I am reading Douglas Adams, Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy. I’ve not read all of this one yet, I’m on page twenty four. Sometimes I remember the page, but sometimes I put a little teddy inside to keep it for me.

Pencils, aprons, toolboxes, painted rocks, homemade. gnomes

Our Mum is the most crafty of our family. She has too much craft stuff that it looks like a bombsite. She has lots of sewing machines. The other day she bought a sewing machine from 1944.

But we all did a lot of crafting in lockdown. We love crafts and we are very crafty. We painted stones and made planters. We love watching ‘The Repair Shop’ and we love old things. We love upcycling! We made Mum these gnomes out of wood for her birthday.

These are our toolkits.

Heath tried to make his gnome 3D.

Olly went for a wand, but it got broken so he used it for the mouth. Mum loves things like this. Crafting makes us feel happy and Olly says it has made it easier for him to be good at Lego.

Drawings, cards

My future is to be an artist.

I drew this Handsome Squid - Head from Sponge Bob with Thor’s hammer. I draw a lot of things for my Mum, because she really likes my drawings. I draw little doodles and notes for Mum and Dad and I make birthday cards and Christmas cards. I drew a picture of ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’ because we liked it a lot. Mostly I draw baby Yoda and cute animals with little messages.

I really like drawing and I like sticking things so I can keep them forever. I love doing art at school too. Drawing is good because it’s relaxing and helps me quietly remember things.

It’s probably the only time I am quiet!

Lego model, amethyst, stones

My Lego is important to me since I absolutely love it and I create a lot of things with it. I use Lego sets and I build from sketches as well. I made this mini scale town with a bank, an airport, a beach and a hospital. I’ve also made a robot scorpion. I don’t build big things, only small ones.

I’m also proud of this amethyst. I like stones and I’ve got about three. I like crystals because they look pretty and cool.

I want to be a stone mason. I’m already making stuff out of wood – stone is next. I also want to go fossil hunting and I have a fossil shark’s tooth. I would like to find my own fossils.

I also want to help homeless people when I’m older. I want everyone to have a house.