Chloe Hayden fronts Disability Royal Commission

Inverleigh actor and advocate Chloe Hayden has delivered a powerful testimony to the Disability Royal Commission. Here’s what she had to say.

Heartbreak High actor Chloe Hayden shares her insight into living with disability before the royal commission.

Actor and advocate Chloe Hayden has delivered a powerful testimony to the Disability Royal Commission.

The 25-year-old, from Inverleigh, on Monday told the inquiry being diagnosed with autism at 13 was “absolutely terrifying”.

“When I went home I Googled autism and the only things I found were these fearmongering articles,” she said.

“The amount of times that I have told someone I’m autistic and their response to me has literally been ‘but you don’t remind me of Rain Man’.”

Heartbreak High star Chloe Hayden. Picture: Richard Dobson

Hayden, who stars as the autistic Quinni on Netflix’s hit reboot of Heartbreak High, said her mother cried when she got the diagnosis because she thought ‘my child is going to turn into ‘Rain Man’ – referring to a disabled character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 film of the same name.

“Growing up … never seeing anyone I could relate to made me think ‘am I supposed to be here?’,” Hayden said.

Authentic casting — where people with disability are played by disabled people — was “so important”, Hayden said.

“We need people in every single chair to make sure the representation happens,” she said.

“It is literally ingrained into us from the moment we’re born to dislike disabled people and dislike what is different from us.

“It is so important that we unlearn what we think to be true … and instead relearn from disabled people.

“I am so proud of being disabled.”

Chloe Hayden poses in the media room with the AACTA Audience Choice Award for Best Actress during the 2022 AACTA Awards. Photo by Caroline McCredie/Getty Images for AFI

Hayden, who has about 188,000 Instagram followers, created a blog at 16 originally “screaming to the universe” while trying to find a voice.

“When I started to find the beauty in other people and when I started to find communities and when I started to realise that I was supposed to exist … that’s when I was able to start seeing the beauty in it,” she said.

“For a very long time, and honestly even now, disabled people aren’t welcomed in to traditional media.”

Hayden, a motivational speaker and author, said social media “gives us a voice that throughout history we have never ever had before”.

The Disability Royal Commission is holding a five-day public hearing in Brisbane, exploring what needs to be done to create a more inclusive society that supports people with disability from all walks of life across Australia, that started on Monday.

Submissions to the Royal Commission remain open until the end of the year.

Originally published as Chloe Hayden fronts Disability Royal Commission