Chapter 590 - 272: Champagne and Clamor

A mother, known as a Star Mother (mother of an autistic child), uploaded a video recording of her family life.

This mother is raising a seven-year-old autistic child on her own.

Her child has had emotional interaction deficiencies since birth and was assessed as a Level 5 autism patient by a psychologist at Long Island Hospital.

In the current ICD-11 autism grading system, this is the second most severe level.

Medically, children at this level are described as having moderate intellectual disability and almost no language skills.

Over the past three years, the Star Mother has uploaded hundreds of videos fighting against autism.

Each video averaged low views, with the highest reaching about 1000 plays, and some having only single-digit clicks.

The single mother isn’t doing it for money.

She clearly uses YouTube as a platform to vent, documenting the bits and pieces of raising her child, to relieve stress and anxiety.

The single mother is a local public school music teacher. Her family’s financial situation is not great nor poor, just like many ordinary autism families.

Her mindset also resonates with many autism parents.

This Star Mother has fully experienced the four stages of emotions over the past three years: hope, disappointment, despair, and numbness.

Six-year golden period therapy, autism intervention courses, educational Lego toys, classical music, playing the violin for her child, even hiring a Mormon herbalist.

She tried all sorts of reliable and unreliable treatment plans.

No shortage of money was spent, but there were no improvements.

The child always immersed in her own world like a puppet, cut off from all communication. She couldn’t do arithmetic, wouldn’t play games, or watch cartoons.

The mother’s smile and spirit in the videos withered over time.

In the initial videos, she talked about saving money for rehabilitation courses at different hospitals, and what therapies she heard about in autism parent discussion groups that were effective for their child.

Later, even the Star Mother gave up.

The frequency of video uploads became increasingly sparse.

From every few days, to weekly, to not updating the channel even once a month.

Until the last video uploaded three months ago, where the Star Mother looked at the camera with empty eyes and spread her hands—

"It’s over. This is her life. Her grandparents, my neighbors, coworkers, everyone says the same. Maybe the child accepted this reality sooner than I did; I’m the only one unwilling to give up. Now, it’s all over."

From then on, there were no new videos on the channel.

Until April 1st, a new video titled "IT REALLY WORKS!!!" appeared.

In the video, the autistic child is holding a recently released Scholastic Group edition of "The Little Prince" fairytale book.

This fairy tale is a bit too profound for a seven-year-old, let alone one with moderate intellectual issues.

She was originally expected not to understand it.

Yet even though she turned the pages slowly.

Every viewer of the video realized the child was actually reading.

Off-camera, the Star Mother’s voice came through, choked with emotion.

"My daughter, for the first time in her life, is attracted by an illustrated book. She is truly reading, reading voluntarily for the first time in her life. Today is April Fools’ Day, but I swear to God, this is not a joke!"

"IT REALLY WORKS!"

This short 21-second video quickly caught the attention of online autism discussion groups and spread through family chat groups of autism patients.

On April 2nd, the Autism Awareness Day itself, it even made it onto YouTube’s special exposure push.

However,

What truly made the video go viral was on the evening of April 2nd, when short-video fitness influencer Sylvester Stallone, a Hollywood macho man on par with Schwarzenegger, reposted the video on Twitter.

What many do not know is,

Behind the scenes, Stallone is an autism dad, his son Seargeoh was diagnosed with autism since the age of three.

"It looks great, maybe I should get one too." Commented the Venice Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award winner, with over 50 million global followers, on Twitter.

Instantly,

The public discourse truly exploded.

Within a mere 48 hours, numerous influential voices and international movie stars shared the news.

April 5th, Thursday.

"The Little Prince" sold 30,215 copies, "Back-up" sold 26,531 copies.

The sales of "The Little Prince" directly broke the 30,000 daily sales mark, breaking the children’s fairy tale daily sales record previously held by "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" and "Chocolate Factory."

The works "Harry Potter," "A Song of Ice and Fire," and "The Lord of the Rings" are classified under young adult fantasy, not fairy tales.

Therefore, the new edition of "The Little Prince" officially became the highest daily selling fairy tale in UK history.

Top 1!

The sales miracle continues.

April 6th, Friday.

"The Little Prince" sold 33,215 copies, "Back-up" sold 25,674 copies.

April 7th, Saturday.

"The Little Prince" sold 37,521 copies, "Back-up" sold 26,509 copies.

By April 8th, Sunday, the final week of the Easter promotional week. "The Little Prince" sold 42,153 copies, while "Back-up" sold only 23,517 copies.

As of midnight Sunday, Easter promotional season officially concluded.