About

I'm Ashleigh Sternes, founder of The Equilyst.

I've always asked why.

Why things are done a certain way.

Why systems work the way they do.

Who they work for – and who they don't.

And I don't stop asking until the answer makes sense. I've been told it's quite bothersome to those interested in maintaining the status quo.

I've always felt a deep sense of difference.

As a queer, late-diagnosed Autistic woman, I'm used to adapting to a world that wasn’t built for me.

At work, that looked like minimising or ignoring my needs, forcing myself to conform at the expense of my comfort, and doing it all with a smile. Until I couldn't.

And I realised something – the problem isn't difference.

It's systems that aren’t built for it.

Most systems are designed around an assumed default – built for the middle of the bell curve, not the full range of people within it. Everyone else adapts, works around, makes do.

This work exists for the people that assumptions leave out, and it starts by naming the system, not the person, as the place the problem calls home.

I'm not interested in adjusting systems.

I'm interested in questioning them.

Real change doesn't come from adding people to broken systems.

It comes from designing better ones.

My work is for the people systems weren't built for.

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