To Channing Tatum After His Appearance on Carly Fleischmann's Talk Show

Dear Channing Tatum,

When I first learned that Carly Fleischmann, a 21-year-old nonverbal woman on the autism spectrum wanted to start a talk show host called “Speechless with Carly Fleischmann,” I was so excited for her. Later, when I heard you were going to be her first guest, I was blown away by you supporting someone as incredible as Carly. Our community loves Carly for her beautiful story and now for what you’ve done to help her with pursuing her dream of being one of the first nonverbal and autistic talk show hosts.

You see, Carly is proving to the world that even if you can’t speak, you can still have something to say. I first learned about Carly’s story when her book “Carly’s Voice: Breaking Through Autism“ came out in the fall of 2012. It left me in awe. Everything from the obstacles she overcame growing up, to reading how she learned to communicate via her computer blew me away. I would later find out about her amazing website called Carly’s Cafe, and it left a permanent mark on me about how wide the spectrum actually is. I too was diagnosed with autism at an early age just like she was.

I can relate to Carly’s story a lot. Without the support of my family, I wouldn’t have been able to overcome a lot of obstacles as an adult with autism today. Their support helped me become one of the first talk show hosts with autism in the country in 2015 when I signed on to join the show “Different is Beautiful” to highlight people who have overcome adversity in our local communities.

As someone who has done interviews for almost a year now, I can tell you that your interview with Carly was one of the best I’ve seen. The exchange you two had was amazing. You were so authentic and even faced some of your fears during the interview. It made me learn more about your story, but also showed me how bright a future Carly has as a talk show host.

I hope if you ever read this letter you know the impact you’ve made on Carly and on our community by being one of her first guests. We can only hope that Carly continues her path and follows the amazing dreams she has set out for herself.

Your friend,

Kerry

Watch the full interview here:

A version of this post originally appeared on Kerrymagro.com.

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