Bellybutton Panda

BLOG NAME

When Ryan and I started our blog we ran a competition to design our logo. Ryan chose the winning design and I loved it for many years.

With our original logo was chosen by the lovely Ryan and during the running of our competition it got me thinking about the name of our blog and why we called it such an obscure name that has nothing obvious to do with Autism at first glance. I don’t need to give you three guesses on who chose the name.

I can’t remember the exact date that Ryan first mentioned Pandas and Bellybuttons to me, but he was around 10 or 11 years old. He woke up one morning and said to me “Hey mum, did you know there is a Panda in my Bellybutton.” I laughed and said that would make a great title for a book and he told me about a dream he had where there was a Panda living in his Bellybutton.

He had said before that he wanted to write a book about his Autism so I suggested he use that title and the rest is a wonderful history of blog posts to date and readers from across the globe. I have dabbled with a couple of blogs previously but this has become a true labour of love. I have always been one to wear my heart on my sleeve, the complete opposite of Ryan, hence me doing most of the storytelling. I love the name of our blog, I know it does not conjure up Autism as a first thought but it certainly reflects Ryan’s beautiful different perspective on life.

To me, the name signifies how special Pandas are, how rare and protected they are. Conservation reliant and an endangered species just like my beautiful boy. The bellybutton is also significant to life itself. The umbilical cord that connects a mother to baby.

Philosophical I know but whatever the name means to each individual it is here to stay.

How Logos Change Over Time

This was the original logo that won the competition. We both loved the design but over the years it has become apparent that the puzzle pieces are no longer appropriate for autism awareness.

It is felt that the puzzle pieces show autism as a puzzle that needed to be solved, however we have always seen autism as part of the jigsaw of life and all the different pieces are needed to complete the puzzle. Unfortunately that is no the wider felt meaning so we made the decision to change our logo to remove reference to the puzzle pieces.

Here is our new logo. We hope that you like it.

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There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

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