Adoration and Advocacy: Exploring Advocacy as an Expression of Love
Hello Gifted Guides!
We’re so glad you’re here!
How are you doing?
We hope you are doing well. We hope, in this month so often associated with love, that you’re finding some opportunities to experience love through your community and through your advocacy.
Advocacy and love might, at first glance, seem as if they are not all that related. However, in so many ways, advocacy is one of the greatest expressions of love. Gifted and twice-exceptional (2e) advocacy is the practice of working to make a world that is accepting and accessible for your neurodivergent loved one. As Jess Steele writes (source article linked below):
At its core, advocacy is love in action. It is the willingness to speak up, show up, and fight for what is right—not just for ourselves but for those whose voices are unheard, whose struggles go unseen, and whose paths need clearing. Advocacy is a deep expression of care, commitment, and connection. It is love that fights. Love that refuses to be silent. Love that demands change.
And as with so many things, neurodivergent expressions of love can look different than we might expect, since we are often so used to seeing love discussed in a neurotypical framework.
On your advocacy journey, we encourage you to explore what love looks like for you and your learner, in a practical, day-to-day way. Below are some resources that might help you with this exploration:
“The Five Neurodivergent Love Languages” - Stimpunks Foundation
“Neurodiverse Love Languages: The Ultimate Guide” - Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, LMFT
“Advocacy as a Love Language” - Jess Steele
Guides to Gifted Friendships and Social Skills - The Davidson Institute
The Serviceberry - Robin Wall Kimmerer
How to Keep House While Drowning - KC Davis, LPC
How We Show Up - Mia Birdsong
Some of the resources above are more geared towards romantic love, some towards community love, and some offer a more broad, general discussion of love and care. However, as with all things Guiding Gifted, we hope you can see the opportunities for customization and personalization that exist within the resources linked above. We hope that exploring the different approaches to love in these resources will help you to find new understandings of your learner, yourself, and your advocacy.
Advocacy can be daunting and exhausting. Recognizing advocacy as the act of love that it is can be an opportunity to breathe new life into your advocacy and open yourself up to new possibilities, approaches, and ideas.
And, ultimately, at the end of the day, a little more love and care in the world never hurts.
Conclusion
Whether this is your first issue with us or if you’ve been here since the beginning, we are grateful to be part of your advocacy community, and we’re here to support you how we can.
If you’re in one of our programs already, you know there are lots of resources for you to access via our private, member’s only website.
If you’re not currently participating in one of our programs, there is still a wealth of information and support available to you. Check out our Resource Library or our free resource guides or any of our other curated resources (like our Spotify and YouTube playlists or our Bookshop.org reading lists).
Finally, a fundamental part of advocacy is making sure basic needs—like food and shelter—are being met for both us and our learners. If you or someone you know might need extra support, findhelp.org may be a useful resource. It can also help you find organizations to support, if you’re in a position to help others.
We hope you find ways to practice the love of advocacy this month. We’ll see you in March!
What’s New at the Davidson Institute?
Apply to Young Scholars!
If you’re interested in joining the Young Scholars program, you can learn more and start your application today! Get started by visiting our How to Apply page!
If you want to learn more about our program, explore our website, or register for our upcoming virtual Application Q&A. Our next Q&A is taking place on March 16, at 4 pm (Pacific). Does that time not work for you? Don’t worry. If you register for the event, you’ll receive a recording of the Q&A.
Remember! Annual Summit Weekend is only open to Young Scholars. If your family wants to join us for Summit 2026, be sure to apply to Young Scholars!
Testing Opportunities – Spring Test Dates Available NOW!
Through our partnership with Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, throughout the year, we are able to offer low cost, remote testing for students in grades 3-10.
This testing can be used to apply to the Davidson Institute’s Young Scholars program, along with the Davidson Academy, Reno and Davidson Academy Online.
To learn more and register for Spring 2026 test dates (or to join the Fall testing waitlist), check out our Eligibility Assessment page today!
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We’ll see you next month. Stay well, Gifted Guides!