Michelle Vinny

City: Kochi | Date of birth: 19/12/2011

Michelle Vinny is a 14-year-old artist and poet on the autism spectrum. She is minimally verbal and uses gestures and typing for communication. Till she was 4 years old there was no means to communicate with her; after 4 she started to point to choices of written text and to type with assistance.

Though she has 80 percent disability, her IQ scores are in the 95th percentile (above average – genius category).

Till she was 7 she hated colours, then on a random morning she picked up her brush and did her first painting. That painting was published in the Times of India children's edition. From then on she picks up a brush once in a while and creates artworks that leave an impression lingering long after you have seen them.

Her paintings have won many awards. From age 12 her art was displayed and sold in various national and international exhibitions—though she has never been formally trained in art or painting. She has also authored more than 70 poems, many of which have been published.