Julia Chalankina is the single mother of an autistic child. Julia Chalankina has found being the parent of an autistic child both challenging and rewarding, but understands the difficulty her child faces everyday in a society that does not fully understand or accept autism. Autism has been an affliction for many Americans for years, and its causes or really exactly its effects on the brain are largely unknown. This makes it extremely difficult for people to reach out and understand an autistic person. This also makes it difficult for a person diagnosed with autism to similarly reach out and live in a society that is not structured for them. Studies show that despite frequent assumptions, autistic children do experience a great wealth of brain activity. Autism has often been labeled as an affliction that makes a person stupid or just not worthy to participate fully in society. This is incredibly sad, especially as these new studies show that people with autism are often incredibly intelligent, they just have trouble communicating in the popular nodes of society. Some studies even show this difficulty with connection is actually based in the brain's time interpretation center, and autistic children just experience time at a slowed rate compared to non-autistic people.

Due to this incredible misunderstanding of autism, Julia Chalankina seeks to spread the awareness of the true nature of autism throughout the country. Julia Chalankina sees her child not as a child afflicted with a disease, but an incredibly complex person deserving of compassion and respect, and seeks this compassion for all the autistic. Julia Chalankina volunteers with many organizations to help support and spread awareness of autism. She is a volunteer with AutismSpeaks.org, the Palm Beach School for Autism, and Autism Awareness. She has also organized a support group for mothers with autistic children, so that parents may come together and share their experiences. Julia Chalankina is dedicated to continuing the spread of autism awareness into the future.