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What Holly Robinson Peete Wants Us to Know About Autism

Aired on 09/18/2007 | CC
When Jenny McCarthy's son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism in 2005, she reached out to fellow actress Holly Robinson Peete, a longtime advocate for children with autism, for guidance and hope. Two years later, Jenny and Holly went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to raise awareness about the often misunderstood disorder.

Holly spoke candidly about the struggles and breakthroughs she had experienced since her son R.J. had been diagnosed with autism in 1999. "Autism is like a wall around your kid. It's a wall, and you have to be like a superhero and, like Foxy Brown, and kick that wall down. And make cracks in that wall to bring your child through. You have a very short window of time," Holly told Oprah. "And the more cracks you make, the more you have an opportunity to bring them into our world."

Here, Holly explains why, eight years after R.J.'s diagnosis, she finally decided it was time to go public.

Original airdate: September 18, 2007