A handwritten letter by Ryan Lowry went viral because of the unique way of communicating to a future employer.
A handwritten letter that changed his life. Ryan Lowry, the 20-year-old son of Rob and Tracy Lowry was diagnosed with autism when he was 18 months old. His family noticed he wasn’t making eye contact. Or reaching the appropriate speech milestones as an infant. They live in Leesburg, Virginia with his two other siblings.
Ryan is a student in the Loudoun County Public Schools system. He is currently working as a barista at a local coffee shop. But his employment will end once he graduates.
He decided to create a letter for his future or potential employers. At first, “he was going to do it on his computer and his younger brother thought, ‘Why don’t you write it?” said Ryan’s father, Rob Lowry.
His father said they thought posting the letter on LinkedIn would be better than sending it in the mail.
The letter struck a chord with employers and job seekers alike on LinkedIn.
After several rounds of revisions. He wrote the final draft on a single sheet of lined paper, then snapped a picture of it. With encouragement from his family, he shared it on LinkedIn on Feb. 27.
After few weeks, the letter went viral, viewed 7 million times and thousands of comments came in.
Ryan Lowry has received thousands of comments, connections, potential mentors, and even job offers, his father said.
Countless comments from strangers. As well as messages from companies with neurodiverse recruitment programs. Including Amazon, Dell, and Microsoft — promptly came in.
He added that many companies have reached out. But the one that stood out is Exceptional Minds. A three-year program designed to teach people with autism about animation.
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the amount of support we have gotten,” Tracy Lowry said. “I’m so emotional about the whole thing.”
Ryan Lowry is now busy getting his resume and portfolio together. And he is confident he will find his next career opportunity, his mother, Tracy Lowry, said.
His parents could not believe the letter will go viral.
“We had never thought this was going to happen. Overwhelmed with the number of people with stories like Ryan’s story. Which is a really beautiful part of what’s happening as well,” Tracy tells PEOPLE. “We lay in bed at night and I cry reading stories of other people.”
“Our mission, for however long this thing goes on, whether it’s 15 minutes of fame or longer, is to make something good happen for Ryan. He deserves it and has earned it,” Rob says. “I think whoever gets him will win big time. But to also help the other families who are just like us. And then finally to help out the organizations that had helped them along the way.”
“It restores your faith in humanity a little bit after all the crap we’ve all had to deal with in the last year or two,” Rob says.
“So it’s been uplifting, to say the least, and gives us a lot of hope that he can get to a place that we want him to be, and he wants to be.”
The replies to Ryan’s letter became a hub for advice. And story-sharing in the autism community, which Tracy Lowry called “a beautiful thing.”
“I think there is something wonderful that’s going to come out of it for Ryan. But I do believe we can also help a lot of people that are in the same boat,” she said. “If it opened the eyes of companies about how they can help the neurodiverse population, that would be very satisfying.”
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