Metro Atlanta boy living with autism starts business to spread love
ATLANTA - April is Autism Awareness Month. It's a time to celebrate and embrace people and their experiences with autism. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect communication and social interaction.
One metro Atlanta boy with autism struggled with speech until he was 4 years old. Now he's running a business and inspiring others.
Blake Richardson is like a lot of 7-year-old boys. His favorite thing in the world is Lego. In fact, Lego bricks are what inspired Blake to start his own business.
"It started with Legos! The whole brand and business started with Legos. He wanted more Lego sets, and I was like, 'OK, I'm not buying you more Lego sets, so what are you going to do to get the Legos,'" his mom, Nicole Woods said.
First, Blake sold drawings for Lego money, then he decided to start his own brand.
"Bleu stands for ‘Building love and embracing uniqueness.’ ‘Building love’ stands for making friends with new people and ‘embracing uniqueness’ means it's OK to be different," Richardson said.
It's a message that's important to Blake.
"We started Bleu because people were being mean to me because I didn't sound like them. I didn't sound like them because when I was 2 years old I couldn't speak. Now look at me! I help motivate people to follow their dreams and never, ever, ever give up!" he said.
"Blake was nonverbal until he was about 4 and a half. All he was able to do was point and point and point, and he said a couple of words here and there," Woods said.
She worked hard with her son. He started speech therapy when he was 2. When COVID hit., Nicole taught him herself.
"I was just like, it is not going to define who he is. And I wanted to do anything and everything to make sure that was what happened," she said.
Now Blake is the voice behind his brand Bleu, and while it helps him make money for his Lego sets, he says his message is what's most important to him.
"Some people think they start a business for the money and fame. But I just do it to help people, because that's my favorite thing to do. And I mean all of it from the heart," he told Good Day's Lindsay Tuman.
"He just wants to make people realize that love is pretty much all you need," Woods said.
Bleu has some pop-ups around Atlanta. You can also find them on social media, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at bleubyblakelandon.
