[1] The project began as a 10-minute short film co-directed by an autistic teenager named Taylor Cross, and his mother Keri Bowers.
[2] Taylor Cross interviews autistic boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 19, and asks them to describe their perspective on the world and to share their thoughts.
[1] An autistic boy named Brian appears in the film and voices frustration due to experiencing teasing from girls at his school.
When Cross asks his subjects "Tell me how you feel about having autism", he elicits responses including: "I have first thought, because people don't understand me", "Over the years I have come to accept it as a part of who I am.
[6] He also poses a question to the interviewees related to the film's title, and asks "Sometimes normal people are scary to kids with autism.
[8] The idea for the name of the film came to Cross from a T-shirt at a novelty store that had the phrase "Normal People Scare Me" printed on it.
[8] In an appearance on Sunday Today, Cross explained to Campbell Brown: "Yeah, I was thinking I--it actually just came off a T-shirt that I read, which totally makes sense either way because the real underlying message, if--if you've noticed it, even I haven't noticed it until like recently, like the whole underlying message is `What is normal anyway?'
Today's he's a high school freshman enrolled in regular classes, who wants to go to college and become a filmmaker", Keri Bowers said of her son.
[1] Cross told the Daily News of Los Angeles: "I want people to leave my film feeling uplifted and having a better understanding of what it's like to live in our world.
"[14] During the film's production, Cross and Bowers appeared on a program hosted by Paula Zahn on CNN to discuss their work.
Taylor Dayne was a singer for a musical piece in the film, and Joey Travolta and Jeff Lass served as songwriters.
[18] Travolta, an autism activist,[19] helped educate Cross about filmmaking, and assisted him in getting his message out to a wider audience.
[15] Joey Travolta started the organization Actors for Autism, which assists those with the condition to create films.
[27][28] The 15th annual educational conference of the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Associations chose to feature a screening of the film at their 2007 meeting in New Mexico.
[8] In November 2004, Cross was honored for his work on the film, at the gala benefit dinner for the Bubel-Aiken Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
[13] The Bubel-Aiken Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2003 by the mother of an autistic son, Diane Bubel, and Clay Aiken, star of American Idol.
A review of the short film version in the Daily News of Los Angeles was positive, and Dennis McCarthy wrote: "You'll see some smiles and some tears.
"[1] Lenore Skenazy of New York Daily News wrote "It's an extremely moving film, mostly because it's impossible not to fall in love with the matter-of-fact kids on screen.
[7] When Keri Bowers and Taylor Cross appeared on Sunday Today in April 2006, host Campbell Brown said to them: "We are so excited about this and really glad to have you on.