Finding Ada's Voice
“The Dawn of AI” is a story about the future of technology and how it affects us, for better and for worse. But it’s not just about the dawn of artificial intelligence. It’s about the coming of age of Ada and Ayden Ikenna––their initials also being A.I. As I got to know these characters, I realised early on what the true message of the story is. This story is a book to educate young people on the future of technology and ethics around AI, but as Aristotle said, “Education of the mind without the education of the heart is no education at all.” I knew there had to be a deeper, more meaningful lesson at it’s core, and it was right in front of me: Your voice matters. It is a lesson that Ada learns throughout the anticipated three book series, but I also wanted it to be a lesson that children adopt for themselves.
The task of finding Ada’s voice as a neurodivergent, non-verbal protagonist was multifaceted: I wanted to challenge stereotypes that non-verbalism equals lack of intellect, as well as highlight the power of assistive technology for disabled people. I wanted her voice to be natural and full of character. I needed to somehow clearly convey her sign language and sign-to-speech dictation through Ace on the page. But most importantly, I needed to fairly and responsibly represent non-verbal neurodivergency.
Non-verbal individuals are diverse in and among themselves: Some have verbal dyspraxia, some have developmental delays, and some are on a spectrum between completely non-verbal to partially non-verbal, as well intermittently non-verbal. Non-verbal episodes for those who experience it intermittently are often triggered in autistic individuals undergoing stress. In the case of Ada, her episode started the day after her mother died.
To achieve my goal in making Ada’s voice authentic, centred, and original, I drew upon my own experience as an AuDHD teen to inform the emotions of her inner monologue, I played with the shifts between first and third person perspectives, used italics to represent sign language, used red text to colour-code Ace’s dictation, and studied and beta-tested her accent and slang with real teenagers. These techniques will hopefully show how voice can carry both the ethical and emotional heart of the story.
Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident” and “A Kind of Spark” by Ellie Nichol both have short blunt sentences when the autistic protagonist speaks, especially about emotional things. This speech pattern resonated with me when creating Ada’s voice, but didn’t quite fully capture all of who Ada is. For example, I added longer sentences for when Ada is speaking about her special interest, or when she is reminiscing positive memories of when her mother was alive. I found this difference in sentence structures highlights the way she enters a flow state. She relaxes when speaking about things she’s passionate about and is more abrupt when speaking about more stressful, or even neutral topics.
For Ada’s accent, I decided she would use London slang, reflecting the speech of her favourite science teacher, Mr Manny. Alongside this more youthful, colloquial voice, she has an academic register, marked by a larger and more precise vocabulary. These choices reflect a trait noted in many autistic individuals who tend to use hyper specific language to avoid the risk of being misunderstood. Research also suggests that autistic speakers can present with atypical accents that diverge from those of their linguistic communities. This is coined as “Autism Accent Mirroring”, which supports my decision to add Ada’s London slang despite no one in her family having this accent.[1] Accent Mirroring is often subconscious and linked to both masking and stimming. That said, I also occasionally add some subtle Nigerian slang, which would be typical of a second-generation immigrant, like “the crew is don dey craze”[2]. Because Ada is age fifteen and between childhood and adulthood, Ada’s hybrid accent reflects both her age and all the layers of her identity and how it is developing.
Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” also inspired me in not only having Ada’s support drone function as her voice, but her friend as well. The twist at the end being that Ace is actually an ASI, secretly designed by Ada’s late mother, gives another important voice to the story. In Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, one of the biggest obstacles in the making of the film was the prologue. What finally worked after many failed attempts was acknowledging that the One Ring was a character in and of itself, so they told the history of Middle Earth from it’s perspective:
“And the Ring of Power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death . . . it ensnared another bearer . . . And in the gloom of Gollum’s cave, it waited . . . It abandoned Gollum. But something happened then the Ring did not intend.”
But in “The Dawn of AI”, the MacGuffin is the key to ASI, which is a quantum cell within Ace. In the same way, ASI being such a pivotal motif in the story, I also thought it would be prudent to give it a voice of its own.
When I started writing, I struggled to decide whether the book should be written in first or third person. I started it as a TV show, and Ada had an opening monologue at the beginning of each episode, much like the films “Enola Holmes” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”, as well as one of my favourite TV shows growing up, “Lizzie McGuire”. The monologue was important to the story, but I also felt the book should be written in third person, as there are many scenes without Ada present that I wanted to keep. I tried writing entirely in first person, then entirely in third person, and eventually I thought, “Why not both?” There was no chance I couldn’t have Ada’s voice central to the story. I couldn’t rob her of the importance and power of speaking for herself. The entire message of “Your voice matters” would become empty words, otherwise. But the worldbuilding and action of the story also demanded third-person.
During the monologues, I oscillated in structure depending on Ada’s emotional state. In time of overload, I chose fragmented sentences, while also adopting poetic rhythm to reflect shutdown/meltdown. I also decided to use italics to first signify the difference between monologues and third person narrative to reinforce clarity for the young reader. When I started writing Ada’s sign language and dictation, I ran into another issue of clarity. Placing Ada’s signed communications, without Ace to dictate, in quotation marks felt confusing and unrepresentative. In my mind, it could be misconstrued that she spoke something, which doesn’t happen until the end of the novel. I wanted to ensure utmost clarity that she is not speaking out loud, so placing her signs in quotation marks just didn’t feel right. I decided to carry through the use of italics in her monologues for Ada’s sign language to create both consistency and clarity.
Another issue I faced in revision was clarifying when Ace was speaking for Ada, and when Ace was speaking for herself, and even when Ada was signing and not using sign-to-speech technology to dictate. As mentioned, I decided to make Ada’s signed speech in italics, but for Ace’s dictated speech, I still needed something else to differentiate her from signing. I decided to use red text for this purpose. The red text has multiple purposes: It is Ada’s favourite colour and the colour Ace glows when translating for Ada. It also has a technological feel to seeing the red text on the page, almost like code. Lastly, I can’t help but think that Ada’s speech being in red is a subtle nod to red letter Bibles, in which the words of Jesus are printed in red. Ada, though far from being a messiah and God in the flesh, does have similarities to Jesus in that he was a radical voice for change and was persecuted for it. In the second chapter, she is also accused of having a “god-complex”, which will later foreshadow her desire to create ASI beyond government oversight.
I immediately recognised the challenges with these decisions to use italics and red lettering. The first challenge came from my experience working as a teacher with dyslexic students. Italicised text can often increase the difficulty of reading for dyslexic students who already struggle to recognise and mix up letters. This consideration is also why the book is to be printed in non-serif text. I decided that compromising and using a font that is slightly italicised will be crucial in ensuring the novel is accessible to dyslexic readers, especially as it is being used in SEND intervention programs in schools beginning January, 2026.
The other challenge was pointed out by my program leader, Dr. Morag Joss, that having red lettering would increase printing costs and cause issues with publishers. Having considered this, since the book is being pre-released as an e-book and with slides for classes to read together, having the electric version use red lettering for Ada’s sign-to-speech assistive technology wouldn’t be an issue regarding printing costs. When it comes to printing the actual book, there are ready solutions in that the book could be offered with red lettering for a higher price to offset the extra costs, and then leave it to the consumer to decide if they want the red letter book or not.
Another consideration that challenged me was honouring Ada’s darker moments while not overwhelming the reader, especially young readers. Having worked directly with an autistic sixteen year old girl who recently lost her mother suddenly, I saw first-hand how she used humour to cope. She specifically used banter with her brother, British-GenZ slang, and dark humour as coping mechanisms. I felt this was the thing to counterbalance Ada’s trauma while also staying true to her character.
My worry when revising was that the humour might undercut the emotional weight of the scenes, particularly in Chapter 3 which is unfortunately redacted from this submission, but I still think it important to reference. Striking the balance was difficult as I knew that everyone has a different threshold for dark humour. I reconciled that I just had to be mindful as I revised and do the best I could, the key to ensuring that the humour was actually funny. It’s my opinion that you can joke about anything as long as it is clearly coming from a good place and it makes people laugh, especially the people that the joke is about.
This brings me to my other issue when revising, ensuring the language and themes were age-appropriate. The age of the readership for this novel has changed many times and is still up for debate with potential publishers. The debate is whether this novel is middle grade, ages 8-12, or YA, age 12-18. Being the first in a series, I have envisioned the age to be for 12 year olds. With that context, the second and third book would naturally age with the readership, as well as the characters aging up, and bring the series into YA. Therefore, the themes around grief, ethics, governance, and revolution, while being slowly introduced in the first novel, will grow in weight and complexity near the end of the novel and throughout the rest of the series.
As I’ve said, it has been a priority for me that this book is accessible to neurodivergent readers, particularly those young people with ADHD. Having ADHD delayed my reading ability and continues slow down my ability to read, due to factors like inability to focus, delayed processing disorder, and minor dyslexia. Therefore, I employed the strategy of using short paragraphs to not overwhelm the anxious reader, accessible vocabulary, and quick paced plots. I also kept the descriptions to a minimum and will be employing illustrations to fill in certain gaps in character descriptions. I lastly employed a sense of mystery and cookie crumbed clues to an ominous force that seems to be pulling the strings behind the scenes: The illustration of Uncle Uche pouring champagne, handing Nicks money, etc. This was to ensure the reader, particularly the ADHD reader, stays interested in the story and dopamine hooked.
I read the prologue to a Year 6 class and a Year 9 class. The students took turns reading. I also had Black-British female teens read the prologue and ask what they thought. The students agreed that the slang and voice was accurate for a teen and felt authentic, which I was happily surprised with, thinking they would have at least one note or suggestion to give. I even went back and specifically asked about some specific phrases and they assured me that it felt right to them. I am also aware that slang changes and may be outdated in time, but that is a risk I think I need to take to remain authentic to who Ada is and how her voice will develop and evolve throughout the story and series. The three Black British female teens, one of whom being Nigerian-British, like Ada, were absolutely delighted with the character and seeing themselves represented, even requesting a signed copy when it is released and asking if they could beta-test the whole manuscript.
This brings me to the elephant in the room. As a white woman writing from the perspective of a Nigerian-British teen, I’ve had to carefully consider whether to keep Ada Nigerian or race swap her to be Caucasian or Métis, like myself, in order to avoid controversy. It wasn’t just controversy I was considering, but also the actual ethics behind it. Was I being irresponsible, having a main character with a race and accent different from me? I had started the world building process that inspired this novel three years ago with my ex-partner, who was a Nigerian-British man. The main character of the children’s stories I wrote for him (ages 5-8) was a Nigerian-British male, not dissimilar to Ayden Ikenna. When I embarked on this YA novel, it felt like there was a huge piece missing, the heart of the story, a female presence.
A potential publisher told me I could gender swap the male character I had created, but that didn’t sit right with me. I felt he needed a sister, to balance the technological themes of the story and fill the gap of software engineering: The brother being a mechanical engineer, the sister being the software engineer. When Ada came to me, it was immediate and clear, late at night in my bed.
I ran a camp years ago with drone activities, and a ten year old autistic girl told me that she wished she had a drone to help her stand up to bullies. That had always stuck with me. I’ve worked with Orqa as well, a drone manufacturer who was looking to create a primary school curriculum around their pre-released toy drone called Ace. I remember lying in bed and Ada coming to me, a non-verbal autistic teen who had a support drone, Ace, which used sign/text-to-speech technology. I knew immediately, she was the star. She came to life as I began to write her into the stories. Once she felt like a living character and I encountered the dilemma as to whether to change her ethnicity, I couldn’t do it. So the question I was battling with persisted: Am I being irresponsible? Am I being disingenuous? I felt in my soul that the only real reason to change her race would be to relieve me of the probability that I would be criticised. I didn’t feel I was being disingenuous. I felt that to change her would be irresponsible to not only myself, but to the character, to all the young black girls who would enjoy seeing themselves represented. It would feel disingenuous to change her race to save me the trouble of criticism. I know this won’t be easy for me, especially if this becomes a success. But I also think these questions are important to ask and I’m glad I had to face myself and find the honest answer. I came to realise that it is only irresponsible to write characters who have a different lived experience from you if it is poorly done. If the character has harmful stereotypes, lacks depth, and is offensive to the people who do share the identity of the character, then it is irresponsible. But I also know it can be done. Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-British author who wrote “The Remains of the Day” from the perspective of a White-British butler in the 1920’s-50’s. It won the Booker prize in 1989. One of my favourite novels, “Till We Have Faces” by C. S. Lewis, is written from the perspective of a hideous woman from ancient times. That book is, in my personal opinion, Lewis’ best work. I have many novels in me in which some protagonists look like me, and some do not look like me. The beauty and power of story and fiction is being able to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes. It is the ultimate practice of empathy. For Ada, I am more like her than I am not like her, despite having a different skin colour and different family traditions and a different accent. Her fears, her grief, her confidence, her humour, her constant desire to run and hide away… her race and ethnicity are a part of who she is, but it is not all of who she is. As long as I continue in my pursuit of remaining respectful to her Nigerian roots and London slang, with the guidance of collaborators and consultants, I don’t think it is inherently wrong for me to author this story and stay true to the original character of Ada Ikenna.
It is a scary thing, to write a character that has been involuntarily pulled into the identity politics debate: As a female, as a disabled person, as a black person. These things shouldn’t be political, but they are. But again, I think it would be cowardly of me to make her more palatable––more “normal”––just to save myself from the criticism that stems from identity politics.
“The Dawn of AI” sits at the intersection of STEM education and diverse representation in children’s media. It empowers young people to learn about the future of technology in an accessible, digestible way. The message that “Your voice matters” will be put into practice when, starting in January 2026, students will read the book in classrooms across the UK and vote for how the story should end: Whether Artificial Super Intelligence should be created or destroyed. Students will also have the opportunity to provide live feedback as they read the novel which will help shape the final draft, and present speeches to policy makers and tech industry CEO’s at a special Celebration Event, embodying Ada and Ayden’s characters to stand up for what they believe.
While I have drawn on what previous storytellers have done, I’ve taken a lot of risks and pushed a lot of conventions in this book, at the risk of my own detriment. But at the end of the day, I’m just trying to stay true to the story and to the readership it is for. This story is to help inspire young people to think critically, not just about the ethics and governance around technology, but to think critically as a whole, the way I’ve had to do in crafting Ada’s character and voice.
I hope to expand the website which has been made for the book, where students can access the curriculum content, to also include games and enter the world of New Oxford––possibly even create their own cities and write their own stories. If I could squeeze one more lesson I want my readership to take away from this story, it’s that they are the authors of their own future. They have the power to shape the world into what they want it to be, but it will require taking risks. What kind of writer would I be if I didn’t live by my own lesson?
References
Beccaria, F., ‘Atypical Regional Accent in Autistic Children: A Perception Study’, Frontiers in Psychology, 15 (2024) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11826007/ [accessed 24 September 2025]
Bone, Bryanna, The Dawn of AI, unpublished manuscript (September 2025).
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. by Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999)
Haddon, Mark, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003)
Jackson, Peter, dir., The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema, 2001)
Lewis, C. S., Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1956)
McNicoll, Elle, A Kind of Spark (London: Knights Of, 2020)
Pullman, Philip, His Dark Materials (London: Scholastic, 1995–2000), Northern Lights (London: Scholastic, 1995)
Sony Pictures Animation, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, dir. by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman (Columbia Pictures, 2018)
Thorne, Jack, Enola Holmes, dir. by Harry Bradbeer (Netflix, 2020)
Walsh, Fran, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, screenplay (2001), https://imsdb.com/scripts/Lord-of-the-Rings-Fellowship-of-the-Ring%2C-The.html [accessed 26 September 2025].
Walt Disney Television, Lizzie McGuire (2001–2004)
Ishiguro, Kazuo, The Remains of the Day (London: Faber & Faber, 1989)
[1] F. Beccaria, Atypical Regional Accent in Autistic Children: A Perception Study, Frontiers in Psychology, 15 (2024), 11826007 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11826007/ [accessed 24 September 2025].
[2] Bryanna Bone, The Dawn of AI, unpublished manuscript (September 2025), p. 15.