DUNWOODY, Ga. — To be anywhere near the green room at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody is to have one’s ear drums working overtime. Dozens of giggling, squealing, screaming girls are fully costumed, made up, and ready to take the stage for an important recital.

In the midst of the chaos, covering her ears at times, is 8-year-old Perri Schwartz. Schwartz is decked out in a pale blue ballerina costume, sporting glasses and ponytail. She laughs and hugs her friends, posing for endless photos in front of her mother’s camera.

Perri is a student at The Amit School in Dunwoody where she has many friends and excels in Hebrew and math. She is funny, asking reporter Jaye Watson if she knows Nene Leakes from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, asking if Watson reads US magazine, and laughing when Watson answers that she reads Prevention. Perri is precocious, outspoken and popular. She also has autism.

Every year Perri and her mother and father Janel and Jason Schwartz take part in Walk Now for Autism Speaks. Her team Perri’s Peeps raises huge funds and draws a big crowd. But as Perri and her friends have gotten older, the questions began.

“Perri’s friends learned to read last year.” Perri’s mom Janel said. “And they started asking questions about why they were doing the autism walk. We knew when we got to the autism walk they would see the word autism everywhere and they would start asking ‘Why are we here’?”

So Janel decided to answer all the questions by writing two books. Sitting in a lounge in the community center, Janel opens a book and begins to read. “One way you are unique by Mommy and Daddy.”

The book explains how Perri is different.

“You have autism,” Janel read. “Autism isn’t a disease. People who have it aren’t sick. People who have autism see and feel things differently from people who don’t have it. Most people don’t have it. It’s not a wrong way. It’s just a different way.”

The other book is written for Perri’s friends.

“Perri’s brain and body work differently than yours,” Janel read. “It makes her unique. Being unique is a great thing to be.”

The books explain Perri’s heightened sense of hearing and smell, her ability to remember lots of details, her need to chew gum and walk back and forth to calm herself, her dislike of surprises. But Schwartz also wrote about what Perri and her friends have in common.

“You go to school and camp,” Janel read. “You wear your favorite clothes and jewelry. You like to go to fun places with your parents and friends.”

Zoe Van de Grift proclaims herself Perri’s BFF, best friend forever.

“It really helped me understand it,’ Zoe said of the book. “I thought it was pretty good. At first I didn’t understand and then I read the book and thought ‘Oh!’”

Perri’s other BFF is 7-year-old Marissa Goodman.

“It just told so much detail about how Perri needs a little help,” Marissa said. “We get along. We just are really close and it’s just really fun to have a friend.”

Perri’s friends like the book, but they love Perri.

The books serve as a profound reminder autism is something Perri has, it’s not who she is. Her friends put it best.

“She’s one of us,” they said. 

So onto the stage Perri goes, finding her way through the moves, seeking out her parents in the crowd.

She is Perri Hannah Schwartz. And she is special.

The audience roars with applause.

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