Family Life

Amazing autistic teenager builds massive 8 meter long Titanic replica

Brynjar Karl Birgisson from Iceland is one special teen. The 15-year-old spent over 700 hours recreating a perfect replica of the Titanic made completely out of lego. 

Using actual blueprints from the original ship, Birgisson used more more than 65,000 Lego bricks to assemble the impressive ship. 

The replica is now housed in the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Travelling across Europe with the model has greatly helped Birgisson with his communication skills.

"It took me over 11 months to build the model and 120 tubes of crazy glue were used in the process," the teenager told the BBC. 

"The whole journey has helped me out of my autistic fog," he continued. 

"I've trained myself to be 'as normal as possible', whatever normal means."

Building the ship when he was just 10 years old, Birgisson raised funds to purchase the bricks from family and friends. Upon hearing of his project, Lego even offered him subsidised bricks. 

"I just had to build that amazing ship and there was not a doubt in my mind that I couldn't do it", Mr Birgisson said at a 2016 TED talk. 

"As the bricks went up and up and it began to rise, it became an obsession," he continued.

The teenager has spent the last five years touring with the replica around Europe, giving interviews along the way. 

He also said that he  rarely spoke and was painfully shy when his project began.

"I was totally unable to communicate when I started the project. Now I'm standing on stage and giving interviews." 

Two impressive feats by one talented teen! 

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