10 AUTISM TRAITS IN GIRLS(:

Due to being so emotional, I had a teacher in 6th grade who would tease me for crying, saying things like, "Oh, here come the waterworks!" Looking back now that I am a professional who works with children and know that I am Autistic, it makes me so angry because it's so unprofessional

I’m not diagnosed with autism but I do have adhd and oh my god I relate to the whole “structured creativity” thing SO HARD. I can’t come up with new ideas for art on my own without a prompt or something to jump off of, which is definitely a challenge since I’m an artist lol

"I can give people all the facts in the world, but they're still idiots." You have absolutely no idea how hard I felt that.

Thank you so much for this video. I need to apologize to my daughter in the morning. I have told her more than once, “I’m going back to work because you only act like this when I come home and it feels like you don’t want me here.” Putting it into terms that make so much sense, that she has been masking all day and she doesn’t have to do any of that with her mom, is so much more of a gift than I can even explain. I appreciate you and I wish only good things for you. Thank you!

my drama teacher at 15 told me i was incredibly skilled at acting and had "great stage presence", and I'm like "thanks I've been acting my whole life".... 13 years later, guess who copped an ASD diagnosis after years of feeling like an alien. big love to my fellow autistic SLAYDIES. we all deserve Oscars for our exceptional skills.

"being shallowly friends with eeeeeverybody" describes it so well for me. Also, meeting every person in a unique way, trying to understand them and then present myself or well masking i guess in a way thats suitable for them, but then its really weird when i would meet different people at once...

For my fellow autistic ladies/theydies who need a timestamped list: 4:08 #1 Mimicking others 4:53 #1(A) Being very rigid in routines 5:51 #2 Being creative (caveat: in a structured way) 8:47 #3 Having careers that involve: caring for people (or animals), teaching, music, and/or other creative pursuits like dancing, acting, theater, etc 9:17 #4 Excelling in certain areas of life (e.g. genius intelligence, perfect pitch, hyperlexia, impeccable memory, etc) 9:33 #5 Intense, forced eye contact (as a way of masking discomfort with eye contact) 10:41 #6 Struggling with nonverbal communication (e.g. misunderstanding body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc) 13:02 #7 Being highly sensitive (perhaps being called "crybaby," "drama queen," "annoying") 15:40 #8 "Exploding" or "releasing" at home (or maybe spending a lot of time alone in your room) as a result of masking all day at work/school/etc 18:06 #9 Difficulty keeping friends (despite making new friends easily due to masking), having only 1 or 2 close friends, not belonging to a group, etc 21:10 #10 Having a very strong sense of justice, "black and white" thinking, egocentric perspective (struggling to understand other peoples' viewpoint when it differs from your own) Shout out to Paige for putting this together! On a personal note, 11:51 floored me...THANK YOU for sharing such a vulnerable experience in regards to how missing social cues relates to "light coercion SA." I'd never heard of that term before and I finally have the words to explain some truly uncomfortable and violating experiences I've had in the past. This has been so informative and validating. 🙏

I'm trying to figure out if I'm autistic. The part where you talked about getting home and breaking down after a long day of masking was so relatable to me. It kinda made me cry cos I actually felt seen. Thanks for educating people about this 🙏🏻❤

I’m not autistic, but my childhood best friend was. There are many things that I wish I could go back in time and do-over with the knowledge I have now. I resented her for a long time because I didn’t understand how she dealt with her own hidden struggles. Thanks for your helpful perspective!

My friend sent me your first "autism in girls" tiktok, and told me to get an assessment.. 4 months ago I got an autism diagnosis, thanks to you Paige ❤

Holy crap. Thank you for this. My ex-wife exhibited nearly all of those traits, which led to so, so much conflict in our lives, and ultimately really part of why we ended the marriage. I can't help but wonder whether, had she been diagnosed- either early or as an adult- with autism, if that would have provided a framework and reasoning enough for us both to understand the dynamics and work around them. The oversensitivities, the constant fatigue, the shutting down, the masking and it's contribution to difficulties with maintaining long-term friendships.... All of this is to the t what she experienced, so much pain. I'm happy for you that you were blessed with this understanding and framework to go forward with and help you in life and your interactions as you mature. My daughter is starting to exhibit many similarities, and while her teachers don't seem to suspect ASD, I think it's time to get professional medical opinions. Thank you.

I'm REALLY SO glad that I found this!!! My 8 year old daughter was just diagnosed this year with autism when she was kicked out of her public school for not being ABLE to conform to the standards that were placed on her. That being said, she now goes to a therapeutic day school and although it has helped out a ton, she is the ONLY girl in her whole class of just about 8 or 9 boys. We also just got her schools yearbook, and it kinda sucks because each grade for the school only has like 1 or 2 girls for each GRADE!! Her school goes K-high school...

One rule that I thought I had to follow as a teenager was to smile "politely" while having a conversation. I recently watched a video of myself talking to someone where I smiled for 15 minutes straight :')

there’s new autism research that states for every three autistic boys there are 4/5 autistic girls. this is revolutionary. i just got my diagnosis at 17 years old. i’m 19 now. it’s been a journey. thanks for this video <3

Thank you, Paige, for this video. My daughter is autistic. But when she was little there were no real diagnoses or treatments for what was going on with her. I knew things were going on but she couldn't put it into words. I didn't know that her anxiety, skin picking, repeating words, rubbing soft cloth against her ear, poor social skills, black and white thinking, and hyper defiance were part of her autism. She was extremely affectionate and always wanted to cuddle which was nothing like the autism I observed in the clinical setting. I would spend much of our time together holding her. I loved her with all my heart. When you got to the part about feeling outside of others, different and weird, my heart just broke. For my daughter's entire life she did not fit in. I don't think she masked well and couldn't cover her "difference". She told me she cried a lot but I rarely saw her cry. She cried in her room by herself. She did not see me as a support. She was very creative and filled her room with paper art, postcards, paintings, Asian-themed knick-knacks, and other crafts. She told me that people exhausted her so much she didn't want to be around them anymore. The world made her highly anxious. She also felt she was asexual and didn't want a relationship with anyone. Many of her early friends really hurt her feelings. So when she came into some inheritance money she bought some land in the desert, a small RV and storage unit, and now lives by herself. I worry about her every day.

One thing I have to say about the egocentrism is that, people often told me I'm egocentered or whatever, too. But I've found it really confusing and it still pains my brain so much when thinking about it. Because when trying to do everything right, it's like I should only think about the other persons perspectives all the time, which I do. And there just doesn't seem to be any right way to kind of ask another person to concider my perspective.. I kind of feel like I am hurting my brain worrying about everyones perspective all the time, worrying wether I'm concidering them enough at all, and it would make logical sense to me that everyone conciders another persons perspective, which should probably include my own perspective as well. I just feel that this is often overlooked. It's like I'm concidering everyones perspective excessively all the time to the point at which I completely forget about myself and I get insecure wether I'm concidering enough. I feel like I am concidering other peoples perspectives so much, I don't think most people have the capability of even concidering so many viewpoints at once. And when I try to address my perspective slightly only once, suddenly people assume I'm thinking as if the world turns around me. It makes me so sad just thinking about it. It's like all of the effort and energy I put into concidering 1000s of viewpoints has gone to waste.

The way she uses a sing-song voice to say certain things is something I do too. I'm 22, diagnosed at 17, and weird voices are a huge part of my day to day autism coming out. Idk why, I say most things in a funny voice of some sort, or sing-song everything. Mostly happens in situations ranging from mildly to very uncomfortable. Watching her, I've realised this is /another/ autistic trait I'm just now picking up on

Amen, to this! As a 38 year old woman who wasn't diagnosed until later in life (only 5 years ago), everything you are talking about was me in high school (and before... and beyond). I'm so glad the younger generation has young women like you to look up to. For the record, I'm an educational psychologist, successful, and very fulfilled/happy, although relationships are still hard for me to maintain/desire.

Holy moly. I’m 20 and I’ve always known I was a little different but always stopped myself from over analyzing. I related to every single thing in this video and completely broke down. I feels really nice to know that I’m not the only one experiencing this. But now I’m just anxious about what to do about it…

"Other people's emotions are not my responsibility nor my problem." Gotta remember that one