Autism Acceptance Month: Autistic Headcanons

a bottom-tier autistic experience is being told throughout your entire childhood that you are just an overthinker when it comes to social situations and later finding out that your friends did, in fact, hate being around you and tried to communicate that through weird little hints

Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944) - On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees, Untitled (Vid betraktande av blommor och träd), Watercolor on paper, 18 x 25 cm (1922)

non-autistic authors write autistic characters all the time. they just don’t realize it. they’d rather not admit it most of the time, either.

the thing is, non-autistic people have met autistic people more than enough times. however, due to their stereotypes about autism, they often can’t identify it as autism. they see something is up, but they can’t put their finger on just what is up.

so they see people like us and they know the ‘archetype’ which is autistic people. they write us all the time: airheaded professors, awkward nerds, pent up geniuses, etc.

when autistic people point out how strikingly obvious it is that this character is autistic, they usually deny it, or at best, they say the character is ‘if anything, extremely high functioning’, which is more of a kick in the gut than a confirmation. we hardly get those, either.

so, here’s the thing: there are some characters that are very obviously autistic to actual autistic people. pearl from steven universe and papyrus from undertale are two of the most agreed upon examples that i’ve seen. nearly ever autistic fan of steven universe i met says, “yeah, she’s autistic”, and the same goes for papyrus. 

when we, as a community, bring this up, however, we are shot down. “oh, he’s not autistic.” i once was told that - ironic as it was - my headcanoning papyrus as autistic offended autistic people or hurt autistic people. but i’m autistic and they weren’t. 

two autistic people were both agreeing - damn, this character is blatantly autistic - but non-autistic people felt the need to but in and say how horrible it was to “project” onto characters with such a horrible thing.

listen, if you aren’t autistic and you’re reading this -

if an autistic person says a character is autistic, can you just shut up about it?

because if you’ve watched any amount of tv, read any amount of books, whatever - if you’ve consumed stories, there are tons of autistic characters in them.

just because neither you nor the media’s creators knows shit about autism doesn’t mean that the character can’t be autistic.

either way, it’s none of your business.

we have little to none confirmed representation that isn’t terrible and inconsiderately offensively written. 

find something better to do with your time.

autistically mourning pangea think of all the train potential

To the witches with chronic illnesses:

Please remember to be kind to yourself today. If you can't get up to do that spell you planned, that's okay. If you can't gather enough mental focus to meditate today, that's okay. If you can't even gather enough strength to get out of bed, that's okay. If you can't get up to light deity candles, that's okay. They won't hate you for it. They will understand.

Allow yourself to rest. Even if you didn't do anything yesterday, allow yourself to rest. Your body will let you know when it's ready to do things. Even if that's only to do small, simple things. Your body will tell you.

Please, allow yourself to rest. You've got this! ❤️

me aged 13: I will kill myself and everyone around me if I get another maths homework sheet 🤬😡 [gothic music plays]

me now: haha I can purchase a new beverage at any time. tee hee [gothic music plays]

Sometimes I hyperfocus so hard on something, I forget I’m a person until someone interacts with me. I feel like some wild animal seeing a human being for the first time. I’m like “oh yeah I’m supposed to speak and stuff”

Autism Acceptance Month 2k20: Autistic Headcanons

↳ Orla McCool (Derry Girls)

“I don’t smoke either, I just like meltin’ stuff.”