Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

by Devon Price

Being Autistic would mean I was broken. Of course, I’d already felt broken for years.

They said that if she had really been hurting that bad all her life, they would have realized it.

For all these reasons, it’s not always possible (or helpful) to try to untangle which of a person’s traits are Autistic and which are caused by the trauma of being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world.

“I knew innately from a very young age I find life harder than other people,” they say, “but there was never any reason. It was always just you are lazy; you are being lazy.”

Others neglect their physical needs because they’ve mentally detached from their bodies.

It was my attempt at a neurotypical persona that failed me—the real me was a beautiful person who deserved so much more.

To unmask is to lay bare a proud face of noncompliance, to refuse to buckle under the weight of neurotypical demands. It’s an act of bold activism as well as a declaration of self-worth.