Teen breaks down autism stereotypes with ‘flawless’ explainer: ‘It’s the complete opposite’
A 19-year-old is going viral on social media after sharing a series of videos surrounding her experience with autism — and the biggest misconceptions she hears about her condition.
Paige Layle, an eyelash technician from Ontario, Canada, posted the clips to her popular TikTok page, calling the series, “Autism in girls.”
The four videos, which have received millions of likes were praised by several of her followers as a “flawless” and “honest” look into what she faces in her daily life.
“Girls usually end up showing different traits than guys do,” Layle says in her first clip. “Which is why it can take us years to get diagnosed.”
The teen goes on to reveal that she was 15 when she was diagnosed with autism — a delay she blames on a lack of research regarding how symptoms manifest differently in women. Meanwhile, Layle notes, she has a male friend who was diagnosed at age 2.
“A lot of people, when they think of autism, they think of [people who are] not super good in social situations. But for a lot of girls, it’s the complete opposite,” Layle explains in a subsequent TikTok, noting that her “totally broad” assessment doesn’t apply to everyone. “I am overly social, I make way too much eye contact.”
Layle says in her videos that she believes some of those gender differences are due to “masking,” a process in which autistic individuals hide their symptoms by copying the social behaviors of others around them. The teen adds that, in her experience, women are much better at it than men.
“You subconsciously know that you’re ‘weird.’ You don’t know how to act or how to be,” Layle says of masking. “So you just pick up everything else.”
Layle also addressed another reason she thinks people misunderstand her condition. The 19-year-old told BuzzFeed that people often assume she doesn’t have autism not only because of her behavior, but also because of her appearance.
“I get [this] a lot, that because I’m good-looking, nothing can be wrong with me — so I want to show that mental illness is diverse,” she said.
Source: AOL lifestyle