We NEED to Leave Autistic Celebrities Alone

joke’s on YOU, my favorite celeb is ethel cain, and she IS actually autistic

for me, there’s a celebrity that acts really similar to me and i think might be neurodivergent, but i’m not going to make videos talking about how much i think he’s on the spectrum and compiling videos of each behavior he exhibits 😭 people forget that there’s boundaries and that we only see what they want us to see. i see a lot of autistic people (myself included) say that certain celebrities make them feel more comfortable as autistic people for behaving like they do. i think that’s fine cause it’s not trying to diagnose anyone, it’s just relating to a behavior. trying to diagnose someone online is completely different and inappropriate 😭😭

I agree with your general idea, but I'm just gonna say I've been a Swiftie for fifteen years and I've seen many, many moments where Taylor seemed neurodivergent. We have no idea and we shouldn't diagnose people, we shouldn't support tiktok content like that, but I'll just say that the people who consider the idea of Taylor being part of our community is not only due to those moments you showed here, there are many, many more. Should we stop talking about this? Yes! But for the sake of sincerity I needed to express this. In case she is, it wouldn't surprise me much.

I wonder now if Taylor is secretly a liberal Chinese cis male growing up in largely conservative Republican neighborhood. It's soooo eeeeearily how she sings to me. If she is also crappy at mathematics and have a restless leg syndrome like me, we'd be twinsies.

Honestly I think it is all well and good to speculate about fictional characters being autistic but doing it to actual people even if they are celebrities is extremely rude. It's very simply just none of your business, and you really cannot tell in most cases.

Tbh, I think my special interest was cats and probably still is. Like when I got a book at the school library it was always the books about cats. I got a lot of cat stuff as well such as plushies and cards. I literally scratched my fingers on tables a lot when I got excited which was probably a stim and learned how to meow and I wore cat ears a lot. I literally made a lot of my character's be cat people or had cats. And I'd do online roleplays as my OC's actual cats. I still have a verbal stim where I say cats over and over again. I also have a cat! I love cats so much, they're literally the best thing ever. Adorable and cute and yeah. I think once I get a special interest I get way to obsessed with it. Like my current character I'm literally writing a book about literally has a CAT and people said I msde him seem neurodivergent without realizing.

People need to learn boundaries!!!!!! Please it's hard i get that but it's extremely damaging to others & urself

My dog and i were on love on a spectrum

I admit I have done some wishful thinking of this variety. It's nice to think that someone just like me could be famous and live the dream! but also I believe strongly in respecting your faves no matter how big they are. Especially making videos claiming things about their personal life and telling people things so bluntly.

this is not completely related but i am on the spectrum and my classmates treat me like I need a shadow and that I'm crazy

as an autistic person, doesn’t everyone stim..? why do ppl think stimming automatically makes you autistic

Singing is kind of soothing. I am not a singer, at all. But I do sing every time I have to drive, helps me concentrate

Do neurotypicals forget they have interest too???

As far Taylor swift being awkward when she first started producing music - she was 13 . We're all awkward at 13. She was young and trying to make it in at the time unfamiliar popularity. The cat thing she was literally told to name them, and the social outcast/ bullying thing on that song she was a kid who was sick of bullies .
I'm not saying she isn't/ couldn't be autistic but I also think people are pulling at straws in a lot of ways which could potentially be harmful/ make it difficult/ take away the validity in other people's opinions of actually autistic people.

Some celebrities are autistic, but I'm referring to ones who openly admit to being autistic. Of course some celebrities could be autistic without being open about it, but if they aren't open with it, maybe that's because it's personal. Or maybe just maybe, they aren't autistic. Anyways I'm just agreeing.

"I'm autistic and this thing [insert celebrity] talks about feels very relatable to me" - valid expression of your feelings
"[insert celebrity] is autistic because this thing they talk about is an autistic thing" - overstepping

I don't understand why people care about guessing or knowing stuff about celebs😅

I DO listen to a singer that is autistic, and probably adhd, and she is my favorite. Not because of that. It’s her music, it was the way she acted on stage in the beginning, and even now when she’s more fluid I love watching her move. It’s so stimmy and free! I’ll be seeing her in concert in December. I go to about 1 concert every decade. My husband bought the tickets right away after I mentioned she was going to be in our area soon—I never ask to do anything.

Note: she has mentioned it at some concerts, there’s been social media posts here and there, and she discusses her issue with routine and sensory stimulation on podcasts.

I have twerked as a stem. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. But moving my butt is something I’ve done for decades. Before it was called twerking.😂

I'm on a waiting list for an autism diagnosis so technically I can't say for sure that I'm autistic but I actually used to have a special interest in cats lol. My new special interest is Taylor Swift songs!!

neurotypical people can list things, yes, but… cats! 😅

Also the fact that Taylor Swift writes most of her songs with other writers. I'd say its more likely a behind the scenes writer is neurodivergent than a person in the spotlight (due to things like social anxiety, pressures of masking, sensory issues). So perhaps some of these more relatable lyrics are from writers who are ND! That's all.

Hello internet and welcome to autism theory

Love this because I hate it here is my autism anthem but I’m not gonna go out and project that onto her

Some of those weren't even cat breeds - they were just colors 😅

Celebs need to stop showing us their children, they didn't choose to be born into fame. Good parents protect their kids.

Jacksepticeye is (officially) autistic :D

I think Taylor would probably talk about being autistic, she’d probably advocate for autism. That’s one reason why it’s not believable. Being a celebrity stunts people mentally a lot of the times.
I really don’t like people diagnosing people they want to be neurodivergent without knowing what the hell is actually IN their HEAD!
I truly do NOT like unqualified people making diagnostic judgments. I sing a lot, it makes me feel good. It’s not a stim. My stimming is all physical.

Identifying with someone doesn't mean they are the same neurotype as us. Neurotypicals are still human and experience a lot of the same things we do!

I think its okay to think it might be so while thinking you could be wrong, but to be yelling it on the internet is dumb. I sometimes have the feeling as well but one should seriously think isnt it simply because you like said person and it would mean a lot to you if they had the same as you. Hence when I suspect it I try to make sure if I can confirm it before getting crazy thoughts.

Currently I myself am watching the old classic series Lost, and am highly convinced the character John Locke is on the spectrum. But yea can never know for sure, but hes fictional so doesnt matter that much.

Rainbow 🌈 is a rainbow nothing more

the only people i question if they’re autistic is fictional characters. Like I’ve googled if characters from a show (who are played by real people) are autistic but i would never just claim that a celebrity is autistic

“her singing is a vocal stim” ???? girl what a fkn reach

I agree, don't diagnose people you don't know. I seriously doubt if the people who do it, wll find it acceptable if I diagnose artists as bipolar because I recognise some of their traits as fitting the bill.

I’ve seen ppl say Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar and DJ Khalid (?) could all be autistic. And then I feel like that kinda notion could be applied to anyone who sings if we’re going by the fact that these artists are passionate about their craft and talented. Eye dunno how I feel about figuring out what kinda divergence / or mental illness ppl have cause sometimes ppl with the same thing might just pick up on stuff about a celebrity and call it out. Idk if the artist is gonna see it. Idk what kinda harm it creates. It’s just interesting.? I just wonder how well people know what these things are before they say that someone has it

Tldr: Speculating/diagnosing a fictional character can be fun, and we shouldn't feel bad about speculating if someone else in real life is autistic or not, but going on the internet/in public and trying to prove that someone else is autistic when you don't know them is beyond overstepping. It's an invasion of privacy. That's a doctor-patient, HIPAA type relationship, and these people are acting like their doctor (most of this comment can also apply to the LGBTQ community).

These people need to learn to shut their mouths about other people's personal lives, whether they're famous or not. It's like these people never made it out of their "teenage girl gossip" phase, where they're constantly talking about everyone else. We just shouldn't talk to people about other people's personal lives, unless the person you're talking about is included and has consented to it. That's how rumors and lies are spread about people, and it can be really damaging to relationships and mental health.

Most people don't even get to see beyond the stage or the interview, and they think that they've gotten a PHD from Google after 5 minutes of reading what is most likely misinformation at this point. They don't understand that everyone has autistic traits (including stimming), but that doesn't make them autistic, and that celebrities are pretty much guaranteed to be relatable to you at some point, but that doesn't make them automatically the same neurotype as you. There's nothing wrong with thinking that someone might be autistic, but it's very wrong to try to prove that someone who you don't know personally is autistic (or not) based off of little to no evidence, because you know a lot less than you think about them. Another thing: one can't say that someone fits the autism criteria and then say "but I'm not saying they're autistic" because that's what they just said. They just said that the person they're talking about is autistic. That leads me to think that a lot of the people doing this on the internet are not autistic, because they clearly don't know what it means when someone fits the criteria for an autism diagnosis.

An autistic person could have a higher probability of being right when they say that someone else might be autistic than a neurotypical, simply because we've lived with an autistic brain, but that doesn't give us the right to go around trying to prove that someone else is or is not autistic if that person hasn't been open about a diagnosis.

If these people want to diagnose other people with autism so much, they should go back to school, get a degree, and diagnose the people who come into their office. NOT go onto social media and tell millions of people except for the person they're talking about why that person is autistic. They also need to learn that Google cannot give them a PHD, because Google tells you that you're dying of mouth cancer when you look up what actually happen to be symptoms of a geographic tongue. Google is for doing sufficient research (using reputable sources, looking at other autistic people's experiences, spending a lot of time on the topic, etc.) to help diagnose yourself or a person you know who has asked you for help to gather evidence to get a diagnosis themselves. NOT to diagnose any person on the internet who you think might have a remotely autistic trait.

Sorry about the rant, I have a special interest in autism myself, so seeing people do these things makes me really mad 😅❤

This vigilance and spotlighting other people’s possible stimming, even though they are doing it in a more positive ‘one of us’ ways is super uncomfortable. Less threatening but actually almost as uncomfortable as negatively judgemental highlighting of stimming.

for taylor swift, is no-one talking about the lollipop stick houses?

The people trying to self diagnose is indeed very ablest. It’s disgusting.

Why does anyone care?

I swear some people act like autism is some type of deadly disease… “Taylor swift… she might have the…. DRAMATIC BREATH… the… autism 😟“

One thing that I think needs to be a lot more known is that everybody stims!!! Tapping your foot when you’re bored is a stim!! But people who are neurodivergent just tend to do it more!

Gross. Don't speculate about someone's neurotype. If they haven't disclosed it, it's none of your business.