Thoughts from the budding Daisies - part 3

Guest blogger, 8 year-old Magic Bunny, tells us about autism from her perspective.

Masking with Autism- People who are just trying to fit in

Part one: Masking is just like acting

This is what masking can feel like sometimes

As you may have read in my previous blog, Coping with autism at School, masking is just like acting.

Normally, in plays, you have to pretend to be someone else to help the story move along, but if you were in a play about yourself, you could say what you wanted to say, and no one would have to help you. This is the way things should be. But instead, people mask and pretend to be someone else or to be feeling something else. This is the way things should NOT be.

Part two: People masking with autism are just like chameleons (!)

Earlier today, I was watching an episode of Hey Duggee called The Camouflage Badge, in which the Squirrels find out about how chameleons use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings. In a similar way, autistic people mask to blend in with other people. Funny, eh?

(If you combine these two examples, you get an acting chameleon! :-) Just a bit of humour.)

My message to other autistic people:

Be yourself and DON’T mask!

Magic Bunny is an 8 year-old guest blogger for NeonDaisy