She wrote: “Autism does not have one look, one voice, or one way of showing up. It comes in many forms, and a lot of us learn to hide it without even realizing we are doing it.
“I was recently diagnosed as autistic, and it finally made sense of so much I have carried quietly my whole life.
“It is very common for women and people socialized as female to be diagnosed later in life. We are often conditioned to mask, mirror, and internalize.
“That does not make it any less real. This diagnosis does not change who I am, but it gives me language, clarity, and relief.
“I am sharing this because I know I am not the only one, and because stories like this deserve to be seen.”
Lexi added an essay titled The Quiet Effort: Neurodivergence through my lens in which she opened up about the isolation she felt growing up.
She wrote: ” I’ve spent my whole life feeling like I was different. Like I was trying to keep up with something other people were handed naturally.
“Social interactions, sensory tolerance, emotional regulation and even just basic functioning … ”
She added: “I never really felt like I belonged anywhere, and it ultimately left me exhausted from masking.”
In the essay, she went on to conclude: “I recently saw an autism evaluator and received a formal diagnosis confirming that I am autistic. Hearing that out loud did not change who I am. It gave me a name to the experience I have spent my whole life trying to understand …
“It feels validating. Not because it solves everything but because it finally makes sense. The overwhelm, the sensitivity, the masking, the burnout, the constant feeling of being out of sync. Now there is a reason …
“I am still me. But now I get to be me with more understanding, more self-compassion, and less shame. It is not about fitting into a category or chasing a label.
“It is about being able to see myself clearly for the first time. And I wanted to share that.”
