In January, toymaker Mattel launched the very first autistic Barbie doll. She’s carrying a free purple costume and headphones. Her eyes are barely averted, and she or he’s holding a communication pill and a fidget spinner — all outward indicators that signify among the alternative ways autistic individuals expertise the world.
The doll, designed with experience from autistic individuals, invitations extra youngsters — and adults, for that matter — to see components of themselves within the iconic doll. As any child who has ever performed make-believe with a doll is aware of, tales can entertain, captivate, soothe and scare us. They form how we see different individuals and ourselves.
Tales may do injury by creating false and dangerous stereotypes.
All through 2025, senior officers within the U.S. authorities instructed a darker story about autism, one which distorted and ignored science that didn’t match their narratives. In April, for example, a examine within the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report estimated that about 1 in 31 youngsters in the USA obtain an autism analysis by age 8. That’s an enormous quantity, one which has risen sharply over the previous few many years. For reference, in 2000, that quantity was 1 in 150. Most researchers attribute that rise to higher consciousness of autism spectrum issues, extra frequent screenings and modifications to how autism is categorized.
However in a information briefing, U.S. Secretary for Well being and Human Companies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used these numbers to inform a distinct story. He solid the rising charges of children with autism, a mind growth dysfunction marked by challenges in social communication expertise and different behaviors, as an alarming epidemic, one which “tears households aside.” Kennedy continued: “These are youngsters who won’t ever pay taxes, by no means maintain a job, by no means play baseball. They’ll by no means write a poem, by no means exit on a date. Lots of them won’t ever use a bathroom unassisted.”
This type of language does two issues. It reduces the vast and diversified experiences of autistic individuals to a dangerous and detrimental stereotype, one which highlights, in emotional phrases, what individuals can not do. Some individuals with autism do want vital assist as they transfer by way of their day. However Kennedy is utilizing these wants as a rhetorical system to lift pity and worry. Extra insidiously, this narrative pushes the concept an individual must do issues — like pay taxes or write poems — to carry worth.
“Pity and dehumanization are very carefully linked,” says Noor Pervez, a group engagement supervisor on the Autistic Self Advocacy Community, a nonprofit group primarily based in Washington, D.C. “Seeing autistic individuals’s lives as one thing to be afraid of ignores the foundation of what makes being autistic tough for lots of people — which is ableism.” Discriminatory beliefs or behaviors nonetheless form our society in ways in which imply individuals don’t get the assistance they want.
As 2025 wore on, the administration spun even extra tales. In a information briefing in September, Kennedy and President Donald Trump claimed — with no scientific proof — that acetaminophen, the lively ingredient in Tylenol, causes autism. A cautious evaluation of present information, revealed January 16 within the Lancet: Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Ladies’s Well being discovered no affiliation between a mom’s use of acetaminophen throughout being pregnant and autism, attention-deficit hyperactive dysfunction or mental incapacity.
In that very same information briefing, Kennedy and Trump additionally introduced {that a} drug, leucovorin, can deal with autism. Leukovorin is a model of folinic acid, used to counteract dangerous negative effects of most cancers therapies. There are a number of small research suggesting that the drug may gain advantage individuals with autism, maybe by boosting ranges of folinic acid within the mind. However for now, with out bigger, well-designed research, the proof is scant. The proclamations got here anyway. “We’re going to avoid wasting plenty of youngsters from a troublesome life, a extremely robust life,” Trump stated in that announcement. “We’re going to avoid wasting plenty of mother and father from a troublesome life.”
Then there’s the false hyperlink between vaccines and autism, a cacophonous blast of misinformation that has been getting louder. There isn’t a hyperlink between vaccines and autism, regardless of many cautious research in search of one. But on November 20, the official CDC webpage on autism and vaccines modified to disclaim present science. It now reads, “The declare, ‘vaccines don’t trigger autism’ isn’t an evidence-based declare…”
These false narratives all add as much as push the concept a mother or father’s selection — to take Tylenol throughout being pregnant, to get their youngster life-saving vaccines — ushers in a catastrophe, a “tragedy” for his or her household. All instructed, these claims contribute to an extremely dangerous story.
Alison Singer clearly lays out the injury this framing brings. She’s cofounder and president of the Autism Science Basis. “The concept that vaccines trigger autism isn’t solely scientifically false, nevertheless it’s additionally profoundly stigmatizing to autistic individuals and to their households,” she stated in a information briefing held in response to the modifications on the CDC web site.“It frames autism as being attributable to parental motion as if autism is a preventable harm ensuing from a selection that oldsters make. It positions autistic individuals as victims of harm, which undermines the dignity of our kids,” Singer stated. “It implies that autistic lives are much less priceless.”
As we glance again over the latest autism information, it’s simple to see the outrage, the distortions, the worry. However right here’s the fantastic thing about a narrative. We will select which of them we hear.
A special perspective emerged on the annual assembly of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego in November. An professional panel there described among the newest rigorous analysis on autism. That features efforts to diagnose autism in people who find themselves typically ignored, together with ladies, adults and folks of colour.
The panelists additionally talked about why you will need to get assist to youngsters as quickly as potential. Developmental psychologist Jed Elison of the College of Minnesota in Minneapolis described among the massive modifications occurring within the brains of infants and younger youngsters. “As a result of this can be a time interval of such nice plasticity, additionally it is a time interval of alternative to assist these youngsters get heading in the right direction,” he stated. The purpose is “getting the proper helps to the proper youngsters on the proper time.”
As this extra hopeful framing makes clear, the extra we perceive about what’s potential for individuals with autism, the broader the world will get for all of us.
Don’t overlook the enjoyment right here, UCLA behavioral youngster neurologist Shafali Jeste stated on the Society for Neuroscience assembly. “Sure, there are challenges, there’s no query.” However these challenges aren’t the entire story. “[These children] additionally do carry an incredible quantity of pleasure,” she stated. “They train individuals to be compassionate. They increase consciousness about variations.”
These tales — of individuals residing their lives, of children enjoying, of helpers seeking to make the world higher for his or her neighbors — maintain immense energy. That’s why autistic Barbie issues. Time to play.
