A review by moonyreadsbystarlight
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price

informative reflective

5.0

This was such an incredible book! Written by an autistic trans social psychologist, this focused on high masking autistic experiences. He begins by talking about who is more likely to mask/less likely to be diagnosed as a child, what traits get overlooked, issues with how autism is "treated". Then, he goes into what masking can look like, how we might decide to unmask, and ending with what we need to do as a society to make it a safe place for people to live unmasked. I really loved that he talks so much about the social - not just ableism and stigma, but also aspects of racism, impact of poverty, and transphobia, among other things. 

This can be useful for anyone looking to understand the autistic experience, but it's written more specifically for neurodivergent people (especially for autistics, but but he talks about the fact that other ND folks can experience masking as well). I've looked a lot into autism over the years - especially the experiences of those diagnosed as an adult. Even still, there were so many things that he described and connected that made so much more sense. It's another book that I wish I'd had years ago, but am very grateful to have have it now.
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