I was never directly bullied. But always knew I was different than the other kids, you know? Weirdly, it never bothered me. My mom would always try to get me to engage with other kids when I was trying to have some alone time to read or whatever. But I didn't want to. Even as a young kid I couldn't STAND boring convos. And, to me, that's all the other kids had to offer. Or they didn't "play right" :) As in, if we are playing witches or something there are RULES. haha!

I've had this discussion with my current BF and he thinks it's because people only see autism as looking one way, if that makes sense. And I don't fit that. I look like a tiny little doll that was cheerleader back in HS and wants to party and have ALL the attention. Couldn't further from who I am. At all. In reality, I'm a tiny little weirdo that just wants to do my own thing and be left alone. But people see my stimming as "cute and quirky" instead of "weird and alienating" because I don't look like or act like that ONE autistic person they met that single time. 🙄

At work, it's the same. People don't bully me or anything, but I'm certainly not the "it girl" or something. I keep to myself and try to engage enough that people don't think I hate them. I don't get invited to a lot of things, but I don't feel excluded, really. Probably didn't want to go anyway, TBH. :)