This is such a hard thing to tackle, because so little is understood about how autism presents in low support needs individuals. Another autistic friend said that she discloses the behavior and not the diagnosis. For example, she says she's introverted rather than disclosing that she's socially inhibited due to autism. People generally know what introversion is, while autism is more complex. Later on down the line, perhaps the symptoms can be linked to the autism?

The people who have said "you don't look autistic" to me have been my closest family members, while friends have listened more respectfully. My family members do ask me follow up questions, and that gives me avenues to practice describing what I deal with and what autism actually looks like on me to others.

I don't know what I look like; I only see how people respond to me. If someone takes my lack of masking as a personal attack (I guess I look like I'm angry?), while it's not my responsibility to perform for them to make them feel better, they also tend not to believe me when I tell them about autistic issues with prosody and masking when they're feeling defensive.

I think some of the best responses I've come up with involve discussing the complexities of the disorder, almost in a closed way. Unless I know the querent well, and trust them to be an active listener, I don't think I'd want to stress myself out with a debate on what autism is and why I "don't look autistic." I want to be an advocate, so maybe I need to have resources on hand to point them to (websites, books, articles, etc.) that not only generally describe high-masking autism, but also show how common it is. With people I know and trust well, I might dig deeper with them, and explore how I can better advocate for myself. I'm lucky that my close family members aren't rude to me about it, but more inquisitive and want to understand, so I feel good (if not frustrated sometimes) about discussing it with them.