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Autism in Women: Late Diagnosis, Masking, and the Minds That Move Us Forward

Autism in Women: Late Diagnosis, Masking, and the Minds That Move Us Forward

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 Originally recorded in 2019, this episode of Converge Autism Radio continues to resonate years later as conversations around late-diagnosed autistic women, masking, trauma, and identity have come into sharper focus.

In Autism in Women: Late Diagnosis, Masking, and the Minds That Move Us Forward, we speak with Madonna Kilpatrick, a late-diagnosed autistic woman whose background spans anthropology, sociology, theater, improvisation, stand-up comedy, and museum education.

Referred to the show by Dr. Mark Goulston, Madonna brings both intellectual rigor and lived experience to a deeply human conversation about what it means to discover your neurodivergence in adulthood—after decades of navigating the world without language for your wiring. Together, we explore high masking, stigma, creativity as survival, the overlap between trauma and neurodivergence, and how autistic cognition has quietly shaped culture, innovation, and progress all along. Madonna reflects on school, theater, intelligence, social expectations, and the cost of being misread for most of one’s life—and what becomes possible when clarity finally arrives.

This conversation predates much of today’s mainstream dialogue around late diagnosis, yet it anticipates many of the insights now widely discussed: the limits of functioning labels, the emotional toll of masking, and the urgent need for more humane, nuanced understandings of autism—especially in women.

Editor’s Notes
  • This episode was recorded in 2019. Some terminology used reflects common clinical and cultural language of that time.
  • References to terms such as “high-functioning” appear in the conversation. Current best practice emphasizes support needs and lived experience rather than functioning labels.
  • Mentions of Asperger’s / Asperger syndrome reflect diagnostic language in use at the time of recording. Today, these traits are understood within Autism Spectrum Disorder.
  • These notes are included for context, not correction. The lived experiences and insights shared in this episode remain valid and valuable.
This episode remains widely shared because it captures something timeless: the relief, grief, humor, and self-recognition that often accompany late diagnosis—and the realization that the minds once labeled “too much,” “too strange,” or “too intense” are often the very minds that move humanity forward.

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