Autism in Media

Works that deal with Autism and/or Asperger's Syndrome and the portrayals of those on the autism spectrum (for better or for worse).

Note that characters Diagnosed by the Audience or coded autistic characters^Explanation are not to be included in this list, nor media that only deals with autism as an "issue of the week" situation.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Aspe Chan: The main character, the titular Aspe-chan, is autistic, representing the author, a cosplayer named Kuro Akagi. The comic talks about autism and all that comes with it, and Aspe-chan's (and by extension the author's) experiences with it, its detriments, and its benefits.
My Brain Is Different: An anthology about the lives of several people living with developmental disorders, including autism.
Radiant: The Thaumaturge kid Veroné is confirmed to be autistic.
Sazanka: The main character, a woman named Tatsuki Nakagawa, is autistic, though in-story she's said to have Asperger syndrome^note. The story centers around Tatsuki dealing with an abusive boyfriend, questioning her self-worth, and wondering if she should open up about her autism to her friends, fearing that they'll dislike her if she does.
That's My Atypical Girl: Megumi Saito is the titular "Atypical Girl"; in fact, the original Japanese title is even outright called Asper Kanojo (lit. Asper Girl).
With the Light: The protagonist's son, Hikaru, is autistic, and the manga is themed around raising a child on the spectrum.

Comic Books

Aquaman: Black Manta, one of Aquaman's main villains and Kaldur's father, is autistic in one version of his origin story.
Marvel has some autistic superheroes and villains, including Legion (Charles Xavier's estranged son), Laura Dean (Goblyn's twin, both members of Alpha Flight), M (Monet St. Croix from Generation X) and the mutant known as Dummy (Dean Boswell). Marvel also includes secondary, one-use autistic characters, like a young autistic kid whose company the Hulk enjoys during the issue.
The New Universe has Johnny Do, a member of Psi-Force.
The original pitch document for Postal states that the protagonist, Mark Shiffron, has Asperger syndrome.
Speak Up is about the story of a normally Cute Mute autistic girl named Mia having a pop-star alter ego who's very good at signing.

Comic Strips

AJ & Magnus: AJ has awkward interactions with a non-verbal autistic boy, and during the storyline, regular character and Child Prodigy Ebony Adams reveals she is also autistic and educates AJ about the autism spectrum.

Fan Works

Let Us Be Your Poison: In this RWBY rewrite, Pyrrha is on the autism spectrum. She has trouble with socializing but prefers not to tell people in fear that they'll treat her differently.
In Luna Lovegood and the Chamber of Innocence, several characters are stated and/or implied to be autistic.
My Sister Leni is a fic for The Loud House that interprets Leni as having been diagnosed as autistic at a young age. Her little sister Lisa is also autistic.
In The New Retcons, Robin is eventually diagnosed with autism, and Word of God is that Anthony has undiagnosed Asperger's.
In Nutty for Wonka, the main character, Matilda Prescott, while not expressly stated, is autistic as well as having ADHD because the author says so.
Obsession: In this Pokémon fic, Jirarudan is autistic, though the term itself is never mentioned in-story.
In The One to Make It Stay, Luka was diagnosed with autism as a kid. Before he was diagnosed, he would lash out more often at things like losing a game to his sister or if his mom didn't have time to play guitar with him. He mellowed out after a few years of therapy and learning to meditate.
Our Eternity Together: In this Escape The Night AU, the main protagonist, Mystic, along with two of the supporting protagonists and a new character are all autistic.
Quiververse: In Scars of the Quill, it's explained that Quiver Quill's younger brother Regal Grace was autistic and communicated mostly by wailing. His death due to a tragic accident provides much of the drama for Quiver's storyline.
Many fan fics authored by SaoirseParisa, who is autistic herself, feature main characters who are explicitly autistic, some of which include:
- Sylvia the Sylveon: Sylvia's original owner, Serena, is said to be autistic. She is written as a collection of low-functional-autistic tropes, including requiring an aide at school, regular meltdowns, and extreme sensory sensitivity that mainly manifests in a love of very fluffy Pokemon.
- Love Feels Like Home, a Tales of Zestiria Alternate Universe fan fic where Sorey, who is neurotypical in the game, is made autistic in the story. Muse, Mikleo's mother, is also autistic.
- Pokémon: A Marvelous Journey, where the main character, Julia Parisa, is autistic. Several minor characters, such as Perrine's aunt Mao, musician Aldric Everhart, Cindy Stuart's mom, Merlin Knowles, and Whitney's boyfriend are also on the spectrum.
- The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change: An autistic girl runs away from home to escape her abusive mother and ends up aboard the Infinity Train.
Silver Rings and Golden Hearts: James wants to adopt Penny, a little girl who is on the autism spectrum. He has difficulties getting through the adoption process, so he asks his friend Qrow to marry him in order to help.
The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: Simon Skinner-Chalmers is revealed to be autistic in the episode "Worst. Camping Trip. Ever." and we see him stimming, doing things for his sensory needs, having difficulty with social interaction, and talking about his special interests multiple times. His father Seymour Skinner is portrayed as autistic as well.
Time to Disinfect: Mari is depicted as being autistic, as is the writer who is drawing on their own experiences with autism.
Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee: Elesis/Ellie is mentioned as being a high-functioning autistic on her Toyhou.se bio even though it hasn't been brought up in a story yet.
Total Drama Legacy and its sequel, Total Drama Worldwide, give us Serena, the daughter of Harold and Leshawna. She's confirmed to be autistic in the Worldwide episode "Nuclear Winners". Her special interest is anime and she constantly brings it up.
In The Victors Project, Brutus is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome soon after joining the Institute. Rather than being embarrassed, Brutus is proud to know he has a "special brain" rather than being the Dumb Muscle most people assume he is, and it helps him in being straightforward with his mentees about their chances in the Hunger Games and what they need to do to survive.
A fair portion of the Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfics written by Squirenonny, themself autistic, reinterpret characters as being on the spectrum:
- (Don't) Stop Running: Pidge is autistic.
- Two Years Gone: Keith is autistic.
- Voltron: Duality: Pidge and Keith are both autistic.
You and Me (and Everyone in Between): James' daughter Penny is on the autism spectrum.

Films — Animation

Mary and Max follows a young girl who becomes pen pals with a man with Asperger syndrome.

Films — Live-Action

The Accountant (2016): Protagonist Christian Wolff is an accountant with autism. His autism gives him preternatural ability with accounting.
Adam (2009): Adam Raki is a young man with Asperger syndrome working as an electronics engineer and who has a love of space.
Alien Abduction (2014): The protagonist is an 11-year-old autistic boy who films his family's abduction.
Asperger's Are Us is a Documentary about four young men in an acting troupe preparing their final performance.
Backstreet Dreams has an Evil Debt Collector trying to do right by his autistic son.
Ben X: Ben Vertriest is an autistic high school student and Bully Magnet who finds solace in playing an MMORPG as his avatar, Ben X.
The Big Short: Christian Bale plays physician and hedge fund manager Michael Burry, who in real life has self-diagnosed Asperger syndrome.
The Black Balloon (2007) is about a boy who worries that his autistic brother will ruin his chances at a social life.
Bless the Child is about a young autistic girl with incredible powers.
A Boy Called Po is about an engineer raising his autistic son after the death of his wife.
The Boy Who Could Fly: Eric Gibb is an autistic boy who can secretly fly.
In Breaking and Entering (2006), the protagonist is the stepfather of an autistic adolescent girl.
Burning Bright is about a teenage girl protecting her autistic little brother from a ravenous tiger in a hurricane.
Change of Habit, possibly the first movie with an autistic character, has Elvis Presley curing autism using rage reduction, which is now known to be an abusive quack therapy.
Chocolate: Zen is a non-verbal young woman with autism. Her autism makes her a highly skilled martial artist.
Come Play stars an autistic boy named Oliver who unfortunately draws the attention of a monster that manifests through electronics, including the tablet he uses to communicate.
Cooties: In an interview, actors Leigh Whannell and Elijah Wood, the former of whom co-wrote the film, agreed that Whannell's character Doug Davis likely has Asperger's.
Cries from the Heart is about an autistic boy testifying in court using facilitated communication, a controversial technique.
In Cube, one of the people trapped in the titular cube is an autistic savant.
The Daisy Chain has an autistic child who is rumored to be a fairy changeling.
Dancing Trees is about an autistic teenager who is the only witness to her mother's murder.
Dark Floors has an autistic girl defeating other-dimensional monsters.
David's Mother is about a Struggling Single Mother and her teenage autistic son.
Daylight (2013) is about the mother of an autistic boy learning about a Long-Lost Relative who is also autistic.
Down in the Delta: The protagonist and her two children, one of whom is autistic, spend the summer with relatives in rural Mississippi.
The Drummer and the Keeper is about the friendship between a bipolar drummer and a teenager with Asperger's.
The Fanatic: John Travolta said that he played the stalker Moose as being on the autism spectrum.
In Fielder's Choice, a man finds himself the guardian of his recently orphaned autistic nephew.
Fly Away is about a woman raising her autistic daughter and trying to decide whether to institutionalize her or not.
The Giant (2016) is about a deformed autistic man playing pétanque.
In The Great Fight, an autistic teen is trained in mixed martial arts.
Heart of Dragon: Jackie Chan is the caretaker to his mentally ill, autistic big brother, Sammo Hung.
House of Cards (1993) is about a girl who retreats into autism in an attempt to communicate with her dead father.
If You Could Say It in Words is about a woman's relationship with a painter with undiagnosed Asperger's.
Imagination is about twin sisters with mysterious abilities, one of whom has Asperger syndrome.
The Innocent (1994) is about an autistic boy who is the only witness to a mass shooting.
In Innocent Witness, an autistic girl is the only witness to either a suicide or a murder.
In In Your Afterglow, an autistic teenager who can talk to ghosts helps a woman uncover the events of her past life.
In Jack of the Red Hearts, a former juvenile delinquent cons her way into a job as the caretaker of an autistic child.
Jane Wants a Boyfriend: A Coming of Age Story romance between an autistic young woman and her neurotypical love interest.
Jimmie (2008) is about an autistic teen who moves from an institution to his mother's home and joins a swimming team.
Journey of the Heart is about a Blind Musician who's an autistic piano savant.
Joyful Noise: Walter, the brother of one of the choir members, has Asperger syndrome. His sister's boyfriend gives him piano lessons, and he eventually joins the choir's band.
Keep the Change (2017) is a Romantic Comedy about a couple that meets at an autism support group.
Killer Diller (2004): Vernon Jackson is a piano savant who joins a blues band.
Life, Animated is a documentary about an autistic boy who uses Disney movies to communicate with others and understand the world.
In Mabul, an autistic teen is sent home after the institution where he lives shuts down.
In A Man Called Nereus, an autistic savant who can predict the future is used by the Mafia to bet on horse races.
Marathon (2005) is about an autistic man competing in the Chuncheon Marathon.
Mario (1984): Mario is stated to be autistic, although for some reason the word isn't used in the English dub.
In Meadowland, a woman copes with the loss of her son by becoming obsessed with one of her students, a foster boy with Asperger's.
Mercury Rising: Simon Lynch is a non-verbal kid with autism and a talent for pattern recognition. He's even able to crack top-secret N.S.A. cryptographic codes.
Midwinter Night's Dream is an allegory for The Yugoslav Wars starring an autistic child.
Mimic features an autistic child named Chuy, though this is only specified in an interview with director Guillermo del Toro.
Ming and Ming is about a depressed man who takes in his orphaned autistic cousin.
Miracle Run is a Lifetime movie about two autistic twin boys, Phillip and Steven; the story focuses on their mother raising them.
Molly (1999) is about a woman undergoing an experimental treatment for autism and intellectual impairment.
Mozart and the Whale is about a couple with Asperger syndrome falling in love.
Music (2021): The directorial debut of Sia. The movie is about a recently sober drug dealer named Kazu "Zu" Gamble finding herself taking custody of her younger half-sister, a non-verbal autistic teenage girl named Music, when their grandmother suddenly dies. The film is heavily controversial for casting a neurotypical actress as the nonverbal autistic Music, its caricature-like ableist stereotypes about autism, its general ignorance about the condition, and advocating the use of the prone restraint to stop an autistic person having a meltdown despite the fact that it has traumatized, injured, and killed several autistic people in real life.
My Name is Khan - Rizwan Khan is an Indian man with autism living in the US in the late '90s and early noughties.
Nathan's Kingdom is about an autistic man and his younger sister searching for a magical kingdom.
The Night Clerk (2020) is about the titular night clerk, a voyeur with Asperger's who witnesses a murder.
Nightworld: Lost Souls is about an autistic girl who communicates with the ghosts of murdered children.
In No One Is Perfect, an autistic man tries to secure a job position before he gets evicted.
In Ocean Heaven, a terminally ill man tries to prepare his autistic son to live without him.
In The Odd Way Home, an autistic man and an abuse survivor go on a road trip together.
On Body and Soul is about an autistic meat quality inspector who discovers she can communicate with the abattoir's CFO through dreams.
Please Stand By: Wendy Welcott is a young woman with autism and a Star Trek fanfic writer.
Power Rangers (2017) re-imagines the character of Billy / the Blue Ranger as an African-American teenager with autism.
The Predator: Quinn McKenna's son Rory is autistic and is bullied for it, but the Predator finds his autism to be the next step in human evolution.
Quantum Apocalypse is about an autistic man trying to prevent the destruction of Earth.
Rain Man: Charlie Babbitt's previously unknown brother Raymond is a mathematical genius on the spectrum. Being autistic is treated as a Disability Superpower.
Relative Fear is about the Switched at Birth autistic child of a Serial Killer.
The Rider is about a former rodeo rider with an autistic sister.
Season of Miracles is a Sports Story with an autistic baseball prodigy.
In The Sense of Wonder, a widow takes in a man with Asperger's after hitting him with her car.
In The Silence of Adultery, a therapist working with autistic children has an affair with the father of one of her clients.
In Silent Fall, an autistic boy is the only witness to his parents' brutal murder.
Simple Simon is about a young man with Asperger's trying to find a new girlfriend for his brother and caretaker.
Snow Cake is about a middle-aged autistic woman readjusting after her daughter's death.
Son of the Stars is about a woman looking for her autistic son's biological father.
Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love is a '70s docudrama about a couple trying to treat their son's autism using the Son-Rise method, which they invented.
The Specials 2019 (French: Hors Normes) is a French comedy film directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, starring Vincent Cassel. The protagonists are two social workers who look after teenagers with autism.
In Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, an autistic boy runs away from home into the subway.
The Story of Luke is about an autistic man's quest to find a job and a girlfriend.
Temple Grandin: A 2010 Biopic about Temple Grandin, an autistic animal scientist, professor, and best-selling author.
Tyson's Run is about an autistic teenager training to compete in his town's marathon.
Under the Piano is about the relationship between an autistic piano savant and her older sister, who has a paralyzed arm.
According to Thierry Zéno, the human from Vase de Noces was highly autistic, which bears eyebrow-raising implications, considering his actions throughout the film.
We Too Together is about an autistic man's first romance, and his complicated relationship with his father.
In When Time Got Louder, the protagonist's autistic brother struggles to cope without her when she goes to college.
White Frog is about an autistic teenager learning about his deceased older brother's life.
Zig Zag (2002) centers around an autistic boy with an abusive father but cared for his Big Brother Mentor.

Literature

In 2312, Fitz Wahram is mentioned a few times to be autistic.
Afrotistic is about a Black autistic girl at a new school who founds a group for autistic teens.
The Amy Virus: The main character, Cyan Beaut (her real name is Cynthia Ann Butt, but she hates it for obvious reasons) is autistic, even though her Control Freak Abusive Parents have her on a strict diet that they claim can cure autism. The story is about her realizing the truth, discovering her musical talents, rebelling against her parents' control over her with the help of her two new friends Renate and Eroica (the latter is also on the autism spectrum herself), embracing her reforged identity and new name, and her attempts to meet an obscure bossa nova singer.
Anything but Typical is about a twelve-year-old autistic writer.
Apollo Autism has a patent agent and his wife raising two young autistic sons in The '60s and The '70s. The protagonist eventually realizes that he has undiagnosed autism as well.
Are You Alone on Purpose? is about a girl who falls in love with her newly disabled childhood bully while his dad is tutoring her autistic brother.
Are You Seeing Me? is about a young woman and her autistic twin brother going on a road trip before her brother moves into an assisted living facility.
Asperger Adventures is a series of children's books following children with Asperger syndrome.
In Asperger Sunset, a man with Asperger's witnesses a murder in a park.
Bat is about an autistic boy helping his mother care for an orphaned baby skunk.
Because of the Rabbit is about a girl bonding with an autistic classmate over a rescue bunny.
Robin from Bewilderment has been diagnosed with Asperger's by two doctors, although his father doesn't like the idea of labeling him.
The Black Fox of Beckham is about a fox who befriends the autistic daughter of the secretary of the fox hunt.
In Blind Lake, Tess Hauser has been diagnosed with Asperger's a few years before the story begins.
Clarice from Blue Iguana has an autistic little brother who shares her sensitivity towards animals.
Boneland: The protagonist, Colin Whisterfield, is described as a high-functioning Aspergers case.
Bounders is about a group of kids genetically engineered to have various mental conditions, including autism, to make them more suitable for space travel.
The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War is about an autistic boy painting pictures of the Syrian Civil War.
A Boy Made of Blocks is about a man bonding with his autistic son over Minecraft.
The Boy Who Drew Monsters is about an agoraphobic autistic boy whose drawings of monsters seem to be affecting the real world.
By Any Other Name (2013) is about a girl and her autistic sister in Witness Protection.
Can You See Me? is about an autistic girl dealing with a new school.
In Cemetery Bird, the protagonist helps take care of her teenage autistic nephew.
In Clade, the protagonist's grandson is autistic.
Colin Fischer is about an autistic fourteen-year-old trying to figure out which of his classmates brought a gun to school.
The Cosmere:
- The Stormlight Archive: Renarin Kholin has been confirmed by Brandon Sanderson to be on the autism spectrum, and demonstrates several tics associated with an autistic person, including fidgeting, social awkwardness, and difficulty speaking to people, and so on.
- It has been confirmed that Steris from Wax and Wayne is on the autism spectrum.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: An autistic fifteen-year-old tries to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog.
In Daystar and Shadow, both titular protagonists were abandoned in the desert as children for being "artistic."
Distress features the Voluntary Autists, who have "partial autism" and want surgical intervention to become fully autistic instead of neural grafts to become normal.
Dogs Don't Talk is about a boy with an autistic older brother.
The Eagle Tree is about a tree-obsessed autistic teen fighting to save an ancient tree from being cut down by developers.
The Easy Part of Impossible is about a girl who rekindles her friendship with an autistic classmate after being kicked off the diving team.
Even If We Break: Maddy, one of the five protagonists, is autistic.
Every Shiny Thing is about a girl and her friend who try to raise money for autistic kids after her brother is sent to an autism boarding school.
Evidence of Things Not Seen is about the search for a missing teenager with undiagnosed autism.
The Evolution of Emily is about a girl starting public high school after years of being homeschooled with her autistic sister.
Existence has autistic hackers searching for a cloned Neanderthal child.
Lois from Experimental Film self-diagnoses with Asperger syndrome after her son Clark is diagnosed with autism.
In Eye Contact, an autistic boy is the only witness to a murder, and his mother tries to figure out what he saw.
Eye of a Fly is about a slum-dwelling autistic teen's relationship with a brain-damaged girl and his struggles to get through college.
"Fairest of All" is about two autistic children who end up as the slaves of faerie monarchs after being rejected by their human families.
Fractured Stars is about an autistic Bounty Hunter in space.
The Geist Series follows an autistic college student thrust into a Diesel Punk fantasy world.
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! is about an autistic girl who becomes a baseball pitcher.
In Ghosts of Tomorrow, a young autistic girl is scanned onto a computer by the South American Mafia so her savant skills can be used to perform market analysis.
In the Gone series, Astrid's little brother Pete is severely autistic.
Hainish: Osden from "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" used to be autistic... until an experimental treatment made him into an empath instead.
The Half-Life of Planets is a young adult romance novel about a teenage boy with Asperger's.
In Harmonic Feedback, a teen with "a touch of Asperger's" joins a band and falls in love after she moves to a new town.
In Harmony (2016), a family moves to a commune in the hopes of finding help for their daughter's PDD-NOS.
Haze is about the struggles of a teen with undiagnosed Asperger's.
He Is Your Brother has a twelve-year-old Rail Enthusiast bonding with his autistic little brother.
House Rules: Jacob Hunt is an autistic teen who is accused of murdering his social skills tutor.
In Hover Car Racer, the protagonist's autistic savant brother acts as his navigator during races.
How to Fly with Broken Wings is about a boy with Asperger's who is fascinated by planes and has a secret desire to fly.
In a Summer Garment is a memoir about raising an autistic boy in The '60s and The '70s.
In Into the Drowning Deep, the reporter Olivia is autistic.
In Two Worlds follows an autistic boy who is unable to control his body, and his struggles to show the world his true intelligence.
Jackie and Craig features the autistic teenager Amy Black, whose specific obsession is wildlife and biology. It comes in handy when you're facing down Chupacabras, Fleshgaits, and Mothmen.
In Jackie Boy, Jackie's friend and lover Morgan is autistic.
Joel Suzuki is about an autistic teenager being taken to another world, where his neurology is perfect for learning Magic Music.
"Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy'" is a probably-fraudulent article about a boy whose trauma-induced autism causes him to view himself as a machine.
Kea's Flight is set on a starship inhabited mostly by children rejected as embryos for having genetic disorders. Kea and many of her fellow rejects are on the autism spectrum.
The Key to Charlotte is a Christian romance novel about a nonspeaking autistic woman.
A Kind of Spark is about an autistic girl campaigning for a monument commemorating her hometown's witch trials.
The Kiss Quotient is a romance novel about a woman with Asperger's and the escort she hires to help her practice kissing.
The Kitchen Daughter is about an autistic woman who discovers that she can summon ghosts by cooking.
Language Arts is about a man whose son is autistic, and whose classmate in fourth grade is implied to have been autistic as well.
Like No Other Boy is about an eight-year-old autistic boy with an uncanny ability to communicate with chimps.
Livvie Owen Lived Here is about an autistic teenager trying to discover why she's been hearing the whistle of an abandoned mill.
Love Anthony has a woman mourning the death of her eight-year-old autistic son.
Love Over Gold is a lesbian romance novel with an autistic protagonist.
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester is about a nonbinary autistic teenager solving a decades-old murder mystery.
In The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family, the protagonist and most of her family are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent.
In Marcelo in the Real World, a teenager with an Asperger's-like condition takes a summer job at his father's law firm.
MARiiMO is about an undiagnosed autistic woman creating a developmental robotics platform.
Martian Time-Slip has a union leader recruiting a young autistic/schizophrenic boy (the two conditions were thought to be the same in 1964) in order to use his time travel abilities for a real estate deal.
May the Best Man Win has an autistic football player competing with his ex to be Homecoming King.
Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse is about a middle-schooled autistic girl named Jesse whose father is accused of stealing the library fund he was helping fundraise for. She sets out to prove her dad's innocence with her friend Springer (who is heavily implied to be autistic himself — when he gets asked about it at one point, he admits that he's not sure) and her Pomeranian dog Sam-Sam.
In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, the imaginary friend of a boy with Asperger's helps him interpret social situations and deal with problems at school - and then has to help save him from a kidnapper.
In Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World has an autistic woman working to make her family's tuna cannery more humane.
Mindblind is about a teenager with Asperger's who wants to live up to his "genius" label by accomplishing something important.
Miracle Creek is a Courtroom Drama about the explosion of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, a form of quack treatment, that kills one autistic boy as well as a different autistic boy's mother.
Mockingbird is about a girl with Asperger syndrome trying to find closure after her brother's murder.
Moojag and the Auticode Secret has an underground society where autistic teens are forced to work as programmers who engineer the technology that enables the other classes' comfortable lifestyle.
According to the author's note of Navigating Early, Early is an autistic savant, although those words are not used in the book because of the time period.
No One Needed to Know is about a girl with an Autistic older brother.
The Nowhere Girls: Erin DeLillo, one of the three protagonists, has Asperger's.
The October Child is about the early childhood of an autistic boy and his effects on his family.
On the Edge of Gone: The protagonist is autistic and worries her disability will prevent her from getting a spot on a Generation Ship.
On the Spectrum is about a girl exploring Paris with her autistic half-brother.
Orange Clouds, Blue Sky is about a girl with an autistic sister trying to keep her family together.
Origami Yoda is a children's book series featuring an origami puppet of Yoda made by an eccentric boy named Dwight Tharp to give his classmates advice. Author Tom Angleberger, himself autistic, has confirmed that both Dwight and initial antagonist Harvey Cunningham have Asperger's.
In Oryx and Crake, Crake is stated to have Asperger syndrome.
The Outside and its sequel The Fallen: The protagonist is an autistic scientist who finds herself entangled with the AI gods who rule the galaxy.
Peta Lyre's Rating Normal is about an autistic teen struggling to mask.
Pilgrennon's Children: The protagonist and several other children were created as part of a breeding program to make autistics who can communicate with computers.
The Place Inside the Storm is about an autistic teenager who runs away from home in order to avoid cure surgery.
Planet Earth Is Blue is about an astronomy-obsessed autistic girl in foster care in The '80s.
Pondovadia: Several characters in the series are confirmed to be autistic— Bell's older sister Klarisse and recurring character Aster.
The deuteragonist of the Prudence Penderhaus series is an autistic teen who has been kept as a Madman in the Attic by his Abusive Parents.
In Queens of Geek, three teenage friends attend a convention, including an autistic and anxious girl.
In Rage: A Love Story, a lesbian high schooler begins a relationship with the sister of the autistic boy she's tutoring.
Rain Reign is about a girl with Asperger's searching for her missing dog.
Ready Player One: Wade notes that after James Halliday’s death, experts suggested that he had Asperger’s or was otherwise on the autism spectrum; he was known for having strong special interests and knowing vast details about them, his behavior was always considered odd by others, and he found it difficult to interact with others.
The Real Boy is about a "simple-minded" shop boy in a fantasy world, confirmed by the author to be autistic.
In The Regulators, an autistic boy gains reality-warping powers and uses them to summon creatures based on his favorite TV show.
Remember Dippy is about a teenager who spends the summer with his autistic cousin.
Rip and Red: Red (his real name's Blake Daniels, but everybody calls him Red because of his red hair) is on the Autism Spectrum.
In Rogue, several characters suggest that Kiara might be autistic, and she eventually self-diagnoses using the internet.
The Roosevelt is a gay romance novel series where one of the protagonists is autistic and the other is depressed.
In Rubbernecker, one of the main characters is a medical student with Asperger's.
Rules is about a girl with an autistic little brother.
Sanctuary is about a Family of Choice that lives in a Haunted House; the protagonist and their girlfriend are autistic, and some of the other members of the household are implied to be.
The Savant is about a twelve-year-old autistic boy who acquires precognitive abilities after hitting his head on a rock.
Save the Enemy: A girl and her autistic younger brother investigate their father's disappearance.
In Saving Max, a woman fights to clear her autistic son's name after he's accused of murdering another patient in the psychiatric asylum.
The Secret Life of Kitty Granger is about an undiagnosed autistic teen who is recruited into a spy organization in The '60s.
In Shine Shine Shine, the protagonist's astronaut husband and young son are both autistic.
In Shtum, a couple pretends to separate to increase their autistic son's chances of getting a residential placement.
In The Silence of Murder, a teenage girl tries to find her autistic older brother innocent of killing his employer.
Slug Days Stories is a series of realistic children's books about a girl with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Social Queue is about an autistic intern at an online media company.
The Society of Sylphs is about an autistic boy and a sylph solving a crime.
The Someday Birds is about an autistic boy dragged on a road trip by his siblings.
Something Different About Dad: How to Live With Your Asperger's Parent: Mark has Asperger's.
Soon I Will Be Invincible: Blackwolf, the Batman analogue, is said to be autistic.
In The Speed of Dark, a group of autistic coworkers must decide whether to become cured or not.
The protagonist of The Speed of Sound lives in a think tank for autistic savants.
Spellsmithand Carver Book 2 in the Spellsmith and Carver series introduces us to Lotta, a young woman with autistic traits. Of course, it being a fantasy, the word "autism" isn't used in-story, but Burke has confirmed on her social media that Lotta is autistic.
Starsnatcher: The main character is autistic and he struggles with isolation as well as making friends after being Trapped in Another World.
The State of Grace is about an autistic teenager dealing with changes in her life.
Stim is about two roommates with Asperger's.
There's More Than One Way Home is about a ten-year-old autistic boy suspected of killing a classmate.
Things I Should Have Known is about a girl trying to set her autistic sister up with a boy from her special ed class.
In This Alien Shore, every inhabitant of the planet Guera is mentally disabled in some way. Dr. Kio Masada, one of the main characters, is iru, which has been confirmed by the author to mean autistic.
This Other World: The protagonist is an autistic woman living on an alien planet.
In Tornado Brain, a girl with Asperger's and her twin sister investigate their friend's disappearance.
In Transpecial, an autistic woman is recruited to help establish communication with aliens.
Trueman Bradley is about a young man with Asperger syndrome trying to make it as a detective in New York City.
Truth or Dare (2000) is about a boy investigating the death of his uncle, who had undiagnosed Asperger's, and who died under mysterious circumstances forty years ago.
The Tuning Station is a Christian novel about an atheist with Asperger's meeting his Alternate Universe self, a devout Christian.
Twelve Days has a young autistic boy being recruited by a cult.
Underdogs is a post-apocalyptic young adult series with a neurodivergent cast that includes autistic characters.
The author of An Unkindness of Ghosts has confirmed that Aster would be diagnosed with autism in today's world. In-universe, another character diagnoses her as insiwa, which seems to have a similar meaning.
Viral Nation is about an autistic teenager recruited by an organization of time travelers After the End.
Virtus Draconis centers around an autistic dragon and his comrades as they struggle against a princess's war, brought about by societal changes she disagrees with. On the other side of the argument, an alligator regent, strongly implied to be autistic as well, deals with questions surrounding his future allegiance and whether he wants to continue following his princess.
West Meadows Detectives is about an autistic Kid Detective and his partner.
In What to Say Next, a boy with "a borderline case of Asperger's" helps a classmate investigate her father's death.
When My Heart Joins the Thousand is about the relationship between an autistic girl and a boy with osteogenesis imperfecta.
Wicked Good is about the adopted mother of a teenager with Asperger's, and his search for his birth family.
Wildflower Ranch is about a girl separated from her autistic brother by the foster system.
The Wild Orchid books are about a young woman with Asperger's and her journey towards independence.
WWW Trilogy: The main character's father is autistic.
Xandri Corelel series: The titular protagonist is autistic. She is the head of Xeno-Liaisons on a first contact ship.
Rory from You Look Different in Real Life was diagnosed with autism after her friendship with Justine fell apart.
Young Wizards: Book 6, A Wizard Alone, focuses on the protagonists trying to find a way to help an autistic wizard complete his wizardly "Ordeal". The New Millennium edition of the book is heavily revised in response to feedback from autistic readers.

Live-Action TV

All My Children had an autistic teenager named Lily Montgomery until she left the show to attend college.
Alphas — two examples:
- Gary Bell, a core member of the central team, is a young autistic man who has the ability to sense the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Anna Levy is a non-verbal autistic woman who can only communicate via online text but has omniglotic-like powers. She is a leading member of the villainous "Red Flag" organisation.
As We See It: Protagonists Jack, Harrison, and Violet are all on the autism spectrum, as are their actors. The series is about them living together and striving for similar things in life.
Astrid: French-Belgian crime drama in which the eponymous Astrid Nielsen, an autistic archivist, and neurotypical Cowboy Cop Raphaëlle Coste investigate murders. One of the co-writers is autistic, and the series extensively features Astrid attending an autism support group whose members often consult on cases.
Atypical: Sam Gardner is a high-school senior with autism. The series is about his efforts to navigate romance and getting along with people.
The "A" Word centres around young Joe Hughes who is diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum not long after his 5th birthday at the beginning of the series, after much suspicion from family and friends and excuse-making on the part of his parents, especially his mother.
The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon is an edge case - although the show's staff have denied repeatedly that he's autistic, Jim Parsons has said that he does see him as having Asperger's and portrays him as such. Co-creator Bill Prady also revealed he is autistic himself after the show ended.
Boston Legal: Recurring character Jerry Espenson is a lawyer working for Crane, Poole, and Schmidt, and is stated to have Asperger syndrome.
The Bridge (US): Main character Sonya has Asperger syndrome.
Clan: Belgian Black Comedy series about five sisters, four of whom, including autistic Birgit "Bibi" Goethals, plot to murder the unpleasant husband of the other sister.
Community has Abed Nadir, an autistic film student. Researching for Abed helped series creator Dan Harmon realize he is on the spectrum as well, though he has yet to be professionally diagnosed.
The Chosen is a series about Jesus and the disciples. Matthew is depicted as autistic and is confirmed by his actor to have Asperger's Syndrome. He is a gifted mathematician, prone to Brutal Honesty, speaks in a very stunted and monotone way, and doesn't understand when people behave in ways that aren't logical, or have hidden motives.
Criminal Minds: One unsub actually pointed out Dr. Spencer Reid had "autistic tendencies" and it later was confirmed by Matthew Gray Gubler that his character was an Aspie.
Degrassi: The Next Generation: Connor Delaurier was introduced in season 8 as Degrassi's first character with Asperger syndrome.
Elementary: Sherlock's Love Interest Fiona is autistic, or "neuro-atypical" as she calls it.
Eureka: Allison's Teen Genius son Kevin is autistic in the old timeline, but not in the Alternate Timeline.
Everything's Gonna Be Okay is about a man named Nicholas raising his two half-sisters, one of whom is autistic, as is her actress Kayla Cromer. Creator Josh Thomas, who also plays Nicholas, revealed a year after the show premiered that he is also on the spectrum himself; his character was also diagnosed at the end of the second season.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a Korean legal drama about the titular lawyer, who is an autistic woman.
Girl Meets World: Recurring character Isadora Smackle has Asperger syndrome.
Good Doctor (South Korea): A Korean medical drama about Park Shi-on, a young pediatric surgeon with autism and savant syndrome.
The Good Doctor (U.S.): Shaun Murphy is an autistic medical school graduate who becomes employed as a surgeon at a hospital.
Heartbreak High (2022): Quinni, one of the viewpoint students of the modern Hartley High, is autistic. The show emphasizes the good and bad sides of living with autism realistically. At one point, Quinni wears a "Different, Not Less" beanie.
"Hide" (Two Sentence Horror Stories episode): A nanny defends herself and an autistic girl from a home invasion.
Impulse: One of the main characters Townes, has autism, and is high-functioning.
It's Okay to Not Be Okay: Moon Sang-tae is autistic. He'll seize up and start screaming and hitting his own head if he gets stressed out in public. At home, he retreats to the safety of a zip-up plastic closet. His younger brother, Moon Gang-tae, is his caretaker. In the second episode, Sang-tae has a major meltdown in public when someone pulls on his hair.
Parenthood: Max, one of the Braverman children, is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.
Rose Red has Annie Wheaton, an autistic teenager with telekinetic powers.
In Royal Pains, Dr. Jeremiah Sacani very clearly has something going on. The final season finally makes it explicit that he has Asperger's.
While the title character on Sherlock insists that he's a "high-functioning sociopath", medical doctor John Watson makes the claim that he has Asperger's. It's consistent with Sherlock's desire for consistency and determination to see things through to the end.
In St. Elsewhere, Dr. Donald Westphall's autistic son Tommy is a minor character for most of the show. The last episode reveals that Tommy possibly made up the whole show while staring into a snow globe.
Strange Empire: Rebecca is autistic (though the term isn't used, this being 1869) and has previously been institutionalized because of it. She's quite high-functioning and has trained as a medical doctor.
Waterloo Road features Karla Bentham, a student with Asperger syndrome, between seasons three and five.
Wolf Pack has one of the four teenage leads have an Autistic younger brother who gets involved in the search for a Werewolf.

Music

Eden by CupcakKe: One track, "A.U.T.I.S.M." is dedicated to the autistic community.
Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent: Byrne, who has (self-diagnosed) Asperger syndrome, described "I Should Watch TV" as an autobiographical song about his use of television to better mask in a neurotypical society.
Red Lamb by Red Lamb: "Puzzle Box" was inspired by the autism diagnosis of lead singer Dan Spitz's twin sons.
Replicas by Tubeway Army: Frontman Gary Numan has Asperger's himself (though whether or not he has been professionally diagnosed is ambiguous due to his self-contradictory public statements on the matter) and has described "Are 'Friends' Electric?" as an allegory for his perception of and difficulty integrating with neurotypical society.
Sign o' the Times by Prince: The track "Starfish and Coffee" is based on stories Prince's girlfriend told him about a real-life autistic girl she knew.
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence by Dream Theater: The Title Track consists of eight movements, most of which focus on a particular mental disorder. One, "Solitary Shell", is about autism.

Podcasts

Less is Morgue: Main character Riley Almanzor has Asperger's.

Puppet Shows

Sesame Street: Introduced Julia, a preschooler Muppet with autism. This was originally done as part of a partnership with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, but ASAN ended the partnership after Sesame Street began to include material more typical of Autism Speaks (despite acknowledging that it was harmful).

Tabletop Games

In Crimestrikers, one of the titular heroes, Communications Officer Darian "DX" Xenos, has autism.

Theatre

A 2019 play called All In A Row, about a family dealing with autism, drew controversy for its depiction of the disorder. Some felt the play promoted bad stereotypes and that using a puppet for the autistic child was dehumanizing autistic people (resulting in the hashtag “#puppetgate”), while others praised it for showing the difficulties that can come with it.
Spoonface Steinberg is a monologue by an autistic seven-year-old girl coming to terms with her terminal cancer.
How to Dance in Ohio is a musical that follows a group of autistic young adults as they prepare for the Spring Formal dance held by their treatment program. Notably, in the Broadway cast all of the actors playing autistic characters are themselves on the autism spectrum.

Video Games

Amy: The titular character is an eight-year-old autistic girl with psychic powers.
Apex Legends: Wattson, one of the playable Legends, was confirmed to be autistic by former writer Tom Casiello.
Billie Bust Up!: Tweets from the developers establish that Fantoccio (boss of the Demo) is autistic.
BioShock series creator Ken Levine revealed that Brigid Tenenbaum has autism.
Clive Barker's Jericho: One of the playable characters, Simone Cole, is stated to have been diagnosed with autism at the age of four.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Two characters are confirmed to be autistic by the devs:
- Ja-Reet, an Argonian in Shadowfen, cannot read social cues and emotions; other characters of his race suspect that this is because he grew up away from the Hist trees that shape their race and influence their society and they offer a possible cure. He wants to try it, feeling that his difference is a burden on his wife; she is happy with him as he is, and is supportive of him no matter what he decides about it.
- The Drake of Blades, who happens to be the main NPC in the Imperial City DLC's questline. She notes that she's not good with people and has always found it difficult to talk to others, but that she's exceptionally attentive to detail, and that due to her experience studying others around her, she can pick up on people's intentions. Some of her social difficulty is demonstrated in dialogue with her; for instance, there are several moments where she says what she's thinking, realizes that what she just said probably sounded rude, and apologizes.
  Player: Are you feeling all right?
  Drake of Blades: Of course I am. Am I...? I'm being awkward, aren't I? I apologize. I'm not very good... with people, I mean. I usually just avoid talking to people entirely. This is the longest conversation I've had in months.
  Player: Nerves?
  Drake of Blades: Something like that. I guess. I'm perceptive. "Gifted," they say. I can tell when someone's lying, or anxious, or plotting something, just by looking at them. But it's too much sometimes - especially when they start talking to me.
  Player: Must be difficult.
  Drake of Blades: Yes and no. For better or worse, it made me who I am. I couldn't really talk to people, so I had to learn about them through observation. It honed my senses - made me focus on the little things. Details. That's a valuable skill in my profession.
Hello Charlotte: Charles Eyler is stated in-game to have suspected Asperger's.
Mass Effect 2: the Overlord DLC introduces David Archer, who's explicitly stated to be an autistic savant. The tie-in books also feature Gillian Grayson, a "borderline-autistic" student at the Grissom Academy.
Max: An Autistic Journey follows an autistic boy struggling to get through his day.
Natural Tone: The game stars a day in the life of the autistic Author Avatar, and deliberately implements Sensory Abuse to try and give you a feel of what sensory overload feels like.
Overwatch: The character of Symmetra was confirmed to be autistic and was referred to being on the spectrum in tie-in lore comic "A Better World." She mentions having been self-conscious of it during her youth, but she's since made peace with it as she's recognized her strengths as a highly technical "architech" of Hard Light technology.
To the Moon: Johnny's wife River has a condition that makes it difficult for her to communicate and also makes her feel "different" from her classmates. She also has a special interest in lighthouses, even naming one "Anya". Johnny consults a psychologist to help him understand her better, and he learns about Tony Attwood's studies on the condition. Kan Gao eventually confirmed on his Twitter on the game's 10th anniversary that River is autistic.
Warframe: Word of God has confirmed that Rell's unspecified mental condition is autism.
Watch_Dogs 2: hacker Josh Sauchak has Asperger syndrome.

Visual Novels

Date Or Die: While Hat Trick does enjoy interacting with other people, it can still be rather unnerving for her due to being autistic.
Entropic Float This World Will Decay And Disappear:
- Madeline Nenohara is autistic and has a special interest in rollercoasters and other high-adrenaline activities.
- Peri Dubois is also autistic and can have quite a black-and-white view of the world due to her timid nature.
Magical Warrior Diamond Heart: Two of the main characters, Sophia Anderson and Zacharie Pelletier, are on the spectrum.
The Mermaid Of Zennor: Lilac is an autistic girl who is constantly bullied by her peers, very picky with her food choices, and quite fixated on her older brother to the point where she contemplates killing his girlfriend.
Les Quatre Alices: All four Alices are on the spectrum, and all four of them go through various struggles in their life, including learning how to make proper conversations with others and dealing with sensory issues.
Swan Song: Yasaka Aroe has trouble communicating with others due to being autistic. She also possesses a few mysterious abilities that normal people don't have.
According to the Visual Novel Database, the obscure late 90s eroge Towa no Yakata has Mami being canonically autistic.
Yoru ni Saku Hana: The cold-hearted, quiet, and stoic Susukino Sachi is canonically autistic.
Your Turn to Die: One of the participants in the Deadly Game is a young boy named Gin Ibushi, who is revealed to be autistic in the third chapter.

Web Animation

Dead End: Norma, one of the main characters, is autistic.
Investigation of Object Nuclearity: The protagonist Cracklin is autistic.
Pancake's Show: Abigail and Casey are both autistic.

Web Original

BunnyIsCute's Original Omegaverse Collection is a series of three Omegaverse stories, the first of which (All I Want Is Silence) is about an Autistic Omega Male and his Alpha Male boyfriend who have a baby together, fall in love in spite of Ableist abuse from the Alpha's adoptive family, and get married at the end. Also notable in that this story is one of the only depictions in all of fiction of a canonically Autistic character getting pregnant.
Looming Gaia: The Greys has confirmed on her Tumblr that Elska has autism or at least the centaur equivalent of it; she has trouble with socializing and can be rude without intending to, has issues with dealing with stress, Hates Being Touched, and has tendency to get obsessed with things like "fighting the fog" as a child and getting revenge on the people who killed her village as an adult. Greys mentions in the same post that Jeimos and Mr. Ocean are autistic as well.
WitchCraft SMP: Pris lacks a filter in some situations, doesn't understand subtlety, and is overall considered an oddball, e.g. for giving weird compliments. She is confirmed to be autistic by her content creator counterpart, who is also autistic.

Web Video

Cafae Latte: One of the main characters, Nicole, is autistic (saying so in her introduction). She stims when she is in stressful situations and is extremely blunt and quick to question social rules.
- In one episode, a mother brings in her autistic son on the mistaken impression that he is a changeling. Nicole enchants a rock to give him the same effect as stimming. When they come back to pick up the rock, the mother's dismissal of her son's sensory issues leads Bob to curse her with those same exact sensory issues.
I'm Autistic, Now What? is a series of YouTube videos hosted by a mother named Megan who was diagnosed as Autistic as a child, consisting both of stories about her own lived experiences with Autism and her reactions to other Autism-related content.
Paige Layle is an Autistic vlogger who does various Autism-related content on YouTube and TikTok.

Webcomics

In Abby and Norma, Abby's an Aspie, which was originally what the comic was about.
Assigned Male: Protagonist Stephie Bondu states in one comic that she is autistic, like author Sophie Labelle, who Stephie frequently acts as an Author Avatar for.
DeadEndia: Norma, one of the main characters, is autistic.
Dina Saruyama in Dumbing of Age is confirmed by author David Willis to have undiagnosed Asperger syndrome. Joyce is waiting for a diagnosis, but everyone agrees it makes perfect sense. During the resultant discussion, Dina says she can't get one; every specialist her parents have spoken to says her language difficulties are due to being a second-generation immigrant, which she's not.
Last Res0rt: Daisy Archanis is an autistic Mad Scientist CEO in her fifties. In the comic, autism and other mental disorders are a symptom of being Light Children, who have similar powers to the Celeste, but didn't get the same training. Daisy and other autistic characters often make use of Augmented Reality devices nicknamed autie lenses that filter out sensory overloads and provide social cues in addition to acting like a smartphone. They're also fairly popular among high-powered businesspeople so it can be hard to tell if someone wearing them is autistic or neurotypical.
Lily Spectrum: Semi-autobiographical/slice-of-life/comedy comics about living as an autistic person.
The Paupers Prince: Prince Alfred is autistic.
Brun from Questionable Content is self-diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. She doesn't have an official diagnosis, as people called her autistic as part of bullying her when younger, and she doesn't want to be officially labelled as something she considers an insult.
Ruby Nation: Jiro Sasaki is a formerly low-functioning autistic teen who underwent an experimental treatment with nanomachines. As a result, his physical and cognitive skills have been greatly advanced, but his social skills remain arrested. He feels the treatment made him less human and wishes he could get it reversed.
Spectra Spell: Vera, one of the two main characters, is a 13-year-old autistic girl.
Stellarscape's protagonist, Rigel, is canonically autistic (Word of God describes Rigel as being neurodivergent, and the comic's co-creator explicitly calls Rigel autistic in another post). While Rigel being autistic was never outright mentioned in the comic, Rigel does show some clear signs of it (like being extremely distressed by a loud alarm, and an apparent special interest in space).
The Transformistress is known for comics with trans protagonists, with Cassandra "Cass" Iski from "The Trans Skill Tree" being both trans and autistic; in addition to directly referring to herself as such, she dislikes talking with real people because of messy misinterpretations, worries about overstimulation when her body starts transforming, and then stims with excitement when her AMAB body becomes the Cat Girl she's always wanted to be.
Winter Moon: The tritagonist, Gideon, is autistic, just like the creator, Merryweatherey.

Western Animation

Marcy Wu from Amphibia shows signs of having both autism and ADHD. She's obsessed with anime, video games, and tabletop games, extremely clumsy, has excessive knowledge and a desire to learn more, has a short attention span, and has a tendency to "get caught in the zone" (hyperfocus). She even says she has trouble looking people in the eye sometimes. She also has moments of being Innocently Insensitive, which is common amongst the autistic community. When originally asked about it in a Reddit AMA, series creator Matt Braly stated that Marcy wasn’t created with her having autism in mind, but also that there’s still "a lot to learn about her, even on our end", implying that her being neurodivergent could eventually become canon later on if it suits the show's story. On June 15, 2022, the Amphibia crew confirmed via Twitter that Marcy does indeed have autism, making her the first canonically autistic character in any Disney Television Animation series, and also the second canonically neurodivergent Disney TVA character, following Luz Noceda (who also has ADHD) from The Owl House.
Archer: Sterling Archer questions if he's on the spectrum throughout the series, as he finds himself being the only one to identify weapons at a glance, keep track of bullet counts, and other such things when in battles. It's never portrayed negatively, more along the lines of "Huh. That would explain a lot."
Arthur: The recurring secondary character Carl Gould is autistic. He loves trains and can point out every detail of them with incredible accuracy and attention to detail. As well as trains, he likes to assemble jigsaws, can draw rather good lions all by hand, "likes apple juice in a box, not a bottle", and his favorite color is blue, but he dislikes the color brown. He can get somewhat anxious around situations that are unfamiliar to him, and he doesn't like George's giraffe ventriloquist dummy, Wally, because it freaks him out, but can often find a rational solution to a problem whenever it presents itself. In the episode where Carl is introduced, Brain reveals that his uncle is also autistic, and gives George the same analogy his uncle gave him on what being autistic is like so George can understand Carl a bit better:
Brain: Imagine you've crash-landed on an alien planet. It looks like earth, but there are lots of differences. For one, a lot of people seem to talk really loudly. And even though you speak the same language, you sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean. And things that seem hilarious to you aren't funny at all to them. You wish the scientists back on earth had given you a guidebook to this strange planet, but they forgot to pack one, so you have to try to learn things all on your own. Maybe there's one thing in particular that captures your interest and you study just that. Hopefully, the people on the planet begin to understand you a little better. And you might even learn to fit in. But you'll always feel a little bit different.
Though not definitively confirmed as such, Tina Belcher of Bob's Burgers is implied to be autistic as she speaks in a Creepy Monotone, expresses distress through long groans, has No Social Skills and awkward body language, and can get extremely obsessive when it comes to horses or her crush Jimmy Jr.. Louise even says she's probably autistic in the first episode. When Bob tries to deny it, Louise dumps a bunch of straws onto the floor and tells Tina to count them, to which she repeatedly fails.
Louise: Ugh, you're the worst kind of autistic.
Dead End: Paranormal Park: Norma, one of the main characters, is autistic.
El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: Manny was retroactively confirmed to be autistic by co-creator Jorge Gutiérrez, who was diagnosed with autism himself long after the show ended.
The Ghost and Molly McGee: June Chen is explicitly stated to be autistic in her debut episode.
One of the main characters on Hero Elementary is AJ Gadgets, a young, black autistic boy (mentioned on-screen in "AJ's Extra Superpower"). He's very intelligent because of the number of gadgets he makes, and how he uses his thought projection power. Though he does have autism, he's shown to be able to socialize with others and has a great relationship with his friends. He also shows a great interest in comic book superheroes. He has sensory issues, most notably with how he hates the feeling of water and wears headphones when he hears loud noises. When he's overwhelmed, he flaps his hands, a common stim for autistic people. He is Literal-Minded at times and is uncomfortable when people he doesn't know hug him.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Maxwell Atoms (who has Asperger's) revealed that Billy, Mandy, and Grim are autistic.
Monster High: One Generation 3 episode has Twyla Boogeyman come out to her friends as autistic.
Pablo: The series follows the adventures of Pablo, a five-year-old autistic boy, and his imaginary animal friends, the Book Animals, who all represent different aspects of autism. All the writers and voice actors are on the spectrum.
Pixar Shorts: In the SparkShort "Loop", a non-verbal autistic girl named Renee (who communicates through making approving and disapproving noises and using her phone) and a chatty boy named Marcus are paired together for a canoeing trip during a day camp. They become friends by the end of the story.
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: Bebe, one of Penny's baby siblings, is revealed to be autistic in Season 2.
Rick and Morty: One of the two main characters, Morty Smith's grandfather Rick Sanchez, mentions possibly being autistic while playing Minecraft.
Rick: Is this game popular with autistic people?
Morty: Why would you say something like that?
Rick: 'Cause I'm starting to love it.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Word of God has said that the show's version of Donatello is on the autism spectrum.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: After the show ended, the showrunners confirmed that Entrapta is autistic. Entrapta has a variety of quirks. As she says, she's "Not good with people, but [she's] good with tech." She can be outright obsessive when it comes to understanding First Ones tech and doesn't seem to understand or care about consequences outside of the tech itself.^note She has trouble reading social cues, to the point that she needed to ask whether Mermista was angry after Mermista got through yelling at her. She doesn't seem to have a concept of morality and had to be outright reminded of which side of the conflict she was on (and why the enemies of that side should be considered her enemies). That said, she's fiercely loyal to those she considers her friends, and once she realizes that there's been a failure of communication, she does her best to resolve the issue, either via explaining herself better or seeking further clarification. And she won't eat food if it isn't tiny.
The Transporters is a children’s animation series designed specifically for children with autism.
Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go introduced a child caboose character named Bruno who is on the autism spectrum. He sometimes wears steam headphones to block out loud noises, has eye contact issues, and talks slowly and in detail.

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