I cannot stress enough just how different autism is for different people that are on the spectrum.
I get the impression that media portrayals of autism depict a neurotypical’s idea of a certain stereotype. Admittedly I haven’t had too much exposure to such media (partly because I have this issue with it), but it’s almost always a white cis boy who does good in school but doesn’t get along too well with others, often with some kind of lifelong hyperfixation.
I cannot stress enough that this stereotype, while not entirely untrue (see: me), it betrays the reality of the kinds of struggles that people that are on the spectrum often face. Autism is a very multifaceted spectrum. It “manifests” in the neurotypical world differently for different people.
For that reason, it is only recently being understood to be much more than this depiction of “male quirky white child who is very smart but has a hyperfixation”.
I’m partial to infographics such as this:
Different people are effected differently by the different parts of the spectrum. There is not one Autism.
I highly recommend this podcast on the subject of Autism, titled “What It’s Like Being Autistic In A Neurotypical World”. It touches on how it’s a much bigger spectrum than this stereotype (such as how AFAB people are statistically under-diagnosed), how there is a correlation between autism and queerness, and how masking one’s autism is cognitively draining.