Perspectives of autistic adolescent girls and women on the determinants of their mental health and social and emotional well-being: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of lived experience.

O'Connor et al. (2024) pooled interviews and focus groups with autistic girls and women. They asked one question: what shapes your mental health every day?

The team read every quote, grouped similar ideas, and counted how often each theme appeared. They kept only the themes that showed up across many studies.

Two big forces came up again and again. First, the world is not built for autistic minds. Second, people treat being autistic like something shameful.

Girls said these two pressures feed anxiety, low mood, and burnout more than autism traits themselves.

Han et al. (2022) saw the same sting of stigma in a wider autistic group. Their review adds camouflaging, disclosure games, and identity reframing as ways people try to cope.

Day et al. (2021) gave numbers to the story. In their teen survey, more camouflaging equaled more depression and anxiety, with girls hit hardest. This supports Ag’s lived-experience claim that hiding autism to dodge stigma hurts mental health.

Lovelace et al. (2022) flags a blind spot: almost no studies center Black autistic girls. Ag’s synthesis is broad; teams should now repeat the question with girls who face both racism and autism stigma.

If stigma and poor fit with everyday systems drive suffering, your behavior plan must do more than teach skills. Reduce camouflaging demands, ask schools for sensory-friendly spaces, and add stigma-busting lessons for peers. Measure mood before and after these changes; you may see bigger gains than from social-skills drills alone.