Every person is different, and so is every autistic person. Some people may have traits that are comparable to autism, but that doesn't mean they are autistic.
According to the National Autistic Society, autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. More than one in 100 people are on the autism spectrum and there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK.
Up until now, it was assumed that autistic people were overwhelmingly men and boys, and only very rarely women and girls. However, this is wrong. Christine McGuinness opened up about her life with autism in a new BBC One documentary, Unmasking My Autism.
