In January, toymaker Mattel released the very first autistic Barbie doll. She’s wearing a loose purple dress and headphones. Her eyes are slightly averted, and she’s holding a communication tablet and a fidget spinner — all outward signs that represent some of the different ways autistic people experience the world.
The doll, designed with expertise from autistic people, invites more children — and adults, for that matter — to see parts of themselves in the iconic doll. As any kid who has ever played make-believe with a doll knows, stories can entertain, captivate, soothe and scare us. They shape how we see other people and ourselves.
Stories can also do damage by creating false and harmful stereotypes.
Throughout 2025, senior officials in the U.S. government told a darker story about autism, one that distorted and ignored science that didn’t fit their narratives. In April, for instance, a study in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report estimated that about 1 in 31 kids in the United States receive an autism diagnosis by age 8. That’s a big number, one that has risen sharply over the last few decades. For reference, in 2000, that number was 1 in 150. Most researchers attribute that rise to better awareness of autism spectrum disorders, more common screenings and changes to how autism is categorized.
But in a news briefing, U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used those numbers to tell a different story. He cast the rising rates of kids with autism, a brain development disorder marked by challenges in social communication skills and other behaviors, as an alarming epidemic, one that “tears families apart.” Kennedy continued: “These are kids who will never pay taxes, never hold a job, never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem, never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
This sort of language does two things. It reduces the wide and varied experiences of autistic people to a harmful and negative stereotype, one that highlights, in emotional terms, what people cannot do. Some people with autism do need significant help as they move through their day. But Kennedy is using those needs as a rhetorical device to raise pity and fear. More insidiously, this narrative pushes the idea that a person needs to do things — like pay taxes or write poems — to hold value.
“Pity and dehumanization are very closely linked,” says Noor Pervez, a community engagement manager at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. “Seeing autistic people’s lives as something to be afraid of ignores the root of what makes being autistic difficult for a lot of people — which is ableism.” Discriminatory beliefs or behaviors still shape our society in ways that mean people don’t get the help they need.
As 2025 wore on, the administration spun even more stories. In a news briefing in September, Kennedy and President Donald Trump claimed — with no scientific evidence — that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, causes autism. A careful assessment of existing data, published January 16 in the Lancet: Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health found no association between a mother’s use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and autism, attention-deficit hyperactive disorder or intellectual disability.
In that same news briefing, Kennedy and Trump also announced that a drug, leucovorin, can treat autism. Leukovorin is a version of folinic acid, used to counteract harmful side effects of cancer treatments. There are a few small studies suggesting that the drug could benefit people with autism, perhaps by boosting levels of folinic acid in the brain. But for now, without larger, well-designed studies, the evidence is scant. The proclamations came anyway. “We’re going to save a lot of children from a tough life, a really tough life,” Trump said in that announcement. “We’re going to save a lot of parents from a tough life.”
Then there’s the false link between vaccines and autism, a cacophonous blast of misinformation that has been getting louder. There is no link between vaccines and autism, despite many careful studies looking for one. Yet on November 20, the official CDC webpage on autism and vaccines changed to deny existing science. It now reads, “The claim, ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim…”
These false narratives all add up to push the idea that a parent’s choice — to take Tylenol during pregnancy, to get their child life-saving vaccines — ushers in a disaster, a “tragedy” for their family. All told, these claims contribute to an incredibly harmful story.
Alison Singer clearly lays out the damage this framing brings. She’s cofounder and president of the Autism Science Foundation. “The idea that vaccines cause autism is not only scientifically false, but it’s also profoundly stigmatizing to autistic people and to their families,” she said in a news briefing held in response to the changes on the CDC website.“It frames autism as being caused by parental action as if autism is a preventable injury resulting from a choice that parents make. It positions autistic people as victims of damage, which undermines the dignity of our children,” Singer said. “It implies that autistic lives are less valuable.”
As we look back over the recent autism news, it’s easy to see the outrage, the distortions, the fear. But here’s the beauty of a story. We can choose which ones we hear.
A different perspective emerged at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego in November. An expert panel there described some of the latest rigorous research on autism. That includes efforts to diagnose autism in people who are often overlooked, including girls, adults and people of color.
The panelists also talked about why it is important to get support to kids as soon as possible. Developmental psychologist Jed Elison of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis described some of the big changes happening in the brains of babies and young children. “Because this is a time period of such great plasticity, it is also a time period of opportunity to help these kids get on the right track,” he said. The goal is “getting the right supports to the right kids at the right time.”
As this more hopeful framing makes clear, the more we understand about what’s possible for people with autism, the wider the world gets for all of us.
Don’t overlook the joy here, UCLA behavioral child neurologist Shafali Jeste said at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. “Yes, there are challenges, there’s no question.” But those challenges aren’t the whole story. “[These children] also do bring a tremendous amount of joy,” she said. “They teach people to be compassionate. They raise awareness about differences.”
These stories — of people living their lives, of kids playing, of helpers looking to make the world better for their neighbors — hold immense power. That’s why autistic Barbie matters. Time to play.
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