Commentary: I was diagnosed with autism at 33. Here is why autism diagnostic tests leave females behind.

When I was 10, sitting around a picnic table with a bunch of girls from camp, I made a mistake. They were laughing, all making fun of Linda, one of our counselors. Though I didn’t get the jokes, I mimicked their laughter. When Linda walked up to us, I immediately told her what everyone had been saying. I assumed she’d find it funny, too. But she didn’t smile. And the girls became upset and refused to talk to me for the rest of the summer.

I didn’t understand what I’d done wrong.

Throughout adolescence, I did my best to mirror