Masked

What is masking?

It’s a strategy often used by Autistic/Neuro-divergent people to not appear that way and fit in more easily.

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/behaviour/masking

 “Masking happens in the context of being given the massage at quite a young age that who you are and your natural, instinctive way of being is not okay, and that you will only be accepted if you shape yourself into something else.”

Purple Ella, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOMDSQ5Dc28 (content creator)

As someone who’s been recently introduce to the possibility of an autistic diagnosis, I’ve realize that’s it’s something that I do unconsciously, all though being surrounded by a large group of people exhaust me because I’m in a constant state of alert.

This project pretends to give a visual representation to what someone might be feeling behind the mask.

Like I mention before this images come from my personal experience, through this project I’ve been discovering what it means to me and it has help me process the situation. The reason that I decided to star with the concept of “Making” is because you have to “drop” the mask to re-discover yourself.

A book that I strongly recommend if you are starting a process like this one, or you suspect you might be Autistic/Neuro-divergent, is Unmasking autism by Dr. Devon Price.