Masking is when autistic people hide or change natural behaviours to fit in with non-autistic expectations. It can involve forcing eye contact, copying expressions, rehearsing social scripts, or suppressing stimming and sensory needs. Masking can sometimes help someone feel safer or avoid negative attention, but it often comes with a heavy cost—exhaustion, anxiety, burnout, loss of identity, and difficulty recognising one’s own needs.
A brief history
The idea of masking emerged first within autistic communities, where people used it to name the invisible labour of “camouflaging” in everyday life. Autistic bloggers, writers, and forum discussions were describing masking long before researchers studied it. In the 2010s, academic work began catching up, identifying masking as a key factor behind late or missed diagnoses—particularly for women, girls, trans and non-binary people, and racialised autistic people whose differences were more likely to be overlooked or misinterpreted.
Autistic advocates stress that masking is a response to external pressure and environments that are not designed for neurodivergent people. It is about safety, acceptance, and managing risk—not deception or manipulation. Understanding masking helps shift responsibility away from the autistic person and towards creating spaces where people do not need to hide in order to belong.