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solarsleepless · 5 days

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hello all

basically, i'm going to be watching bsc episodes and listing down the autistic traits i see in kristy. i may have a bonus part for the other girls but i'm mainly going to be focusing on kristy as she is my favourite.

without further ado, let's do this

Episode 1

right off the bat we get the line "I was doing the most talking, as per usual." autistic people have a tendency to dominate conversations or to "monologue"

also, mary anne is kristy's only friend at the very beginning. most autistic people find it challenging to make any new friends, both due to any communicative issues and because they don't want to change up their routine. kristy is clearly just fine with having only mary anne as a friend, which is shown in later episodes

"it was boiling in there, like surface of venus levels hot and he just kept droning on and on" autistic people are wayyy more prone to sensory issues than most other people, and that can include temperature, especially if they start sweating, which for many people causes sensory distress. autistic people also find it hard to concentrate for a myriad of possible reasons, including filtering out information our brains deem 'irrelevant' even if they're not

"If he was such a genius, why didn't he say all people?" autistic people tend to have a strong sense of justice and a black and white view of things, having very clear ideas of what is right and wrong in their head. yes, kristy's a feminist, but her willingness to correct him without a care for manners reads as autistic to me

"except apparently, i raised my voice, and didn't raise my hand." manners, even well remembered ones like raising your hand, can sometimes be forgotten by autistic people if it's something they're passionate about: in this case, kristy's need for correction and fairness overrode that

"[the boys in the back are] wiping sweat on each other, but somehow, i'm the disruptive one" autism in AFABs is often seen as being rude or disruptive despite them often just being passionate about the subject. also, sensory issues again?

"claudia and mary anne and i used to hang out all the time. but that was before claudia decided she was more into boys and clothes than us." another example of how kristy has had very few people in life she considers friends and has stuck with them for most of her life. also, possible rejection sensitive dysphoria made kristy see it as bigger than it actually is, because they seem to be fine when they interact, like nothing happened

in the next scene, we see kristy helping david michael with a puzzle. puzzles are often enjoyed by autistic people due to being structured, logical, visual and with a clear end, all of which are treasured aspects of things for autistic people.

stimming!!! lots of stimming. when explaining her new concept which she has clearly quickly hyperfixated on, we see her pacing and fidgeting with her hands as well as gesturing. also, having a strong moral code and wanting to put in effort for kids to be happy

she seems pretty startled when stacey appears, and is a little upset when it's obvious claudia has told her about the club idea: autistic people find it hard to find their footing after their expectations of how something would go are thrown off, but kristy's new hyperfixation overrules this change of plans

even though her need to infodump and talk about this new idea made her not lose her cool, she's visibly still unsure when stacey suggests things. even afterwards, she tries to... "villainize" feels to strong a word, but tries to make reasons for why she disliked her even though it's obvious she was just taken off guard

"maybe new people weren't an invading force to be repelled at all costs" here we get to see how much kristy detests change—even when it's beneficial, she'd rather stick with one or two friends. pay special attention to the wording: "at all costs". kristy will always try and evade change

another sign of her intolerance for change is how much she just dislikes watson, even though he seems like a nice guy. she doesn't want to accept that he is going to a fixture in their lives because it will mean that her family will change a lot, at least in her view (though i will say she has a lot of abandonment issues and trauma from her dad leaving her which shifts her perception on any guy her mom dates)

also from here on out i think we can see a clear hyperfixation on business and law, judging by her attitude and comments later on about the club

this whole dinner scene just feels very autistic to me: she takes what her mother says about "feeling okay about it" very literally and bulldozes any attempt of conversation. she is not okay about the idea of her mother marrying watson and she doesn't understand the social cue of her being more gentle about it. she genuinely doesn't understand why her mom would ask about it if she, in kristy's perspective, was not going to listen to her, when kristy is the one not listening to her over a misunderstanding.

this might be more of a me thing, but kristy trying to send her mom an email to apologize just feels really autistic to me, as it resonates hard with me and what i've done in the past. i used to leave messages in google translate for my parents to apologize. idk but its worth looking at

"i'm bossy, get used to it" shows that not only is she fairly controlling, but she's also aware of this fact. i couldn't find much research on this, but many autistic people are bossy or controlling so they know what to expect and so that things go exactly to plan.

kristy's lack of tact and sense with the phone. just. that.

claudia remarks that she's starting to remember why she stopped hanging out with kristy so much—because she's controlling and "bossy". this is partially due to feeling like everything that happened with her dad was out of her control and so it intensified the shittier he became, combined with that, autistic people can tend to come off as too much. also, rejection sensitive dysphoria—stares off into the distance and doesn't talk.

autistic people tend to be very trusting of others, taking lots of what they say at face value, and struggling to comprehend why someone would lie to them. despite only knowing stacey for a short amount of time and not even completely liking her, she's devastated when it turns out stacey was lying to them.

"this whole situation has spiralled out of my control, and that's a feeling i really, really hate." same points that have been made above—absolute control over what happens when they're involved is a big thing for autistics so they know completely what's going on. add on her trauma about her absent father, and it makes sense why she acts the way she does.

more about the trust!! she trusts stacey to not only know about her hyperfixation but also to be directly involved in it—that's a really big deal for us autistics!! it means we Trust you!!

more hammering in about kristy's control issues. i'm glad i've only seen One (1) fic demonizing her for it but at the same time that's one too many

kristy being just. so blunt. i love her. "you're controlling my THOUGHTS now?" "yes." a lot of autistic people don't see any reason to not be honest most of the time.

is just. dead serious about the "i should resign before i'm impeached".

more bluntness!! "when mary anne gets scared at something you think is silly, do you make fun of her and call her a baby?" "yeah, sometimes." "oh. but you're still her best friend, right?" "yes." but also, bluntness isn't always a bad thing. kristy just casually throws in the "i love you" because she thinks it at that moment and means it, so she sees no reason not to say it because it's true.

more finding it easier to say stuff like "thank you" over text than in person, just like the "i'm sorry" earlier

additional notes:

mary anne is autistic too!! we see her stimming, though, stroking the end of her braid during her convo abt the club with stacey, kristy and claudia. also her just letting kristy speak a lot feels autistic but idk how to explain it. also, she's good with visual organization, such as keeping things orderly in a google docs and writing minutes. i feel like she'd rather her do it than anyone else, that way she can help the club and make it easier for her to concentrate on the club itself. also, stacey and even claudia, her childhood best friend, both remark that she doesn't speak a lot. she definitely isn't nonverbal, but she absolutely lets people talk over hers and seems to find it more comfortable to not speak, at least early on. i could only find stuff for nonspeaking and nonverbal autistics, but i've had several periods where it wasn't uncomfortable to speak, but i was much more comfortable not speaking, which i think might be the case for mary anne, though it could be a mark of her simply not knowing what to add.

claudia CLEARLY has adhd!! she doodles and fidgets a lot, and many adhders turn out to be artists due to their creativity and excess energy that they expel via doodling. she draws on her shoes, and the teacher remarks that she "wouldn't want another failed quiz on your average", indicating her struggle with school, which we see even more of in the coming episodes, and people with adhd tend to have poor academic perfomance, mainly for their struggle with executive dysfunction skills.

claudia also spells "prety grate" instead of "pretty great" in her email to kristy. judging by this and later scenes in the series, it's possible she has dyslexia and/or dyscalculia, which has been reported to more or less have a 25% comorbidity with adhd

janine is also pretty obviously autistic-coded; her room is very dimly lit, she hardly ever leaves it, has flat affect, doesn't pick up much on claudia's social cues, has a special interest in computer and tech and whatnot, has a very extensive vocabulary, and butts in on conversations with her advice without asking before leaving after they get what she's saying

and that's it for episode 1 !!!! tell me what you think, and i'll see you all with part 2 very soon :)

#autistic kristy comp #<- new tagggg #kristy thomas #the babysitter's club #the babysitters club #long post

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solarsleepless · 3 days

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hello all

welcome back the kristy thomas autism analysis, where i'm rewatching the show and writing down her autistic traits as i see em (as well as noting any neurodiverse traits in the other girls). here's part 1 and part 2 if you haven't seen em.

without further ado, let's get into this

Episode 3

more of kristy hyperfixating on business and the club in general, reading the frickin art of war simply to find a way to beat the competition

not picking up that she should absolutely wait until her client's given birth before calling/texting her. lack of social tact

throughout the show, she doesn't really care what others think of her, with the exception of her friends, and even then she doesn't change herself much for them with the exception of if it's hurting themm. kristy shows zero embarassment parading around town in cardboard sandwiches

the most confrontational to the baby-sitter's agency of all the girls: strong sense of justice and not afraid to correct anyone if she thinks they're in the wrong, even if they're much older

more odd sitting, which as mentioned in part 2 is prevalent in autistics due to our need for proprioceptive input

not understanding that her joke of "or your blood pressure's dropping?" could be taken the wrong way

additional notes:

mary anne's "and actress halle berry." we often consume random trivia about our hyperfixations in the craving to basically wring out every bit of dopamine it gives us, which can include tidbits about actors. also, not realizing that it's odd to say in this situation, and justifying it with "what? she does!"

"we have to do the most responsible thing of all." "vacuum." this one is pure vibes. it Feels autistic. if i had to give a reason i'd say she thinks of it as a sign of responsibility due to the loud noise autistics will usually be more sensitive to and the fact that it's cleaning, which is generally a responsible thing to do, so it's doubly responsible because it means you did it even though you're sensitive to the noise?

not very much, so i'll do a special 3+4 mix just to make this one a bit longer :D

Episode 4

kristy doesn't tell mary anne conventionally that she's upset with her. instead of speaking to her like stacey and claudia do to express their upset with mary anne, she tells her that she's really upset with her by spending time sitting at tables apart from her. mary anne even thinks "if she's sitting with them, she must be mad." all this is to say that kristy is not very verbal when it comes to genuine upset with mary anne, and mary anne has learnt to recognize it

even though she is upset with mary anne, kristy still watches her when she talks to dawn because mary anne's her closest friend and the only one who truly understands who kristy is, both because of how close they grew up and because she is also autistic, and kristy doesn't want to lose that because it's hard for people to understand you when you're autistic.

not to keep bringing up the clothes but in comparison to the other three kristy wears much softer and more comfortable clothing, which again, can be a result of sensory issues that make wearing anything else from uncomfortable to downright painful

additional notes:

this is a mary anne centric episode, so we get a TON more of her autistic traits in general. this episode really resonated w me the first time i watched because damn i'm so much like her FHRHJFJ. anyways: she exhibits social anxiety, which happens to co-occur a lot with autism. "talking to people i know makes me feel like my stomach is falling out of my nose. so does talking to people i do knows sometimes. i think i'm just bad at talking." autistics tend to struggle with the unwritten social rules of society, and not knowing them can make conversations extremely stressful, especially if you're already not that self-confident. even with people you know, it can feel like you're "performing" for them, and that if you make one wrong step they'll make fun of you, and worst of all, all of it feels like your fault for not being competent enough—this is what i think happens with mary anne.

autistics (& adhders) tend to wayyy overapologize, even when others tell them not to, because we often feel like everything we've done is wrong and we apologize a lot to almost make up for that. it's nearly worse when you've actually done something wrong, because it doesn't feel like you can make up for what you did due to rejection sensitive dysphoria making you feel like a horrible person but also it can take away the weight because you say it so much.

mary anne cries twice in the episode without wanting to—not because she's ashamed of crying, but just because she knows internally that there's no reason to be crying. even when she's just talking more passionately she just cries, and she doesn't know how to stop it because she doesn't even feel like crying, it's just Happening. i couldn't find any research on this because it tends to just focus on how to parent uncontrollably sobbing autistic kids, but it's happened with me more times than i can count, where i'm not even feeling emotional but i'll just cry when speaking, seemingly for no reason. idk if that's part of the autism or just me but i'm including it anyways

also, running away from stressful situations is an autism thing, especially if you're embarrassed and overwhelmed

her dad is so autistic. he writes down when he has leisure time. come on yall. nobody allistic does that. also, infodumping about things he likes: in this case, a jerusalem artichoke: his niche seems to be more related to foods!!

"sorry, i have to work with sounding less obssessed." despite just being excited to make a new friend, she feels like she has to apologize for that. many autistics tone is misread for a myriad of reasons, which makes them feel the need to apologize for it because they've been taught it's wrong.

#autistic kristy comp #kristy thomas #mary anne spier

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