a question i’d include in autism assessments
“What fictional character(s) do you find most relatable?”
It’s a solid question. How a person engages with media and what characters they see themselves in can tell you a lot about who they are. For example, if someone identifies with the Doctor or Twilight Sparkle, it could lead to some great follow-up discussion about feeling like an alien or not making many friends until adulthood (one reason I loved MLP in my early 20s is that I too was discovering the “magic of friendship”). Like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, a person might love collecting specific things, or maybe they've felt out of place or been pressured to "give up their voice". This question presents a perfect opportunity for autistic people to infodump about their interests. And it could help them open up to the clinician, since talking about favorite books or shows is more fun than, say, being asked how you annoy people. (Honestly, it's more respectful than half the questions the ADOS-2 asks adults.) It’s also way more nuanced than the AQ’s outdated and stereotyped questions about whether we’re capable of appreciating fiction at all. Spend time in any fandom space and that assumption quickly falls apart.
Obviously, no single question can determine whether someone is autistic. But including this question in assessments for teens or adults could certainly help.
As for one character I see parts of myself in, here's a hint: she's all rainbows and trousers that don't reach.