The Neurodiversity Movement Has A Moment This Year

Gaining ground in 2023, the movement is making its mark on social media as well as science.

By Shayla Love
Dec 7, 2023 9:20 PMDec 7, 2023 10:13 PM
Illustration of a brain
(Credit: Eugene Mymrin/Moment via Getty images)

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By the middle of August 2023, one of Joey Lawrence’s videos on TikTok had over 3 million views — and it wasn’t a viral dance or recipe. Lawrence, a psychologist who also happens to be autistic, had posted the video about a month prior to talk about a new autism assessment on monotropism, when a person’s attention is dedicated to a narrow range of interests.

The views on Lawrence’s video aren’t entirely surprising: TikTok has exploded with content on neurodiversity since the app’s surge in popularity during the pandemic. Now there are over 11 billion views on TikTok’s hashtag #neurodivergent, and Google searches for the term have increased steadily over the past year.

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