I’m drawing all of my autistic characters for autism awareness month, and we’ve made it to miss ceydyne!

Ceydyne (pronounced say-dean) has level one autism, low support needs, and is high masking, meaning she hides, or attempts to hide, a lot of her autistic traits. This is due to her family raising her that way. It has unfortunately caused her alot of trauma.

She works at a boutique, which is great for her, since she enjoys fashion. She often works with stocking items, and rarely gets the front desk. Due to her trying to hide any autistic tendencies she has, she overcompensates and shows little to no emotion whatsoever, often having her perceived as unfriendly and rude. She doesn’t particularly mind not working the desk though, as people stress her out. Shes really quite nice and kind, but has a hard time showing it.

The expectations of her family, especially her mother, has caused ceydyne to crumble apart inside, she’s barely holding it together. Thankfully, throughout her story, she learns to let go of what is expected of her, and becomes more open and free with herself.

She enjoys insects, fashion, war history (she used to line up her dolls and “execute” the ones who didn’t fall into line, she used to play war as a child), and anything soft.

I hope she’s a good representation of autism in women, which isn’t nearly as represented or talked about as it is with men, and I hope she shows that even if your circumstances are dire and hard, things can get better :)