A good autistic life: an autistic-led conceptualization of autistic flourishing through autistic women’s-lived experiences

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. eight authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

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Hedlund, Å., Wester, M. E., Edenvik, P., Ingard, C., Isakson, K., Sabel, L. K., Unéus, D., Lindström, T., Black, M. H., & Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H. (2025). A good autistic life: an autistic-led conceptualization of autistic flourishing through autistic women’s-lived experiences. Frontiers in Sociology, 10, 1611803-1611803. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1611803

Publication date: 24 Sep 2025 Added to AutiHub: 4 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
10
Publication authors identified as autistic
8 / 10 (80.0%)
  1. Åsa Hedlund *
  2. Maria Eriksson Wester *
  3. Pia Edenvik *
  4. Cecilia Ingard *
  5. Kajsa Isakson *
  1. Lisa Kron Sabel *
  2. Danielle Unéus *
  3. Therese Lindström
  4. Melissa H. Black
  5. Hannah Bertilsdotter Rosqvist *

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Interest in developing an understanding of "autistic flourishing" is steadily increasing in research and autistic communities. Flourishing is a multidimensional construct explained somewhat by positive emotion, but mostly by good psychological and social functioning. Autistic people process information and stimuli differently from neurotypical people, so it may be reasonable to assume that their definition of flourishing and the factors that influence it may differ from those of neurotypical people. Exploring flourishing from autistic women's perspectives is essential, as they have been historically overlooked in autism research, despite differing from autistic men in presentation and facing higher mental health risks. Methods: This autistic-led, partly collective, autoethnographic study was conducted within the context of a broader project exploring the concept of autistic flourishing. Here, we employ a two-phased phenomenological approach, drawing on both autistic and neurotypical frames of analyses. In the first phase, autistic women draw on their lived experiences in a collective autoethnography, including both focus groups and collective writing, to shape the concept of flourishing and its indicators. These insights were further developed by neurotypical authors, who compare to neurotypical experiences and conceptualizations of flourishing. Results: Two themes and twelve subthemes were identified. The first theme, "Living with a neurodivergent bodymind," presents how autistic women define and experience flourishing. The second theme, "Strategies for autistic flourishing," highlights actions autistic women take to achieve or maintain flourishing. Discussion and conclusion: Through our autistic-led approach drawing on neurodiverse frames of analysis, our work presents a first initial investigation of autistic flourishing among women. Our findings suggest qualitative differences in autistic derived definitions of flourishing and its indicators compared to those of neurotypicals, emphasizing the importance of developing an autistic-driven understanding of flourishing.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
43
With a DOI
39
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
14 / 43 (32.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 43 (4.7%)
References with detected author names
42 / 43 (97.7%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
159
From DOI or external metadata
159
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
93 / 159 (58.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 66 / 159 (41.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
36 / 159 (22.6%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 36 / 93 (38.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 28 / 149 (18.8%).
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