The Lost Girls of Autism: How Science Failed Autistic Women - and the New Research that's Changing the Story

Including a preface read by the author, Gina Rippon.

'A compelling exploration. Rippon is easily the most engaging communicator of neuroscience research working today. A truly fascinating must-read' – Elinor Cleghorn, bestselling author of Unwell Women

'Powerful and well-researched. The Lost Girls of Autism shines a much-needed spotlight on a critical issue' – Dr Maureen Dunne, author of The Neurodiversity Edge

The history of autism is male. It is time for women and girls to enter the spotlight.

When autistic girls meet clinicians, they are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, personality disorders – or receive no diagnosis at all. Autism’s ‘male spotlight’ means we are only now starting to redress this profound injustice.

In The Lost Girls of Autism, renowned brain scientist Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored for so long. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, simply didn’t bother looking for it in women. But it is now becoming increasingly clear that many autistic women and girls do not fit the traditional, male, model of autism. Instead, they camouflage and mask, hiding their autistic traits to accommodate a society that shuns them.

Urgent and insightful, this is a searching examination of how sexism has biased our understanding of autism. Informed by the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, The Lost Girls of Autism is a clarion call for society to recognize the full spectrum of autistic experience.

© 2025 Macmillan (Audiobook): 9781035011667

Release date

Audiobook: 3 April 2025