Tallulah Willis Shares Her Subtle, Pre-Diagnosis Autism Symptoms That Weren't 'Common For Everyone Else'
Tallulah Willis went public with her autism diagnosis in March 2024, dropping it in a sweet Instagram post featuring a dad-and-daughter throwback video. But the artist, entrepreneur, and daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis wasn’t just sitting on the diagnosis for years; turns out, she only found out she had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2023, and is still very much discovering what the diagnosis means to her.
“As I was diagnosed later in life with autism, I’m still exploring how it affects my life and how I see it present in my day-to-day,” Willis told People recently, having been diagnosed at age 29. But after realizing she has ASD, certain aspects of her life began to make sense. “Prior to my diagnosis,” Willis explained, “I noticed that my extreme sensitivity with my five senses — I’ve had a heightened sense of taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing since I was a child — was not as common for everyone else.”
Per Mayo Clinic, a person with autism may be “unusually sensitive to light, sound or touch,” but ASD has many different symptoms and can present differently in everyone. Symptoms can range from communication and interaction differences, like poor eye contact and delayed speech, to particular patterns of behavior, such as repetitive movements and issues with coordination.
When first sharing her diagnosis, Willis also gave a glimpse into how ASD affected her behavior, posting an old clip of herself as a child on a red carpet, repeatedly running her hand over her dad’s bald head. “tell me your autistic without telling me [you’re] autistic,” she captioned the video. In the comments, she noted that this marked her first time publicly sharing the diagnosis that she got “this summer,” and which “changed my life.”
Further down in the comments section, Willis’s sister, Scout, said, “She’s stimming,” with Tallulah replying, “dude the earl curl. I wish we had stronger audio.”
While Willis hadn’t talked publicly about her diagnosis since then, the nonprofit organization Autism Speaks announced on July 24 that the actress will host its gala in October this year. She’ll also be honored for using her platform to raise awareness about autism, something Willis is now passionate about, especially when it comes to helping other adults and women like her get diagnosed — a group currently in need of advocacy and awareness. A small 2024 study found that one in three autistic women are misdiagnosed with a psychiatric condition prior to their autism diagnosis, while research from 2022 notes that 80 percent of women with autism remain undiagnosed by age 18.
For Willis, it sounds like the next step is moving more fully into her role as an advocate. “My goal is to help raise as much awareness and understanding around ASD as I possibly can,” she said, “specifically in supporting women who are more commonly misdiagnosed.”
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