New family with a boy my age moved in next door

Once I told someone "yeah I'm a little artistic" and someone across the room goes "holy shit Tara you're autistic?" A little bit of me died

The first time I met somebody with autism I really didn't understand it. It didn't help that their parents didn't explain it well at all. "They're like.. different.. they like collecting cars and stuff".
This, coupled with the fact that autistic starts with "aut" sound as in auto as in automobile, made me think autistic people were people who were interested in mechanics and engineering.