Why Lisa Simpson is probably autistic, says top-selling author

Millions of television viewers know her as the quirky eight-year-old who is passionate about the environment and jazz music.

But Lisa Simpson may actually be an undiagnosed autistic girl, according to a British author whose bestselling Geek Girl books are set to be adapted for a Netflix series.

Holly Smale, who was herself diagnosed as autistic two years ago, only realised after publishing her books about a clumsy, unpopular and socially awkward teenager that she had been writing about someone who had the condition.

And she believes books, television and films are full of undiagnosed characters whose autistic traits have gone unrecognised for decades.

The 41-year-old said: ‘Lisa Simpson is a very clever girl with a rigid sense of right and wrong, social difficulties, no friends, and an extreme hyperfocus on her interests and hobbies.

‘The lead character of the French film Amelie could be autistic, from the sensory way in which she experiences the world to her focus on collecting photos of a gnome in different locations around the world.

‘Even Daryl Hannah’s mermaid character in Splash, in her isolation and the way she feels apart and different from everyone else, is very much like an autistic woman.’

She also cited the example of the eponymous heroine of L.M. Montgomery’s 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables, saying [she] ‘has a strong sense of justice, which is a highly autistic trait, and she is hyperlexic which means she is precocious and speaks in a very adult way at a young age.’

Ms Smale added: ‘It’s great that these women, or other characters like Amy from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, exist in fiction and on television, so we can see ourselves reflected. But we need more characters to be openly autistic and not just “coded” as being autistic.’

Other fictional figures who are thought to be autistic include Sherlock Holmes, Boo Radley – the reclusive protagonist of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird – and Tom Hanks’s character Forrest Gump.

Holly Smale (pictured) said:  ‘Lisa Simpson is a very clever girl with a rigid sense of right and wrong, social difficulties, no friends, and an extreme hyperfocus on her interests and hobbies’

Lili Reinhart played Beth Harmon in the hit Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit

The suggestion has also been made of Maurice Moss, Richard Ayoade’s character in the sitcom The IT Crowd, the orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon played by Anya Taylor-Joy in the Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, and Lisbeth Salander, the computer hacker from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Ms Smale has been particularly keen to identify female characters who may be autistic because women are often better at ‘masking’ these traits and are consequently less likely to be diagnosed.

She has described her own attempts at ‘masking’ – including making ‘painful’ eye contact and trying to seem less ‘aloof’ – as being like ‘acting’.

The author, whose adult novel The Cassandra Complex comes out next month, said: ‘The more openly autistic female characters we see and read about, the less alone autistic girls and women will feel.’