Sara Mendez, 23, started to think she might be autistic after one-too-many jokes from her then-boyfriend who attributed her insect collection and love for mole crickets to autism. At first, she brushed off his comments, but a year later, those quips were why she went on a deep dive into the topic. “I was like, ‘Wow, it actually kind of fits,’” Mendez, who often talks about her experience with autism on TikTok, tells Refinery29 Somos. But even with the language to explain her suspicions, she had a long, difficult journey to get her autism diagnosis.