Tallulah Willis wasn’t diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) until age 29, and it’s no surprise that the diagnosis changed a lot of things for the artist and entrepreneur.
For one thing, it gave Willis “a level of validation,” she told People in a new interview. “Kind of a sense of these things are not just in my head or more than anything… [that] I’m not too much.” Willis feels she can be fully herself, she explained. “That there’s not a feeling of, ‘Oh, I need to be less.’ Because there’s a sensation of, ‘I’m safe being who I am. I just require a different set of tools to navigate.'”
Willis, the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, was diagnosed last year and shared the news with fans in an Instagram post in March 2024. “tell me [you’re] autistic without telling me [you’re] autistic,” she captioned a sweet father-daughter throwback video, before explaining in the comments that her recent diagnosis “changed my life.”
She now feels she can “take a lot of responsibility for my needs, versus feeling like I’m putting it on other people or expecting other people to just read my mind, which I think we all can get caught up in a little bit,” Willis explained. “What’s come with the diagnosis is an invitation to explore a lot more vocabulary around this without judgment.”
Willis has been sharing more about her experience with ASD in the months since opening up about her diagnosis, and was even named the host of Autism Speaks’ gala in October, in recognition of her work to raise awareness. “I’m still exploring how [ASD] affects my life and how I see it present in my day-to-day,” she told People earlier this year. Before being diagnosed, she shared that she experienced symptoms like “extreme sensitivity” with all five senses, which she realized “was not as common for everyone else.”
Now, Willis says she feels a “responsibility and… desire to continue to create awareness and advocacy,” particularly for other women who get “late-in-life diagnoses,” she said. It’s a growing group, as a 2022 study found that 80 percent of women with autism remain undiagnosed by age 18.
Willis says she sees her ASD as a “superpower” and emphasized her gratitude “for mental health providers and practitioners and therapists… [who are] trying to help other people in this way,” she adds. “Without judgment and with just love.”
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