Tallulah Willis is revealing how her autism diagnosis changed her life.
The actress was honored at the 2024 Autism Speaks Gala on Oct. 24 and exclusively talked to Access Hollywood about getting diagnosed with Autism in 2023 at age 29 and how it helped her better understand herself.
“To have like a real person that I trusted [and that] the person I trusted [also] trusted say, this is there you are highly skilled, and you are communicative and things like that, but you are on the spectrum, it gave me permission to be gentle on myself,” she said before admitting that looking back she can see the signs that she was autistic.
“All of these things I thought made me dramatic or demanding or high maintenance. My diagnosis has changed by life because it’s allowed me to have such self-love, and self-forgiveness and tenderness,” she said.
The 30-year-old also talked about how beneficial it’s been to have the tools to properly help her.
“Having vocabulary and context for what you’re experiencing when the alternative is to feel so isolated and uncomfortable and alone, I think is really special,” she said.
While chatting with Access, Tallulah also admitted that getting her diagnosis helped her accept who she is.
“When I got my diagnosis, I would say what changed is that I didn’t feel wrong, I didn’t feel broken anymore. I didn’t feel like the things I struggled with are challenges,” she told Access. “I had a lot of negative self-talk, and I had a lot of perceptions about myself and when I realized, I wasn’t lazy, it was just burn out. It was a vocabulary and tool kit for something I had struggled with, completely exposed my whole life.”
However, Tallulah explained to Access that she also experienced “grief” over not getting diagnosed earlier in her life.
“Particularly because I’ve been even as an early adult in situations where somebody probably should have noticed, so there were mixed emotions there,” she said. “And really, it made me appreciate the side of myself that I know is very different and I just thought that was wrong and now I just bring it and accept it as much as I can.”
Throughout this journey, Tallulah has had her family, including parents Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, by her side, encouraging her to speak out about her experience.
“They taught me to use this platform and this visibility for something bigger than myself,” she told Access. “And that’s what been really important and the real motivator through this experience is to just continue bring deeper and broader and brighter awareness to something that’s really special,” she added.