Unmasked: Deena’s Autism Diagnosis at 35

After Bedtime with Big Little Feelings

Dear Media and Big Little Feelings

Big Little Feelings, After Bedtime, Deena Margolin, After Bedtime With Big Little Feelings, Kids & Family, Parenting, 105161, Kristin Gallant

4.7 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For 35 years, she was labeled sensitive, dramatic, weird, too much. But she wasn’t any of those things—she was autistic. And no one saw it.

In this raw and powerful episode, we pull back the curtain on how autism is profoundly underdiagnosed in women—and why. We explore how masking, misdiagnosis, and outdated diagnostic tools have led to generations of girls being missed, misunderstood, and misnamed. You’ll hear Deena’s story—what everyone got wrong, what finally clicked, and what it’s like to be diagnosed late in life.

This episode isn’t just for people who know they’re autistic. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt like an alien in the world. For the girls who were called difficult. For the women who never felt like they fit. For the parents wondering about their child. For the friend who’s finally starting to see the patterns.

This one will shift how you see autism—and how you see yourself.

Produced by Dear Media

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a dear media production.
0:03.8	We are so glad you're here today because this is going to be a really vulnerable, honest conversation about something that's happened in my life recently, being diagnosed with autism at age 35 and going through life, not knowing beforehand and feeling so damaged, so flawed.
0:25.2	I'm so excited to open up and share what I have struggled with, honestly, my whole life,
0:31.4	and what I've been learning about myself in ways that I'm growing.
0:36.7	Welcome to after bedtime, where the house is finally quiet, but the real noise begins.
0:43.1	The thoughts, the questions, the wondering if you're doing any of this right.
0:47.2	We're Kristen and Dina, child behavior experts, moms, and co-founders of big little feelings.
0:53.1	And we're not here to give you more pressure or perfect parenting energy.
0:56.7	Nope. We're here to tell the truth, the unfiltered, beautiful, brutal truth about what it means to raise kids and re-raise ourselves in the process.
1:06.1	Because parenting isn't just about sleep schedules and snack hacks. It's about healing. It's about breaking
1:11.4	cycles. It's about becoming the kind of adult you want your kids to grow up to be. This is the
1:16.8	place where we say the quiet parts out loud and we're so glad that you're here. We're live.
1:22.7	We're live right now. Oh, we're back? We're back. We're back. We're back. We're back.
1:27.8	What a bestie! If you can't hear it, VP Hype Squad was invited as like a recurring character to season two of the podcast. It's borderline host, but like we don't want to go there yet, right, Dina?
1:44.9	It's just like you can't take backsees.
1:47.0	No taking backseat.
1:47.9	You're going to work a little harder for that one.
1:50.4	Once I get there, it's just there's no demotion.
1:52.5	You just get fired from that point.
1:54.2	Yeah.
1:55.0	The people really, really love you.
1:57.6	Is that what we're going to talk about on this podcast?
	...

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