Female Autism

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If it's not clear that one has a special interest, then one doesn't have one.
Some autistic people don't have special interests.

I pursue one special interest intensely, which makes it special interest, not multiple interests at average or above average level. The idea of multiple special interests makes no sense. Any other interest that I pursue for an afternoon a month is a dabble, e.g. my plane-spotting at lax dabble.

I tried posting a response earlier but it did not seem to have gone up.

You can have multiple special interests. Most of the autistic kids, even the lone girl, that I work with have more than one special interest.

Replying to an earlier statement about not having special interests... some special interests may not be perceived by the person having them as such. I have a special interest in children's literature that I do not see as a special interest because I am a librarian. But when I was a database administrator, my love of picture books was considered odd. My family feels that it is the job masking my interests. Also, just because we feel that traits are being masked does not mean that they are. I am perceived as very odd, even though I have fixed my gait, my clothes and my speech to no longer being awfully monotone. But I do not have many friends and have not really dated anyone even at the age of thirty. I have a lot of difficulty with visual memory and executive functioning. Does this mean I am no longer an Aspie if I wear the right clothes and no longer have a monotone and keep my job?

Firsthand, I know someone with a very deep interest in My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop.

Multiple interests sharing brain and time lowers intensity of each.
One interest means truly intense.
I have multiple things that I am interested in, but only one is pursued as special interest.
It feels completely unlike the others.
If someone asks me at any time of my life what is my special interest, there would be no hesitation to answer the one and only, if I could answer.
If someone asked my parents, no hesitation either to answer the only one.

I mean multiple interests pursued by switching between them, like today this, tomorrow that, day after tomorrow a third, next day that, etc. I don't mean having multiple special interests with each one pursued intensely as singular interest over long period of time in months or years.

If one pursues one interest intensely over a period like several weeks, then I would consider that special interest, as some people seem to switch special interests quickly, or have such narrow ones that they run out of information on it quickly, get bored, and move on to something else.

If you define special interest as being a single block standing alone or wise it's not special interest, then sure, but it's fundamentally the same obsessive cognitive style that makes one juggle a few with periodically waxing and waning interest or a single one into it's exhausted and another takes it's place.

My special interests have always forced my focus on the one and only and leave no eggs for other interests over long periods of time, generally years for me. Two interests divided equally over same period seems low intensity in both.

One interest at a time in cycles of multiple makes sense to me. I don't lose interest in a special interest after I stop pursuing it as my current special interest. Instead, I still love it, but I just have no time to engage in it due to pursuing new special interest, but there is no reason I couldn't come back to an earlier one later.

Even interest is a big area like physics or psychology is considered narrow if pursued intensely as singular special interest, so there is no need to divide one interest into sub-interests. Many of the topics in the big area are highly interrelated.