Can autism become more noticeable?

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So, I'm about 90% sure I have autism, but I've managed to hide it somewhat at school to prevent further bullying (although everyone still thinks I'm "different").
Recently, as I have moved on to high school, the pressure put on us has become much greater, and I'm becoming less able to hide it. I now have meltdowns in class about once a week because I can't handle the stress, and I find it totally humiliating. People are treating me like I am a little kid.
A teacher also sent an email home to my mom, saying that "he became unable to speak to me today" (due to extreme anxiety), and "his behavior is very different from his peers in some aspects, especially in the area of communication".
Before this, kids just thought I was weird, and adults thought I was shy and immature.

Does stress make autism stand out more?

From the reading I've done and my own experience as a teenager on the spectrum (many years ago) I think this is quite common.

During the teenage years social communication and abstract thinking becomes much stronger in most people so people on the spectrum can really notice their difficulties more. I certainly found that at secondary school (UK version of high school). Suddenly the difference between me and my peers became much bigger and more obvious which I found difficult and embarrassing.

I can even remember getting a detention for being unable to sing in a music class. I was and am a fairly strong musician and played solo trumpet in two bands and an orchestra so my music teacher thought I would have no trouble sight singing in front of everyone but I couldn't even make a sound. She shouted and went red in the face and then after ages of her playing this same note on the piano and me staring at my feet she threw her car keys on her desk and stormed out of the room. She told me I was being defiant in the detention but I was physically incapable of singing like that - not that I was able to tell her that.

Thanks for the quick reply

Yeah I think so. If you usually don't show your traits that much you might do when your stresses. It's like that for me

Yes, I would agree too. Even at my age, I still find that my traits are less well controlled when I'm stressed or anxious.

I have read about this and had some experience with it myself. Autistic traits tend to be more obvious in prolonged stressful enviroments.

I think also that the high school social environment is more complex than grade school or middle school, so our limited social skills are more taxed. I think eccentricity is more tolerated in children than teens, and friendships are based on more abstract qualities like similar personalities and beliefs, instead of being based entirely on shared interests like hobbies or sports. I found it helpful to seek out other kids with similar interests and temperaments (in my case, fellow geeks and artsy types). It was good practice for socializing and also helpful to band together for protection.

Actually- Yes! autism does become more noticeable as a person ages.

my autism was only noticeable at the age of 13, because it was apparent i wasn't developing at the same rate as my peers. I was still playing with toys when no one else was, i wasn't grooming myself or really acting like anyone else at school, i was rude, wasn't behaving in class, wasn't improving in math skills or english skills. and by the time Highschool came around, i may as well have held up a sign saying "i am autistic"

As a kid all those things seemed normal, but when you get to a certain age it becomes a problem

My autism before that could only be seen by a trained eye but most people just called me 'eccentric' 'sensitive' 'loud' 'lazy' or 'disinterested'

I didn't become noticeably weird to most people until maybe third or fourth grade. It got more obvious as I got older and peer social interactions became more complex. And I am also less able to appear normal whenever I am stressed out. Stress can make it more difficult for most people to tolerate things that bother them.

My trajectory was like this:

Age 3-5: inability to socialize = "shy"
Age 5-9: good at following structured rules = "polite"
Age 10-18: lack of teenage social skills = "nerdy"
Age 19-22: no socializing in college = "loner"
Age 23-25: young adult failing at simple office jobs = "flakey"
Age 26-39: married, unemployed, no social life = "invisible"
Age 40: divorced, unable to support myself = can't be ignored any longer

I don't think mine became more noticeable until I hit puberty and my hormones changed and my anxiety got worse so it made my traits show more and social skills change so mine were more apparent so I went for younger age groups. I was always sociable and didn't want to be alone. When I was little my social issues were blamed on my language delay so that might have masked the symptoms and also because I was in a self contained room where I mimicked negative behaviors and then I was put in mainstream and that environment was blamed on my issues with figuring out right and wrong and what the rules are and not knowing how to act in an environment. I would get upset if anyone touched my dollhouse or went in my room and took stuff or moved things, that was nothing to them. I always played my my hair or lips or ears, I was doing a habit. I smelled things, my mom could never figure that one out or understand why I had to do it, I played with paper clips, I guess no one noticed. I dominated conversations and wouldn't let anyone else talk until I was done and I didn't stay on topic and only talked about what I wanted to talk about, that was blamed on my language delay so I didn't know the rules of staying on topic or doing turn taking. Yes I had symptoms all along but they were not noticeable. Also I had always been younger than my peers and how often would I hear "How old are you?" and I would answer and then my mom would say "So start acting like it." I also did BS things because I was always doing mischievous things and then be told to stop that so I would do something else always and I came off as not listening and I also did stuff to people and it was always called teasing because I thought it was funny to get reactions from people and I didn't really know how they really felt or how I was making them feel. I only knew then people had different reactions and I thought everyone was crazy if they didn't like toys or Polly Pockets or books or anything I liked. I would also think they were joking because I didn't know they had their own ideas and dislikes. But I came off as a little brat and someone who didn't know when to stop. After all it was all in my head literally so how were they supposed to know? I also came off as being bossy and looking back I would get upset and start yelling at everyone and I realize that might have been anxiety I was having but we didn't know it then. I had to be in control always and then I didn't understand why I would be in trouble so I thought I was in trouble for being upset. Plus when I developed more language, I was able to say more and ask more questions like "How does a 6th grader act?" and telling my mother in the car "no you said stop that teasing, not stop all teasing." And I didn't seem to start my obsessions until I was eight because my first one I remember was Home Alone but my mom told me in 6th grade I was obsessed with my Barbie dolls when I was little and I got my first Barbie when I turned 5. I also don't think my learning style was noticed until 6th grade when school work got more abstract and how I processed things. I even needed an aide by 6th grade but I probably needed one before then.

In 7th grade (use to be the end of primary/elementary school here, now it's the first year of high school) I did great and had two best friends along with a variety of other rewarding friendships.

8th grade I fell hard and had to adjust to a new environment, as even the fellow special ed students were different than what I was use to.

Everyone seemed to instantly change in behavior and attitude in the 8th grade.

Yeah, I did start at a new high school in a new town, but halfway through 8th grade I transferre schools and yet again, for the second time in a row, made a bad impression on my fellow classmates and noticed the exact same patterns and trends in two different classes in two different schools.

Worst of all, my stress was high as the 8th grade class I was with for most classes was actually the most under-achieving and poorly behaved of them all - 8D.

I constantly asked the special ed manager to transfer me the heck out of it, but they took their sweet-a55 time. No matter how much I told them of the terrible bullying, nothing changed and they were mostly useless.

All they ever did that helped was, when Igot into a fight with a bully, he was suspended while I got off scot-fre - except the other people in 8D, obviously not understanding the situation, thought I should have been the one, and I was the source of gossip over it.

In the 9th grade, I was finally transferred out of 9D and instead was now in 9C, except, believe it or not, the special ed manager left it to the VERY last day of summer holidays to sort that out, the day just before the first day of school, so when it came time to tell every student what class they were in, the paper hadn't been updated and I was told I was in 9D, but quickly sorted it out.

So, yeah, good fricken luck OP, because it's perfectly natural for Apserger's to become more visible in high school, because teenagers are terrible and will stress you out enough to bring it all back again.

High school is hard enough for NT kids. It's no wonder I dropped out.