Actress Tallulah Willis (Bruce’s daughter) comes out

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ASPartOfMe
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19 Mar 2024, 9:47 am

Tallulah Willis reveals she was diagnosed with autism as an adult: 'It's changed my life'

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Tallulah Willis is opening up about her autism diagnosis for the first time.

The 30-year-old daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis recently shared a throwback video on Instagram of her as a young child alongside her father at a red carpet event. The young Tallulah could be seen playing with her father's ear as he speaks to reporters.

"Tell me your [sic] autistic without telling me your autistic," Tallulah captioned the post.

In the comments section Tallulah responded to a question about her journey, sharing that she was diagnosed late in life. "Actually this is the first time I’ve ever publicly shared my diagnosis," she wrote. "Found out this summer and it’s changed my life."

Tallulah has been candid about her health in recent years, including her struggles with an eating disorder and borderline personality disorder and ADHD diagnosis. In an essay for Vogue published in 2023, the youngest daughter of Moore and Willis said her own struggles affected how she coped with her father's health after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

I admit that I have met Bruce’s decline in recent years with a share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of. The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it," she wrote at the time, later adding, "And now that I’m feeling better I ask myself, How can I make him more comfortable? It wasn’t easy growing up in such a famous family, struggling as I did to find a patch of light through the long shadows my parents cast. But more and more often I feel like I’m standing in that light“.

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Tallulah Belle Willis is an American actress and visual artist, who is famous for being the youngest daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. She started her career as a child actor in her parents’ movies, but over the years, she has made a name for herself as a visual artist. Deliberately presenting portraits of creatures, with humanoid and exaggerated features has become her trademark. Her iconoclastic style is perhaps a representation of her lifelong struggle with body dysmorphia. Tallulah has also acted in a number of movies like ‘The Scarlett Letter’, ‘Bandits’ and ‘The Whole Ten Yards’.

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24 Jul 2024, 9:05 am

Tallulah Willis Is 'Still Exploring' Her Recent Autism Diagnosis, Will host Autism Speaks Los Angeles Gala

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On July 24, nonprofit organization Autism Speaks announced that the 30-year-old — who is the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis — will host its Los Angeles Gala this year.

At the event, which will be held October 24 at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood, Willis will be honored for using her platform to raise awareness about autism. Past honorees include Dave Grohl, J.K. Simmons, Sarah McLachlan, Alyssa Milano, Jeannie Mai, Kristin Chenoweth, Naomi Campbell and more.

“As I was diagnosed later in life with autism, I'm still exploring how it affects my life and how I see it present in my day-to-day,” Willis tells PEOPLE. “Prior to my diagnosis, I noticed that my extreme sensitivity with my five senses — I’ve had a heightened sense of taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing since I was a child — was not as common for everyone else.”

“My goal is to help raise as much awareness and understanding around ASD as I possibly can, specifically in supporting women who are more commonly misdiagnosed,” she says.

IsabellaLinton
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24 Jul 2024, 10:36 am

I remember when those kids were born - Rumour, Scout, and Tallulabelle.

Does that mean Dave Grohl is on the spectrum?
I know he's ADHD, but ...

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30 Jul 2024, 4:40 pm

I think it's good that more famous people are coming out these days. It brings lots of hope for autistic kids and their parents that they cam do anything that they put their minds to.

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30 Jul 2024, 4:45 pm

Comes out?

naturalplastic
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30 Jul 2024, 4:47 pm

cyberdad wrote:

Comes out?

"Coming out" as autistic. Like decades ago gays would "come out of the closet", later shortened to just "come out" as gay.

Which gives me an excuse to...spin a record...

https://youtu.be/3pmt-wWzC1E

Ostensibly the song is about the original meaning of "coming out" ...a teen debutante having a 'coming out party'( like a sweet 16 party). But the later meaning is between the lines so the song became a gay anthem.

Dont see why we autistics cant barrow it from the gays to be one of our own anthems.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 30 Jul 2024, 4:59 pm, edited 3 times in total.

MatchboxVagabond
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30 Jul 2024, 4:56 pm

cyberdad wrote:

Comes out?

TBH, it's kind of odd to use that term for autism. Being closeted as a gay person generally involves just hiding the areas that are viewed by society as gay-like. But, typically in an intentional way being aware that some things are associated with homosexuality and others aren't, even if the associations are dumb. Being closeted as a highly masked autistic person is more akin to carpet bombing you're entire personality because somebody gave you an odd look at sometime in the past and now you don't do that any longer, even though you have no idea why it was a problem.

So, I get why people use the term, I just think it's a really odd term and there's got to be something better. Also, most of the time, people know, most autistic people, even the highly masked ones, do give off a bunch of vibes that NTs pick up on like right away and since there isn't the same level of awareness, that's kind of inherent.

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31 Jul 2024, 10:42 am

naturalplastic wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Comes out?

"Coming out" as autistic. Like decades ago gays would "come out of the closet", later shortened to just "come out" as gay.

Which gives me an excuse to...spin a record...

The song was written about coming out as gay
Songfacts

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Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote this song and produced it. They were the leaders of the '70s disco band Chic, and brought that disco sound to Ross for this album. Rodgers got the idea for "I'm Coming Out" when he went to a gay club in New York City. He went to the bathroom, and while he was standing at the urinal, he saw three men who looked like Diana Ross. "Coming Out" means coming out of the closet and being openly gay.

Nile Rodgers recalled to the Mail on Sunday's Event magazine in 2013 that a DJ warned Diana Ross that this song was going to ruin her career because people would think she was gay. "It was the only time I've ever lied to an artist," he recalled. "I said: 'What are you talking about? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life!' We had written it because of her gay following, but I said she should use it as her 'coming-out' song – to start her gigs – and she has ever since."

I do think the term is very apt for autistics who reveal their autism.

Both groups are stigmatized and often you do have to overcome fears to reveal you are gay or autistic.

If you think about it the concepts of “in the closet” and “masking” are not dissimilar.

As far as an anthem Lady Gaga’s ‘Born this Way’ resonates with me more then ‘I’m Coming Out’ because that song was released just two years before I found out I was autistic and what that meant.

It is all subjective. Once a song is released to the public people will interpret it however the please.

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31 Jul 2024, 2:07 pm

I don't think "coming out" is an odd term at all for an autistic person going public with diagnosis.

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naturalplastic
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31 Jul 2024, 9:26 pm

Absolutely "coming out" is fair game for appropriation as an idiom by autistics.

An analogy doesnt have to be perfect to be apt. And no analogy is perfect...including the analogies between the experiences of marginalized groups like gays to autistics to Blacks to Jews to etc.. But there are apt parallels.

Which means that we can pinch other anthems...like from Blacks....

https://youtu.be/ZEWkZb11pss

And again from gays.

https://youtu.be/gtHd_30uYWU

And ...from an Irish band ...that itself was pinching from American Blacks...

https://youtu.be/_e9WDfg2idk

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01 Aug 2024, 3:08 am

[quote="naturalplastic"]Absolutely "coming out" is fair game for appropriation as an idiom by autistics.

An analogy doesnt have to be perfect to be apt. And no analogy is perfect...including the analogies between the experiences of marginalized groups like gays to autistics to Blacks to Jews to etc.. But there are apt parallels.

https://youtu.be/gtHd_30uYWU

Born this way does have these lyrics
“Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'Cause baby, you were born this way”

If you want autism specifically mentioned there is this

Not perfect, it was mostly about his Polio, autism was thrown in there because it rhymed, but not bad for 1981.

MatchboxVagabond
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01 Aug 2024, 12:17 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

I don't think anybody thinks that it needs to be perfect, but most of the folks that are "coming out" were always odd in some fashion, it's just not the sort of thing that gets masked so effectively that people don't see anything.

It's just a weird turn of phrase that kind of lets society off the hook for not providing proper screenings for people that mostly have clear signs of something odd going on.

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19 Sep 2024, 7:27 am

Back to the person this thread is about.

Tallulah Willis Says She Thought She Was “Very Broken” Before Receiving Autism Diagnosis: “I Really Hated Myself”

Quote:

Tallulah Willis is getting candid about being diagnosed with autism later in life at 29 years old.

The entrepreneur and artist stopped by NBC’s TODAY on Wednesday, where she discussed her experience learning about her diagnosis and how it gave her clarity in her life.

“I was misdiagnosed for many years, so only at 29 got my diagnosis, which is very common, specifically for adult women,” she told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie. “So it’s all very new for me. And so it’s only been in the last year that I’m learning what the terms are and regulating because I’m very high functioning autistic, and my struggles are more in sensory, so being very sensitive to the world, and rather than more commonly people assume it’s communication.

“It was relief,” she told the hosts. “If I’m being honest, I really hated myself, and I thought I was very broken, so to learn that the elements of myself that I felt were maladies or wrong or just too much for this world are actually OK, and they just require maybe a little bit more tools”.

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