Overcoming shyness

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Since I was young, I've always been very shy to the point where if I meet someone new I'll hang my head and whisper. If I can't think of a response, I won't speak at all or I'll have a period of muteness. Most of the times when I speak when meeting someone new, I use very childlike phrases like "I want..." and pointing at an object if they engage in a conversation with me, or I'll talk non-stop about dinosaurs or the Second World War. If I'm meeting an adult or someone much younger than me, I may speak fine depending whether my traits are high or low. But when it's someone my age or a similar age, I might not speak at all and have to write on paper or use a voice app on my phone. When someone approaches me and I don't speak, and my family are around, my family members (usually my cousins) will explain that I have AS to that person. It's worse in a group or in a group discussion because I can never follow a conversation involving more than two people and often space out or return to my own hobbies or stim. I've always hated eye contact and being touched too.

My fa told me that the best way to overcome shyness is to walk up to people and speak to them. But I don't know how to do that and socialising often physically and emotionally leaves me exhausted. I usually cannot think of anything to say. I long for physical social contact but I hate it. I have only three classmates at school who I would consider to be "real" friends but I never go out with them and am never invited out. I usually enjoy solitude but sometimes feel lonely when I haven't spoken to anyone outside of my family for weeks or I watch my family members go out with their own friends.

I wanted to ask, how do you overcome shyness?