How can autism be monetized?

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Some people have YouTube channels where they talk about their condition.
I'm sure at least a few have over 100k subscribers.
You could write a book about the condition if you had researched it and had unique perspectives.

I'm sure I could write a book about my experiences, despite being undiagnosed. Social anxiety, social screw ups, meltdowns, being seen as a weirdo, feeling burned-out and other stuff

Yes, I see what you are saying.
I too have explored this and have made a Youtube video about some of my experiences.

Having said that, I doubt there is a market for this that would be lucrative. Why would the average person
care about a random person with certain challenges?

You need to have a reason for people to stay tuned in.

Plus, it can be embarrassing sharing private details of your life that you may prefer to keep to yourself.

There is a guy I've seen a YouTube; he's from the UK and I recall liking his videos. I think his page is called autism world or something like that. Gotta disagree with on the smell of Italian food but I get why a strong smell could be irritating to one's sensory issues. I've got a few smells myself I find gross

There might be a few who can make a living out of their ASD, but I think for the vast majority of us it's a non-starter. I expect the ASD "fashion" is on its way out now. There's already loads of books and videos about "my autism problems and how I try to deal with them," and a lot of them are free.

I don't much like the idea of turning ASD into a commodity anyway. To me it's a science, or it should be.

We all gotta get that money but I don't think this is the way to do it. You are better off content farming YouTube or reselling things on eBay. Both not a guarantee income but neither is your idea really. Once the glamor of romanticizing autism fades out you will have to move onto something else.

But, if you're a charismatic presenter you'll have a brand and experience producing content, meaning you can pivot to talking about something else, like retro tech or video games or fighter planes or whatever.

If I were to try to get money for ASD information, I'd want that information to really work, i.e. to be clearly helpful for the purpose of coping with ASD. Most of the info I've seen is very scattershot - a potentially useful crumb here and there, but I've not seen any potent practical manual for overcoming the difficulties of ASD. And if I tried to write such a thing, it would only be a "this is what I do, I suppose it kind of works for me, so maybe you'll find it useful in places" kind of thing, which I couldn't bring myself to charge money for.

I feel the same way as a potential buyer. Show me a really good manual, give me a few bits for free so I can see for myself how useful it is, and if its effectiveness bowls me over, I'd pay good money to get my hands on the complete work. I'm not interested in paying for anything that's much less than that. I can get scattershot advice here for nothing. It's not completely without value but I wouldn't pay for it.

Admittedly I might not be like the average punter, but last time I looked, Aspies have trouble holding down jobs and rarely have much in the way of spare funds.

There are several autistic youtubers who've made it big. One is "Layla." Don't recall last name. Another is "Mom on the Spectrum." Another is probably the same guy another poster mentioned, from the UK. He's handsome and has an endearing British accent, and those two features I'm sure have contributed to his massive following.

There's another, don't recall channel name; the youtubers themselves are NT, but the videos focus on their teen son. It's two women who married, and the backstory is that the new wife adopted her partner's son as her own. He's non-speaking and LF, but .... watch just one video and you will instantly know why this channel is a smash hit. The young man has the looks of a movie star and the charm of a prince.

And then there's, I think the channel is called "Autism Family." I assume both parents are NT, but at least two kids are ASD.

There's another youtuber who's autistic himself, and most, if not all, of his videos are of him singing. He can't sing well, though. But he's quite charming.

I personally know an autistic man who has (as of a year ago), 12,000 Youtube followers, but his channel focuses on animated characters and has nothing to do with autism.

I myself have made some money off of written content about autism, but the content is a small part of overall site, which brings in good income.