nature of special interests: different for AS girls?

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I posted what follows on the general autism discussion page. Now I'm wondering if special interests are very different for the women on WP. Are we more likely than boy aspies to have more than one at a time? Most of the people on this thread who listed interests listed many different special interests sometimes about very diverse things. Also.......are our interests more personal?

I was wondering for those of you with special interests:

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?

3, Are your special interests personal or impersonal?

I'm not sure if I have special interests or not. I perseverate on topics and have since I was a child but my interests are not quite like the interests described in books on AS, namely that interests are usually: impersonal and involve either collecting info or collecting items related to the topic. My interests were often things that I would think about or replay the same fantasy about over and over again. The fantasies and thoughts would be based on some accumulated info on the topic but I wouldn't need to research and accumulate new data necessarily. IU would ask people questions about the topic incessantly as well. Also some of my most obsessive and longest lasting interests have been very personal (i.e. an interest in a culture where I would imagine myself as a member of that culture). They usually involve a routine of going on a particular website related to the topic or watching a show related to the topic. Mine have been very intense where I think about them non-stop and find it hard to talk about other things. As a very young child I would spend most of my time in these fantasies and would not be interested in toys or t.v or anything but whatever the interest was but as I got older and now I am able to/want to do other things (school work, watch cartoons...as an adult Smile....Are these special interests?

Anyways I'm curious about the special interests of others with ASD's and how similar or different from mine they are.

I dont have the stereotypical aspie special interests as such but when I do think about the things I enjoy most, I see elements of "Special interest" in them.

I guess I collect hobbies. I have a million hobbies that I do not have time to do. I immerse myself in them, learn everything there is to know about them then move onto the next. I love crafty things, knitting, sewing, drawing, creating. I love setting up websites but then lose interest in them once they're up and running.

I also love to learn so I am constantly studying night classes and college courses. Always different but loosely related topics.

I have no interest in trains, other than getting from A to B. I hate watching the same films over and over and I have no interest in silly facts about film, celebs etc.

From what I've read, many women are similar.

I also have a tendency to collect hobbies, and I'm a female. Like you, I have a tendency to be an information hoarder. I like nothing more to just collect knowledge. It's a natural high for me. I do have more than one special interest at a time, but there is always one interest that receives most of my time and energy. All the other interests are background. They also have a circuitous tendency to them. I do tend to watch a single movie ad nauseum, but always concurrently with an information-based special interest.

My first special interest ever was animals. I used to want to be a zoologist when I was a kid, and I learned how to train my dog. This interest came back when I started training my current dog to be a service animal for my sister. After that, I started to really get into space exploration. I even wrote an essay about NASA technology and materials being used in every-day applications. That earned me a free trip to space camp. I was about 12 when that happened. Once high school started, I immersed myself in classical music. I had always played piano, but when I was younger it wasn't something I was passionate about. My mom basically forced me to do it. Anyway, it ended up for the better because I won some junior-level state competitions. I also got the first chair violin spot, so that helped alot with the social problems I had as a teenager.

Currently, my main special interest is bikes because I'm in the middle of racing season and I'm working on building my own racing bike. I also love to solve Rubik's cubes as a sort of stimmy thing. I guess you can say my interests are cubes, music, dogs, and bikes. However, there is no order of priority because they are always changing commensurate to what's actually going on in my life. Like right now I barely play any piano, but I will probably get back into it once the racing season ends.

My special interests are... well, I used to think I didn't have them, cause they happen to be so commonplace, but I guess the intensity with which I focus on them qualifies them as special interests. They are anything creative involving a story. Which can include real-life interactions really. Human lives and interactions are kind of a special interest for me, which is weird to say cause they are to everybody of course, but I mean I spend way more time than average thinking them through from every angle. So that could be labelled anthropology/sociology/psychology I guess but it's more... spiritual and holistic or something than those sciences.

1. I pursue them by thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic. And by writing/drawing/playing the keyboard/etc.

2. My interests are what drive my life and I'd feel hopeless and lost without them. That said, I am labelling anything that I "live for" and orient myself toward an interest. The people around me in my family and so on who are NT do not operate this way and have said so. I can't imagine not living for some cohesive thing.

I have no problem having conversations about other things usually... or I didn't use too, anyway. At this point in my life I get really intensely focussed on things and get really impatient if expected to participate in conversation not related to these goals. Which I know is bratty and annoying and which I try to curb and hide but it becomes more and more difficult as time goes on.

3. I'd call my special interests personal, in that I put all of my most dearly held thoughts and feelings into them.

That's an interesting interest I didn't think I had special interests for awhile either bcs mine are so personal and often in very typical things too..........but the intensity is unusual.

I've also gotten more impatient recently with conversations that do not pertain to my interests! I've found it harder to feign interest........especially when I'm stressed. Also I have inattentive AD/HD so I "tune out" of conversations often when I'm not interested. I try to feign interest by nodding and smiling but then if someone asks me a direct question I have to tell them I wasn't paying attention . I tell them that I have AD/HD if this happens (and they don't know)........such a cop-out I know

Every thing I do can be related to art or viewed as art so they are all related in that way...

I don't know if I have a "special" interest. I have things I'm interested in but it's no different from how NTs are interested in.

Maybe I should have asked first whether people had a special interest or not.........not every aspie does!

My special interests come and go. Right now I am on the computer and have been obsessed with autism since I was 15 but I don't go reading web pages about it anymore because it's all old. I come to the forums instead because each person with it is an individual and what they do is part of being them than AS and books don't talk about each aspie. It's all generalization.

I would have collected stuff if my parents lets me and if I wasn't so obsessed with money. I have collected Benny & Joon stuff and I used to buy video games all the time. I have read the same books over and over and would look at them over and over which was 101 Dalmatians and I would watch my favorite movies over and over and I was obsessed with them. My obsessions tend to be with movies and they spark my special interests so I got into dinosaurs and London and Dalmatians and Spokane. I have also done fanfiction. I would fantasize with my favorite characters and write about it. I would go to the websites based on my obsessions, I used to look up London all the time and see what movies were playing and what the weather was like there and read some news articles and see what stores and restaurants they had there. I did the same with AS and other conditions when I was obsessed with disorders.

I used to find it very difficult but now I can talk about anything that interests me. If something is boring and I am not interested, I can just listen and I don't really carry it on. If I am curious, then I can ask for more details.


I am not sure what you mean by personal or impersonal. I will assume you mean if we keep it a secret or not or if we share them. I keep mine a secret. I don't really talk about mine. If I want to count Babycenter, then I do talk about it because I talk about what I read on there.

But I am fascinated by movie locations and love to read facts on movies I like. One of my gifts has always been absorbing information and when I talk about it, I am surprised by how much I know. I can also get temporary obsessions and I read about it and then I am done because I can't find any new information about it nor new photos.

But I have always done other things my whole life but I spent lot of my time playing with Barbies and then in my teens it was video games and then computer and now it's computer and I feel it's taking up my time and I need a routine outside the computer. I am thinking of a schedule so I am not stuck with the computer. I also love the latch hook kids but haven't done it in a while because I have not seen any and I need to buy a latch hook thing to work on my latch hook kit I bought a few years ago since it didn't come with one. But yeah my obsessions can become intense I am absorbed ans focused in it I don't do anything else. Mom said I had always been like this. I have been doing better because I have a baby now and I have to eat or else I will keep shrinking. Sometimes I still forget but I eat. I feel hopeless, sad, depressed if I don't have a special interest nor a obsession. I feel so empty without it and I am going through it again.

It's okay.

It does get annoying when NTs who think they know about AS ask me about my special interest, I say I don't have one and they're like, "maybe you haven't found it yet." :/

Anything arts and/or crafts except for knitting. Knitting is just too girly for me...

Anything nature related - gardening, plants in general, herbalism, mushrooms, wild foods, conservation, etc...

Anything myth/fairytale related - world religions, anime, fantasy/scifi, graphic novels, collecting childrens storybooks, native cultures, shamanism, modern myths in the making, paranormal, new age, cryptozoology (two interests in one!)

Mine is photography & all aspects of it. I have multiple cameras, both film & digital. I also have a number of books on this topic...everything from the basics to shooting action & weddings/portraiture. I have a difficult time resisting buying more books. LOL Even if I already have something similar. But I am also interested in creativity & the creative process to up my game. There are other interests too, but this one is my main one. It's also the one I've had the longest...started as a child & still going strong at nearly 50. That's close to 4 decades. It's not my only interest though, so don't get me wrong.



I would say it's pretty intense. Even my hubby will comment on how wrapped up I can get in taking/editing pictures. I find it very easy to talk about things related to photography. I am horrible at small talk. Ask me about my dog or something else that's personal & I can interact fairly normally...at least for a little while.



I guess you could say it's personal, since I enjoy taking pictures. I've even been paid for some of my work.

Well, I'm hardly a girl anymore but..

I an an info collector bar none. I need to know as much as I can about my interest, be as proficient as I can in knowledge on the topic. I do collect books, but I try to not do that so much because I got overwhelmed with books. At one point, half of my garage was full of boxes of books. I've gotten rid of 2/3 of them over the past few years.

I'm not someone who watches things over and over excessively but I do often find comfort in certain things--like watching old episode of my favorite sic fi shows (one of my longtime interest has been science fiction). And I do re-read books that have been special to me.

I do spend a lot of time thinking about my interests, but it's more creative and hopefully more productive than merely "fantasizing," although I do some of that too. I go to websites about my interests occasionally, but by and large, I would prefer spending time with my interest rather on websites about them.



My interests can be so intense that I have trouble doing other things, but I try to find a balance. My life can get very chaotic when I just focus on my interests. I cna have a conversation about other things, but I admit I do find it dull.


They tend to be very personal, in the sense I feel they express something about myself as a person.

My special interests over the years have included:

Animals (especially cats and horses)--this was my first, when I was a very young. I would draw pictures of animals and read books about them obsessively. I've always had cats as pets. I can't imagine living without them.

Drawing/Painting--my second special interest. I was so obsessively about drawing my mother enrolled me in summer art classes. I don't engage int his interest very more these ays as I don't have the time, but my room and closet is very well stocked with art supplies for when I do have the urge.

Science Fiction--this includes books, TV and movies. This was my third special interest, beginning with HG Wells and Star Wars, as a kid and it continues to this day. I even write own science fiction. I'm not someone who can recall details of every Star Trek episodes, as my interest in science fiction is more about its literary and philosophical imports. And in those regards, I am quite knowledgeable.

Music--my fourth special interest. I was so obsessed with music as a teen I almost didn't do anything else. I wasn't music fan so much as I wanted to be a musician, and a very good one. I taught myself how to read music, music theory and to play my first instrument (piano), as well as my main instrument today (guitar). I would skip class in high school to go to the orchestra room to practice, and I was a waling encyclopedia on music history, especially rock music. I ended up getting a Bachelor's degree in Music. Currently I am interested in learning songs in the languages I am studying (another special interest). I did collect a massive collection of recorded music, hundreds of LPs and over a thousand CDs at one point, which i have largely parted with today. Most of what I do with music now is learning, playing or writing music. I don't have much time for listening to music.

Philosophy/theology--this is the one that I started in college and took over my living space in terms of books. I had my own phil/theo library going at one time. I most have spent thousands of dollars on books. I almost completed a masters degree in theology, but I had to stopped in my last year because of my depression.

Language Studies--I've always been curious about languages, but it wasn't until college that I decided I would try to teach myself one, or two, or a dozen. I am relatively fluent in 3 languages, and have studied several other. I'm currently studying 5 languages. I want to be relatively fluent in 6 languages before I die. This is the interest that consumes most of my free time these days, and yes, I'm quite obsessive. I had to buy a new external 2 TB hard drive to be able to back up my ever-growing language studies files.

Literature (especially Shakespeare)--this is old special interest that I cycle in and out of. I'm gone through a dystopian phase, a war literature phase, a poetry phase, a Hemingway and Fitzgerald phase, and a few others, And of course Shakespeare, which I have loved since I was 15. I have over 50 books on Shakespeare and his plays, plus a few DVDs of performances, and I have the Arkangel complete set--I've listened to most of that too.

You won't find me talking much about many of these interests here or on other websites because, liek I said, I'd rather be focusing on them than talking about them. Plus, I confess, that with some of them, like philosophy, literature and music, I have little patience with people who aren't on my level of knowledge and proficiency.

Thanks for all of your replies so far.

My primary special interests are The Kinks and other British boy bands of the 1960s.