What Should I Say?

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My friend's cousin was diagnosed with autism recently. I've known them both for years and I speak to the cousin every time I see her, which is a few times a year. I saw her yesterday at my friend's wedding where she was the maid of honor but I didn't talk to her bc she's pregnant so I could tell she was tired.

We are around the same age, and she is the only person I know in this area with diagnosed autism. I want to talk to her about it because I imagine she must feel kind of lonely (although her family is awesome so I'm sure they don't care). I would also like to get to know her better.

But I have no idea what to say to her. I think it might be rude to say 'hey your family told me you're autistic'. I do think we'd get along well but I feel like if I tried to avoid talking about it in a conversation I would just bring it up accidentally anyway.

Any ideas on how to proceed? She is a very nice person, by the way. She's a little introverted too (like me) so she's also quiet.

Yeah, bringing it up flat out is a bad idea. If I were you, I'd just converse with her naturally and let the conversation flow wherever it flows. I do realize that there's the risk of the subject coming up involuntarily on your own part, but it's a risk I'd take before forcing it upon her.