Neurodivergent Girls, Puberty and Relationships – 45 minute session

For conferences, INSET days and staff meetings

Duration: 45 minutes (talk plus Q&A)

Format: Live online or in person at your event

Who it’s for: Whole staff rooms, conference audiences, multi-school INSET

Price: £200 (no VAT)

The challenge

Adolescence hits autistic girls as a collision: a changing body that may arrive months earlier than anyone expects, friendships that suddenly run on unwritten rules, romantic attention, and an online world that never closes, all landing while masking is at its most exhausting. Research suggests nearly nine in ten autistic women experience sexual violence, two thirds of them first as children or teenagers (Cazalis et al., 2022). Almost none of that risk is intrinsic. It is built by late recognition, euphemistic teaching and rewarded compliance, which means the adults in this audience can dismantle it.

This session is the fastest way to put the whole picture in front of a large audience: what changes, what protects, and why the quietest girls carry the greatest risk.

This session will help to

  • See the collision whole – how puberty, friendships, relationships and online life interact for neurodivergent girls, and why everything tends to break at once around Years 6 to 8

  • Understand why puberty lands differently – earlier onset, interoceptive differences, and the sensory reality behind period-time absence

  • Recognise masking – why ‘she’s fine in school’ can be a warning sign rather than reassurance

  • Understand the evidence on sexual violence and exploitation – and why rewarded compliance is a safeguarding issue

  • Hold both truths about online life – lifeline and risk at once, and why confiscation backfires

  • Leave with the reframe that changes practice – these girls are not vulnerable by nature; they are under-prepared and under-protected, and both are fixable

What to expect

This session is awareness-level by design: it covers the ground quickly and lands the argument. For staff who will act on it, the 90-minute CPD version adds structured discussion, a practice segment on responding to disclosure, and a handout pack including a period support plan template.

Your audience will be told exactly what to expect before taking part, including advance notice of the sensitive content. We are UK-based; online delivery can fit twilight slots, and in-person delivery is available at your event.

If this session raises concerns about a young person, our knowledge base, free family workshops and 36,000-strong community are open to the families around her at autisticgirlsnetwork.org.

Please contact us for more details