The character of Lilo in the Disney animated film, Lilo and Stitch, is thought of as being on the autism spectrum by many people who are themselves autistic.
The film has broad appeal but with an enduring and devoted neurodiverse community within the fanbase, some of whom post in online forums about their conviction, not only with regard to Lilo but also her blue alien friend, Stitch.
The fact that Stitch is an alien who struggles to understand social conventions and is seen as ‘weird’ resonates with some individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder/Condition (ASD/ASC), because they feel like they are aliens in a strange world themselves, and report having been bullied in school as weird and different. Stitch also resonates with people who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Condition (ADHD/ADHC), because his disorganisation, chaotic, energetic behaviour, and short attention span connects with their lived experiences.
(A brief diversion: it really is time we spoke of ADHC exclusively over ADHD – a condition, not a disorder. ADHC is hardly used, ASC more so. We still see ASD for autism used extensively but, increasingly, ASC is gaining wider adoption. I’m not using C over D for the most part here on the xph therapy website, because, until the idea of condition over disorder gains traction, if it ever does, but it will I’m certain, it could confuse and there’s enough confusion already. If you search around ADHD and ASD in relation to counselling, I’d very much like people to find their way here. Obviously. Actually, from this day forth, I shall use what I’m using here – the slash – for ADHD/ADHC and ASD/ASC. Why let the medical establishment decide our labels without us having a say, anyway?)
Returning to Lilo and Stitch, it is Lilo whose behaviours are most often taken as being representative of several aspects of autistic presentation and experiences. Lilo wants but does not have friends prior to Stitch arriving on the scene, which is a familiar longing among people with ASD/ASC who are often isolated and ‘othered’.
What’s more, people who have ASD/ASC report that they gravitate towards bonding with others on the spectrum, and ADHD/ADHC, instinctively, which is what happens when Lilo encounters Stitch for the first time. Again, people with ADHD/ADHC report the same gravitational pull towards other neurodivergents. My own partner has a number of neurodivergent and neurodevelopmental conditions, making them a lighthouse beaming into the night for me when we met, I think.
Lilo has a doll, Scrump, which she carries around having made it herself and given it a detailed backstory. She has special interests that completely absorb her time and enthusiasm – the music of Elvis Presley, taking photographs of tourists, and hula dancing.
While liking Elvis and dancing could go unremarked upon, what is commented on by others, even Lilo’s caring sister, Nani, as being unusual is the laser-focused specificity of not just taking photographs of anything or anyone, but restricting the subjects chosen exclusively to tourists. Nothing and no one else. People with ASD/ASC often have highly specific and at times obsessional interests. So, too, do people with ADHD/ADHC – there is a lot of crossover – and this is mirrored in Stitch’s frantic enthusiasms (which, by the way, often don’t last long before the next one comes along).
Neither Lilo nor Stitch are ever revealed to be ASD/ASC or ADHD/ADHC, and I doubt the new live-action/CGI blend Lilo and Stitch movie due for release Summer 2025 will either, which is and was lost opportunity. Sadly, it is nearly always the case when it comes to ‘possibly autistic’ individuals in a lot of films and TV shows, as if declaring characters to have ASC or ADHD/ADHC would hit the ratings or box office revenues, or somehow alienate neurotypical audiences.
So, we will only ever have hints, hunches, and observations of behaviours in resonating scenes, but it is certainly the case that the argument for Lilo being on the autistic spectrum and Stitch having ADHD/ADHC has enough narrative evidence to be at least considered as informing their creation, rather than dismissed out of hand. Lilo, especially, does present in ways that are going to be familiar to individuals on the spectrum and the clinicians who diagnose them. But who knows? Maybe it’s all coincidence and we see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear. You get accused of that when you’re neurodivergent, of course.
I choose not to accept the idea of it all being coincidence while recognising it could be. I prefer my take. Stitch connects with aspects of ADHD/ADHC in a celebratory way, the character enjoying his own buzzing nature and the chaos that surrounds him and his activities. People with ADHD/ADHC and ASD/ASC do enjoy many aspects of their condition at the same time as struggling daily with the sensory challenges, sleep difficulties, and much more.
We have a range of opinions on the idea of neurodivergents having ‘superpowers’ though, as if we are X-Men. As anyone with ADHD/ADHC or ASD/ASC will tell you, life, sadly, is not a Disney animation even on the very best of days and, overall, the world as shaped by neurotypical people is not one that readily accepts or accommodates us while telling us we are ‘gifted’ even as we are ‘let go’ from jobs.
The bullying and othering Lilo and her blue alien friend (who’s also known as Experiment 626, by the way) experience mirrors memories of school life for neurodivergent adults. Hopefully, children enjoying the animated movie today and live-action/CGI movie next year may experience less of that crap, thanks to advancements not only in understanding neurodivergence, but how to tackle bullying in education. It still happens, though, and there is much work to be done still, so that all the real-life Lilos and Stitches can be supported, empowered and cherished for who they are and what they can bring to society.
If you ever meet adults who have retained an obsessive love of Lilo and Stitch, consider the possibility that there are reasons for this that go beyond it just being a great movie.
This is an expanded essay based on one I wrote for a course I did some time ago to further my understanding of autism, prior to my own diagnosis.
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