MASK OFF

At thirty-eight, Joshua Eric Jensen receives an answer that forces him to reinterpret his entire life: he is autistic. Suddenly, the childhood light switch that felt like an attack, the chapters he could read but could not retain, the desperate pursuit of popularity, and the exhaustion hidden beneath outward competence begin to form a single pattern. Mask Off is a candid, darkly funny memoir about late diagnosis, autistic masking, childhood trauma, poverty, bullying, grief, family estrangement, and the search for a version of oneself that does not need to perform for acceptance. Jensen revisits the choices he regrets without using autism as an excuse, while examining how a child can appear social, athletic, popular, and capable—and still be struggling without the language to explain what he is experiencing. At the center of the story are those who made him feel loved without an audition: his grandmother Sharon, his dog Tyson, and the friends who continued to show up after the performance ended. This is not a story about becoming someone new. It is about finally understanding the child who was there all along.