Taylor Swift is My Autistic Son’s Current Hyper Fixation and That’s OK!

Taylor Swift is My Autistic Son’s Current Hyper Fixation and That’s OK!

Taylor Swift is not very popular with most boys apparently, but my autistic son is currently obsessed with her and that’s OK!!!

Last month, we were so very lucky to be able to attend night 3 of the Taylor Swift Era’s tour here in NOLA. Brady had been asking to go to the concert once we heard she was bringing her tour to NOLA. Of course, we were not one of the lucky few that was able to purchase tickets at a reasonable price. My sister-in-law was one of those lucky few and was very generous and allowed us to purchase 2 of her tickets! Brady was overcome with excitement.

Hyper fixation is one of the perks of autism. When Brady was around 4, it was Paw Patrol. He would bring each one of his Paw Patrol toys everywhere he went, lining them up the same way each time, in order of the theme song. They went to restaurants with us, out of town with us, and while it could be irritating at times to have to wait on him to arrange himself, we soon realized it was just how his brain was wired and there was nothing wrong with it!

From Paw Patrol we moved onto Power Rangers, the same hyper fixation happened. The toys and their accessories traveled with us, they had to be lined up the same way everywhere he went. This was around the time we started to notice that this was more than just being a cute trait of him. I don’t like to use the wording “not normal,” as normal is a different for each kid. But he would have a meltdown if his things were not in the perfect order that he wanted them.

It seemed about every 6 months or so, a new hyper fixation would appear. At the age of 14, he still exhibits these traits. Once the new show Wednesday premiered on Netflix, he was obsessed with that. Watching and listening to the same episodes and songs constantly on repeat constantly over and over.

About a year ago, I was listening to Taylor Swift and Brady liked it and started listening to her music as well. The Taylor hyper fixation grew and grew. From watching documentaries about her to watching the Era Tour on Disney+, he knew every word to every song and the reason why she wrote the song. So, of course, I could not pass up the tickets when my sister in law offered them to me.

Brady was so happy and excited to attend the concert. He does not curse, and he was so excited that he had to warn me that he may say the curse words in her songs. We were 4 rows or so from the top of the stadium, and all he kept telling me was how amazing our seats were. Seeing my son with such joy and pure happiness was overwhelming to me and I cried for the first few songs. From the 600 section, he was constantly waving to her like she could see him. He knew the set list by heart and told me which song was next and what was going to be happening.

Do I share the same views as her? No, but that’s OK! There are worse things that a 14 year old boy could be doing, and I will take Taylor any day of the week. I love the innocence of my son and how he sees the good in truly everyone.