singleminded and incredibly dedicated to whatever it is she’s focused on at the time (gets into and then goes to law school to get back warner, even though it breaks with everything she’s done in her life up until that point)
incredibly knowledgeable about her chosen point of interest (”it’s impossible to use half-loop top stitching on low-viscosity rayon”)
has a dog who’s permitted to live with her on campus and go to court with her, and who completes daily-living tasks like fetching mail (i’m calling it: bruiser’s a service dog)
relies on routine and an established set of coping mechanisms (manicures; tries to schedule social events to maintain some sort of consistency)
struggles with social cues (for instance, the way she delivers her introduction when she first arrives at school, the way she interacts with warner)
is incredibly smart (got a 179 on the LSATs) but struggles in school — has difficulty keeping track of her assignments (first day in stromwell’s class), has difficulty answering questions on the spot in class (”do they always do that? put you on the spot like that?”)
struggles with codeswitching in different environments (with her friends in LA, in the classroom, with the other harvard students, in court, etc)
when she does try to institute a change like this, she does it overly dramatically; she over-plays it — see: the outfit she wears for her first day of classes
that line also — ”i totally look the part!” — that idea that what she wears, says, and does are largely performative (maybe also she’s trying to pass?)
uses overly formal or informal language; language inappropriate to the context (”and i am fully amenable to that discussion” when warner is breaking up with her; the ‘valley girl’ language she uses at harvard)
has difficulty identifying sarcasm and mocking (the costume party)
is set up in the narrative as out of place in her social environment
the narrative about elle ultimately winning the case because she uses her existing skills, knowledge base, and passion rather than What She Learned In Law School ™ is also, like, a really strong neurodiversity narrative
i love her and i only care about autistic characters, so she must be autistic
