Strong Female Character opens with Fern Brady, referred to by her first name within the text, calling her father to tell him she has been diagnosed with autism. When he responds to the news entirely nonchalantly, she suggests that she inherited her autism from him, and he insists that her mother is more likely to be Fern’s parent with autism. Fern begins to reflect on her childhood, beginning with an episode at age 16 where she read the DSM and diagnosed herself with Asperger’s Syndrome (now merged into the broader term of Autism Spectrum Disorder). When she brought this information to her doctor, he asserted that she could not be autistic because she had had a boyfriend. It would be almost twenty years until Fern’s self-diagnosis is finally validated.

Moving forward in time to the early stages of her comedy career, Fern’s life is increasingly absorbed by meltdowns; she frequently goes home and smashes her own furniture in response to extreme sensory overwhelm. When she tries to get answers about why this is happening to her, people she confides in are notably uncomfortable, and she comes to understand that she will have to struggle with the meltdowns privately.