Big Brother’s Kyland Young, Diagnosed with Autism at 30, Calls Out RFK’s ‘Troublesome’ But ‘Not Surprising’ Comments (Exclusive)
Reality star Kyland Young was diagnosed with autism at age 30 and tells PEOPLE that "education is important" when it comes to understanding the condition.
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'Big Brother' star Kyland Young (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photo:
Tiffany Rose/Getty; Michael M. Santiago/Getty
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared autism an epidemic during an April 16 press conference and said that it destroys families Reality star Kyland Young, who was diagnosed with autism three years ago, tells PEOPLE that RJK Jr.'s comments reinforce "limitations" often put on people with autism The Big Brother finalist worries about Americans getting information "from someone who has consistently been perceived as incorrect from the medical community"Earlier this month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that people with autism won’t hold jobs, go on dates or pay taxes. He promised to find a cure for autism by September and announced a plan to start a registry to track Americans who have the neurodevelopmental disorder.
“RFK's statements were troublesome, but also not surprising,” reality star Kyland Young, who was diagnosed with autism three years ago at age 30, tells PEOPLE. “People are ready to take any sort of medical perspective from someone who has consistently been perceived as incorrect from the medical community.”
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The Big Brother alum worries about Kennedy, 71, spreading misinformation about autism.
“Education is important,” Young, now 33, says. “Some people are looking to people in these positions to learn information, so somebody who's the highest authority in the medical field of our government has to be very careful about how they articulate themselves. We are living in the age of information and misinformation simultaneously.”
Characterizations like the one Kennedy made about people with autism tend to fuel stereotypes, which Young has found to be inaccurate. “People tend to think, you are either like Rain Man or you need help to function in so many basic areas of life, or you're pretty much not autistic,” he says. “They’ve moved away from the term ‘high functioning,’ but the less assistance you need, the longer you go undiagnosed.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a news conference on removing synthetic dyes from America's food supply, at the Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 22, 2025.Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty
Before being diagnosed, Young found that he employed “very strong masking” tendencies to “hide any sort of autistic traits so that I'm perceived as normal,” he says, adding that, “the better you get at managing things in yourself, the less grace people want to give you.”
Kennedy declared autism an epidemic, and Young says he’s encountered people who referred to autism as "a way for someone to excuse their peculiarities."
“The phrase they use are like, ‘Oh, it seems like everyone's autistic now,’ ” the Challenge star continues. “It's like, no, not everyone, but if you're looking at even 2% of the population and we have 350 million people, then all of a sudden you're looking at millions of people.”
Kyland Young (right) and Xavier Prather on Big Brother season 23. CBSYoung sought out a medical opinion after appearing on Big Brother season 23, during which he worked with an all-Black alliance to help Xavier Prather become the first Black regular-season winner, thanks to viewer messages suggesting he may have autism. When multiple medical professionals confirmed that he did, “that was so helpful and relieving,” Young says.
“It just was a better understanding of my mind," he explains. "I've always known I was very particular, but then in Big Brother, I found out I was peculiar, and that just means that people can see how particular you are."
The TV personality says he doesn’t “hold any negative connotation” with being autistic.
“One thing I've noticed is that when I'm talking to people in the autistic community is that there is a very strong resistance to ever let it come off as an excuse,” he continues. “No one's looking for an excuse. I think that is also the insulting part of [Kennedy’s] statements.”
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Young, who was diagnosed with ADHD in college, points to his ability to plan ahead as one of the positive elements of his neurodivergence.
“My brain's thinking and processing plans a lot of the time in the sense of results and an awareness,” he explains. “I can't turn off paying attention to mapping out the space that I'm in, so the result is that I've probably had two moments of panic in my entire life that I can recall. I can get excited, I can get frustrated, I can get eager, but I rarely find myself stressed.”
He can also entertain multiple conversations at once. “I can be fully present for a conversation and take in one or two other conversations, whether I'm in them or not,” Young says. “It's not me trying to be nosy, but sometimes I'm having a fully engaged conversation with someone, and then I'll answer somebody's question even if it's not to me.”
Kyland Young on The Challenge 40: Battle Of the Eras.MTV
Though Young admits he initially hesitated to talk directly about autism on his social media pages, instead preferring to speak vaguely about neurodivergence, once he did open up about his experience with autism, he started to feel even more positivity surrounding the diagnosis.
“I had a family friend who had a 2-year-old at the time, and they're like, ‘We appreciate so much you talking openly because we've been worried about our own son's diagnosis, but then we see you and we're like, this doesn't have to be limiting. It could be an obstacle, but it doesn't have to cause limits,' " Young recalls. “Just having that belief is such a powerful thing.”
Big Brother stars Britini D'Angelo and Kyland Young.Kyland Young/Instagram
Another parent of a nonverbal child with autism shared with Young that his story helped them “frame our own belief differently” about the condition.
“It doesn't have to be limiting,” Young reiterates. “So to have these comments by someone in [a position of] authority who's expressing extreme limitations, they're placing these limitations and they're reinforcing these limitations and possibly bringing them into realization in a way that they may have not been if people didn't have those limited beliefs. That's why it's important. An issue for the entire administration, and people in power in general, is that it's okay to be wrong about something.”
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Young plans to keep discussing his own experience with autism on his social media channels and his Conversations with Kyland podcast.
“Having the awareness of how I'm operating differently and how I can use that different perspective to help people solve problems has really inspired me to keep talking about these differences,” he says. “I feel very fortunate that all of the experiences I've had have put me in this, not just this position, but has given me these tools that I can use to help others.”
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