Bijou Sapphire (full name "Bijou Precious Sapphire Stars Merchant") loves all things fancy. In her town, she's known as the "Friendsville Fashionista". In fact, she runs her own business, called "Fashion Palace". Sapphire is a popular girl, and she really loves the company of boys. Although most of her best friends have been girls, she feels a close connection with the opposite sex.

At first glance, you might never guess -- but Sapphire is also autistic. On most days, she is an "autistic extrovert".* On the outside, she usually seems very confident. Deep inside, however, she is always afraid of people rejecting her. Sapphire is always trying to keep up with the latest fashion trends, and she's always trying to stay ahead of the curve. When she feels uninspired, she might melt down with anxiety. Demanding her to meet a tight deadline is a sure way to make her shut down.

Overall, Sapphire is prone to mood swings. Many people think she's a drama queen. But she actually has serious struggles with anxiety and depression. Most days, it is not a big problem. On her bad days, she needs a psychologist to give her a sounding board.

Although she's autistic, Sapphire feels needy for others' validation. However, she tends to measure success in numbers, trophies, and material things. She has a shallow sense of what it means to be popular.

As Sapphire's shop becomes more popular, the pressure does not diminish. On the contrary, the new fame pushes her toward the breaking point ... especially when she starts gaining some very high-profile clients. When she feels everything's spiraled out of control -- when she feels all her friends have been imaginary -- that's when her true friends shine through. And that's when Sapphire realizes that popularity is not the same as friendship.

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• From the following "article":https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://researchautism.org/but-shes-too-social-to-be-autistic-wrong/:

  
  

  I was told before she was diagnosed with ASD that she couldn’t be autistic because she was “too social” to have autism. She loves people, would regularly run up to random people at the library and ask them to read her stories. She is super affectionate and adores to cuddle. She makes friends easily and is loved and cherished by many simply for her embracing, warm character.
  ... Being an introvert or an extrovert has nothing to do with being autistic.
  It’s kinda like being right or left handed. Whilst Sno has struggles with beginnings to form friendships (a lot about the how/when/why), Wilding’s struggles are understanding appropriate social conduct and behaviour and respecting the personal space of others. In Sno’s eyes it seems there are so many grey areas of friendships which she finds very overwhelming and confusing with lots of rules to follow that she doesn’t quite grasp; but with Wilding she doesn’t understand that you can’t just rock up to a stranger and sit in their lap because you think they look nice. She also doesn’t understand that sure, that man over there may be incredibly overweight but it’s probably not the nicest thing for him to hear you commenting on how he may break the chair soon if he doesn’t get up.

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Starponys: The Spectrum of Friendship © and ™ of M. Wayne Howell ([email protected]), along with all characters therein. Drawing by Parcly Taxel.