Nope, I've never been interested in anything that doesn't actually do something because I've always had a very logical mind and even as a very young child I saw stuff toys, male dolls like
Action Man and even toy cars as totally pointless, similarly I've never been interested in music or fashion like many children and I could never understand why other children spent time collecting things that idolised famous people, my room never had any posters of anything and I still see ornaments as pointless. As a very young child I played with
Lego followed by
Mechano, this moved onto electronics from about 7 years old when I understood how to build radios and then I loved very early video games consoles in the late 1970s followed by computers when I was introduced at the age of 10 and started programming not long after. I also played chess from a very early age at very high standard and I played for Birmingham UK, although computers took over everything as my special interest, this has remained the case into adulthood and I'm now 48 years old.
I have always struggled to see the attraction of a stuffed animal which is basically an inanimate object that does absolutely nothing and has no purpose what-so-ever, even for something to lie against I'd rather use a cushion or pillow as it's practical and feels better. Now a real animal is different, but I doubt my housing association would allow me to keep a real bear in my flat and I think you could safely say it would breach
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 in the UK too lol!
One of my two brothers who are both on the low functioning end of the autistic spectrum used to carry around a teddy bear constantly when he was very young and if he as much as dropped it he would have a full meltdown, but even he grew out of that.
Unless it's carried around as a possession object I don't think stuffed toys are anything specific to autism and some NTs can like them too, although I suspect that some people look back to them as comfort objects even as adults and this can be increased by things like insecurity, anxiety and/or depression, something that is more common with autistic people, also some autistic adults are more childlike which also increases the chances that they'll still like them as adults. Real animals that are practical, E.g. a cat or a dog can in my opinion be a much bigger comfort however and this has been legally recognised in the USA with
Emotional Support Animals, although sadly not yet in the UK and many other countries even though some charities recognise it.
