If you watched Season 1 of Love on the Spectrum, the Netflix show that follows individuals on the autism spectrum on their journey to find love, you’ll remember Kaelynn Partlow, the then-24-year-old South Carolinian who lived with her best friend. In the early episodes of the show, Partlow is shown using an online dating app, getting fed up with the fact that a majority of the men she sees have photos with “a dead something”—be it a fish, bird, or deer. (In Episode 2, she goes to a speed-dating event and asks the first guy she’s paired with if he’s ever been hunting.) She ends up going on a date with another man she met at speed dating, and while they scheduled a second date, their plans fell through and they didn’t see each other again.
Though Partlow indicated to the production team that she would be willing to return to the show for its second season, she ultimately wasn’t picked to be on it. “They said they felt as though my story had already been told and that I’ve been able to use my social media to continue telling my own story, which is true,” Partlow explains in a video posted on her TikTok, which has more than 700,000 followers. She goes on to say that she suspects there were other reasons she wasn’t asked back, including the fact that she is looking to date a neurotypical man and that she is so language-abled that people don’t look at her and immediately recognize that she’s autistic. “Would I have liked another shot? Sure,” she says later in the video. “But I’m thankful for the opportunity I had on Season 1 because of all the doors it opened for me, even if none of those doors had a boyfriend behind them.” (Partlow posted a similar video shortly before this year’s premiere of Season 3.)
While Love on the Spectrum has been renewed for a fourth season and cast members including Abbey Romeo, Connor Tomlinson, and Tanner Smith have gone on to become bona fide celebrities, Partlow has parlayed her brief moment of fame into a career dedicated to educating people about autism; she still works as an autism therapist and in 2024 published a book titled Life on the Bridge: Linking My World to Yours as an Autistic Therapist. On her Instagram and TikTok, you’ll find videos about life with autism and how to approach certain situations with autistic individuals; on her Facebook page, Kaelynn’s Autistic Angle, you’ll find even more content, including—yes—her recent trip to Saratoga Springs.
“‘Mandatory court ordered vacation’ is what I used to call it as a teenager when I had to do visitation with my father after my parents got divorced,” Partlow wrote in the caption of a photo of her on a plane on Friday. “But now that I’m 28, spending time at my dad’s house in Saratoga NY is something I choose to do. Looking at is as an adult, it is kinda nice, actually.”
She then asked for recommendations for what to do while in the Spa City, and her followers delivered, suggesting trips to Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga, the Spa State Park (and its Victoria Pool), Druthers, Stewart’s, Whistling Kettle, Lyrical Ballad, Lake George, the Schenectady farmers’ market, and many more.
Partlow ended up spending the day at Saratoga Race Course with her father, sister, and brother. As of Monday afternoon, she had posted a photo with her family at the track with tips for navigating divorce as the parent of an autistic child, as well as a Reel focused on the ethics of exposing autistic adults to gambling. In the video, Partlow is seen getting the full Saratoga Race Course experience, betting at a betting window, watching the horses in the paddock, sipping what appears to be a lemonade in the backyard, and watching a race from the rail.
“In my case specifically, I do not have a legal guardian; I possess the cognitive ability required to be responsible for myself,” she says in the video. “Adults with disabilities have the right to make decisions about their own lives and engage in activities of their choosing within the boundaries of the law and their own capabilities—just like any other person.”
