Mum-of-three, and grandmother of four, social entrepreneur, Jane McNeice shares her life changing diagnosis that took her from feeling broken, to the knowledge that she was different to the recognition that her difference was her strength all along!

At age 45 Jane McNeice learned she is Autistic. Her memoir and debut book The Umbrella Picker documents her journey to finding her neurological truth (which was self-identified), through to accessing a formal diagnosis a year later and the journey that followed.

Jane’s second book (launched on 13^th Feb 2024) Strength not Deficit moves beyond the journey to the knowing she has today. Jane has worked out the secret to her own success - a very specific Autistic trait - and how this has created the successes that were keeping her Autism hidden for a long time.

Though the trait is specific to neurodivergents such as those with Autism, its qualities can be emulated by neurotypicals to achieve success.

Jane does not shy away from the fact that success and challenge/suffering are not mutually exclusive, but rather highlights that, very often, they are bedfellows.

Strength not Deficit makes predictions about the future for Autistic and neurodivergent people, who will be found, and how finding other unidentified Autistics helps neurodiversity, and could change a system which currently finds Autistic people by pathologising all and everything they are. Jane challenges Ableism.