In conversation with Lesley MacNiven, Activist and Writer

If you’re parenting a neurodivergent child inside a system that keeps asking them to be someone else, this conversation is for you.

I talked to Lesley, writer and activist, mother to two neurodivergent children, about what happens when the systems around us refuse to bend.

Lesley co-founded Repair Edinburgh, a parent-led campaign group supporting families with additional support needs, after watching the education system fail her own children. We talked about what it means to advocate for a child inside a system built for compliance rather than difference, and why she chose to speak for her children instead of asking someone else to do it.

We also talked about the gendered side of neurodivergence and long COVID, and how disabled people keep getting left out of conversations about marginalisation, even within movements meant to include everyone. We got into the missed opportunity of remote work during the pandemic too.

Lesley is a former leadership development consultant and a founding member of Long COVID Support. Her graphic novel was longlisted for the Myriad Editions First Graphic Novel Award.

Links discussed:

Repair Edinburgh

Darren McGarvey

Caro Giles

Penny Wincer

Big Love, Alice

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