Jennifer Peacock-Smith

Jennifer Peacock-Smith was born in South Africa in the late sixties to passionate parents struggling to find their place and to make a difference in their worlds of apartheid, feminism, and strict religion. Little Jenny quickly found herself falling through the cracks in their battle to be different, better, and "cleverer" than those before them or around them, and her mother’s fight to break the moulds. Born a girl instead of a boy, bubbly instead of serious, fun and talented instead of academic, everything about her was “wrong". Neglect doesn’t always look like dirty or starved or diseased or beaten. Neglect is chronic and often invisible. In a small bubble entirely cut off from the rest of the world, scrawny little Jenny's voice, squashed by her parent’s need to find their own, is swiftly silenced, again and again. However, her shine refused to die and survived within her as a spark, a fighting spirit, and a sense of hope that defies logic. It took five decades, six countries, multiple diagnoses, and ultimately a physical and emotional collapse for Jennifer to successfully find her voice, to thrive, to get the medical and psychological care she needed, and to begin the journey to a place of sanity and peace. Her story is one of crushing loneliness and isolation, but more than that, it's ultimately a story of resilience, hope, and redemption in ways that she could never have imagined. A mentor, counsellor, artist, and now a successful author, Jennifer writes for various blogs, The Mighty, and other public spaces on neglect, emotional abuse, anxiety, disability and chronic illness. You can find her on most social media platforms under @JPeaSmith. She is the author of "The Lion and the Peacock” and the first in her epic story “My Africa My Home - The Fault in the Family Memoir #1”.