Christine McGuinness
Christine McGuinness is a British model, television personality, and passionate advocate for neurodiversity. Diagnosed with autism and ADHD in her early thirties—after her three ch...
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Who are you?
I am Christine McGinnis. I am a mother of three amazing children. I am a TV presenter, a author, and I am a neurodiversity advocate.
When did you first start to notice something wasn’t quite right for you?
I was born in Blackpool and raised in Liverpool. Quite a small family, just my mom and my brother and my sister. I've got really good memories of childhood, just being quite simple, playing outside, close to home. I was in a really small school where I was really comfortable and quite happy. It was when I went to senior school that everything changed and I felt extremely overwhelmed and I felt different to the other children. I didn't quite know why, but I really struggled with the noise, with the changes of the classrooms. I struggled in the canteen and never really understood myself by the time I got to my teenage years.
How did your mental health manifest as a teenager before you knew about your autism and ADHD?
As a teenager, I always felt quite lonely. I always felt very different and I didn't fit in. It affected me quite a lot mentally. I spent so much time on my own. If I wasn't on my own, then I was pretending I was masking and I didn't even know what masking was. I was just trying to be like everybody else and copying other people was the only way that I knew how to try and be like other people. The biggest part of my health that suffered was probably having an eating disorder because of how uncomfortable I felt in the school canteen and around food and around the noise. I chose not to eat and sadly that did lead into me having an eating disorder. It was only as I got older that I realised that my eating disorder was down to sensory issues and things are a lot better now that I understand myself more.