Discover their stories and visions to better understand your own.

Gloria Jensen: What to do when you get bored quickly as a gifted person?

Tamara Laszlo: Don’t judge yourself when you already want to move on, but seek either to go deep (into another dimension, which restores depth: slowing down, feeling, for example); or fully allow yourself to change direction, and be at peace with giving up what had been started.

Gloria Jensen: What are the difficulties around Giftedness?

Michael Postma: Misdiagnosis, mis-understanding, lack of resources, lack of proper educational access, and as I stated early, the attempt to dumb down the intense nature of giftedness.

Gloria Jensen: What is being gifted?

Karina Degrez : Actually, giftedness does not define me.
I don’t associate giftedness (being profoundly gifted) with what I “AM” but rather with how I “FEEL” (a sensory functioning) and how I “THINK” (a cognitive functioning).
It is part of me. That is why I prefer to say I LIVE WITH giftedness.

Gloria Jensen: What phases have you gone through since the discovery of giftedness ?

Jean-Philippe Lecreux : After reading this book [about giftedness], I felt certainty, then doubt, because I thought I was less gifted than average. I had built up a false and negative image of myself. The term ‘gifted’ is so heavy that it is difficult to accept, especially when you doubt yourself (…).

Gloria Jensen: What would you like to highlight about Giftedness?

Elodie Crépel: The fact that giftedness is not a subject of psychology, but a social and anthropological subject above all. It is because there is a given norm that we question being neurodivergent. It is because there is a way of being/not being and of doing/not doing that the subject exists. Finally, the more one opens oneself up to difference, the less different it seems (or at least more than another difference, such as height, weight, skin colour, etc.).

Gloria Jensen: How do you explain Giftedness?

Jérôme Delaville: (…) if I had to talk about it with a neophyte, I think I would say something like: “Have you ever heard of the principle of Giftedness? No, it’s not geniuses or autistic people, it’s people whose intellectual capacities can allow them to do things quickly and efficiently, and who often manage to find ideas that are out of the ordinary to answer complex problems.”

Gloria Jensen: An inspiration from abroad to share about giftedness?

MaryGrace Stewart: Australia and other nations require gifted education on a national level. I think the United States needs to do the same. I believe that education should focus on the creative, mental and emotional development of each individual and as such, should not be age related but rather ability related.

Gloria Jensen: What irritates you in relation to giftedness?

Lionel Lesguer: The gender inequality in the world of giftedness infuriates me. “Your son is gifted”: it’s the father! No! No! The mother or grandmother can also be gifted. Intelligence does not only concern men.

Gloria Jensen: The remark that struck you the most in connection to giftedness?

Virginie Recoura: Actually, there is something incredible happening since my discovery. Things are happening naturally. I finally feel aligned. And when I bring up the subject with people close to me, they say, well yes, we knew you were gifted. It shows… you are able to do a lot of things in complex and unrelated areas. So I was surprised to see how people around me could perceive something exceptional in my daily life that seemed quite normal…

Gloria Jensen: What would you like to emphasize about Giftednessl?

Samuel Young: It’s important to be on the lookout for all kinds of gifts and to make sure you develop all kinds of talents. I would say that two of the most gifted people I know are mechanics who live in their own shop. They both have off-the-charts IQs, but they are underappreciated and were underserved by a flawed system in their childhood. Both men are more comfortable with motors than with other people. They literally wake up every day reading primary materials in their areas of interest. I joke that they eat primary documents for breakfast. These types of gifts are often underdeveloped and under-celebrated. This needs to change.

Gloria Jensen: How do you explain it to someone who has never heard of it?

“Gifted is the worst choice of word ever! It’s not a gift that you unwrap and treasure. It is not a one-size-fits-all that can be understood simply from the word. Rather, it is a unique wiring of the brain that must be nurtured, supported and explored for each individual. It impacts social relationships, cognitive functions and physical sensitivities. It persists throughout life, with strengths and challenges emerging along the way.

Gloria Jensen: What is your personal life advice?

Christophe Colas: I read “I think too much” which was a real revelation for me and pushed me to take the WAIS test. It was also a revelation for my wife. We are more patient with each other by reading how the other can think.

Gloria Jensen: What does it mean to be gifted?

Marion: To have a different view of the world, to make connections where there are apparently none, to find solutions where they are not expected, to have values with which one does not compromise, and to live everything in a tenfold way.

20 views of gifted men and women to understand and explore giftedness in its plurality! What does it mean to be gifted? What are the tips for living well with giftedness? How to blossom as a gifted adult? Discover rich, sensitive and authentic perspectives of gifted & 2e adults.

Gloria Jensen: Your professional advice for gifted?

Priscille Mahe: If we want to grow professionally, it seems important to me to find what makes us vibrate, even if it means changing as soon as it is no longer the case. This can be seen as “professional instability”, it is really about being aligned with who you are: Intense people, who are able to succeed in complex situations when the brain is really stimulated.

Gloria Jensen: What is a gifted person?

Nicolas Gauvrit: When I wear my research hat, it is someone who has an IQ higher than 130. When I think about it in a more philosophical way (…) a person who could revolutionize the intellectual world, who has the capacities.

Gloria Jensen: When you meet another gifted person, how do you recognize them?

Florine Rogé: The thing that marks me the most is this capacity to go very quickly and deeply into a subject. Time doesn’t exist anymore, we surf on the exchanges and the ideas that come out. I feel welcomed in my deepest being.

Gloria Jensen: How did it change your life to know you were gifted?

Barry Gelston: At first, there was a combination of imposter syndrome and connection. Going to my first gifted conference, I felt I had finally found people I could relate to. We appreciated each other’s intelligence. I made new friends. I began to realize that I was allowed to be my smart self. I was able to give up trying to fit in where I didn’t belong.”

Gloria Jensen: Is it a waste to not know you are gifted?

Jeanne Linguinou: Yes, for 2 different reasons: If the giftedness is “disabling”, it brings understanding and solutions to better live and overcome difficulties; If the giftedness is “fulfilling”, it highlights the assets that must be maintained and increased.

Gloria Jensen: What would you like to highlight about Giftedness?

Nicolas Martin Saint-Léon: “I think giftedness is really cool… it is correlated with a lot of positive things in life. I’m well aware that some people have problems, but I feel like sometimes we put disorders on giftedness that are independent, or simply “amplified” by giftedness, but which giftedness is not the cause.”