A proper balance between symmetric and asymmetric division in neural stem cells is crucial to building a brain, and disrupting this balance can promote the production of brain tumours. In the Drosophila optic lobe, symmetrically dividing neuroepithelial stem cells contribute to the stem cell pool before transitioning to asymmetrically dividing neuroblasts (which give rise to differentiated progeny). This process was long considered to begin in the larval stage, but now Hakes, Otsuki and Brand overturn this view, discovering that neuroepithelial cells divide throughout embryogenesis. Each neuroepithelial cell divides only once, but this cell division does not serve to expand the neuroepithelium. Rather, marker expression and lineage labelling show that neuroepithelial cells generate embryonic optic neuroblasts (EONs). EONs form at specific points along the neuroepithelium and generate differentiated progeny (neurons and glia) before entering G0 quiescence at the end of embryogenesis. Both neuroepithelial cells and EONs persist in quiescence until they are re-activated in the larva. This work thus shifts the timeline of neural stem cell activity in the optic lobe some 60 hours back, raising questions about the function of embryonic neurogenesis and the contribution of early-active stem cells to brain tumours.