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Home | The brat files | Chill-out zone | From adversity to adventure | Find out more
Age: 16
Julia, an only child, lives in Weymouth with her mother, Anna, a manager of a residential home for the elderly. Julia was a pretty normal private-school girl as she was growing up, but she started to go off the rails when she was 13 years old.
'Everything in her life was destroyed because of drugs,' Anna says. Julia has been expelled from two boarding schools, the first one after eight days, and the second school after 36 hours. 'I was alarmed to hear that Julia had asked our pupils where they went shop lifting and where she could buy drugs,' said the letter from one school. 'I find it extremely embarrassing,' Anna complains. 'It's heartbreaking when you think that you're only child is leading this sort of life.'
For her part, Julia has accepted that she has been addicted to cannabis and has admitted to smoking it every day for three years. 'My worst fear is that Julia will end up on the street as a highly dependent drug addict,' her mother says 'She's wasting her life away and she's ruining mine.'
Julia did not see any reason why she should be sent to the camp, but agreed to it grudgingly. Now back, she's enrolled in a music technology course at college. Both Julia and Mum Anna feel there have been some big changes for the better. 'There's no way she's exactly the same as before,' says Anna. 'She is not as obnoxious, and she's so much better at communicating.'
Think you know better? Are you a teenager and think you can sort out other people's parents? Get a word in edgeways on the forum.
See also: Jenni, Rosie, Georgie, Danni, Lydia and Lucy
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