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Rosie lives in east London with her Mum, Jenny, who is director of a national charity. Rosie was a gifted state-school pupil while she was growing up, but things went wrong when she was 13 years old and she had to face the pain of being badly bullied. After that, she started missing a lot of school and became depressed. 'When my Mum caught me having sex it was probably the most embarrassing moment of my whole life.' She has a twin sister, Emma, from whom she used to steal. The two girls have not been close. 'I hate myself for it, but I sometimes feel I'm just letting her walk all over me,' Jenny says. She has got to the end of her tether with waking Rosie repeatedly, just for the teenager to go back to sleep. Rosie's depression also caused her to lose all sense of self-esteem. 'One of the things that really pisses me off is she started having sex when she was really young,' Jenny adds. 'When I caught them, the boy was so stoned he didn't even notice I was in the room. I feel like Rosie's throwing her life away.' 
Rosie has used the experience to really turn her life around. This one-time truant has now beaten 200 people to a job as a Youth Ambassador for a London community-development project, advising other young people. She'll now be able to catch up on qualifications she missed through years of dodging school by working towards an NVQ in youth work. 'It's like I have got a different daughter,' Mum Jenny says. 'She's a really lovely daughter, and someone that I actually think is going to become an amazing adult.' |
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