It was through hard work, the support of his mother and talent that helped Dicaprio escape from a neighbourhood he called ‘Scumsville’ in Los Angeles. The Hollywood actor told LA Times: “I grew up very poor and I got to see the other side of the spectrum. I try to tell my godson, who lives close to that area, what it was like, how there used to be a major prostitution ring on my street corner, crime and violence everywhere … And I’m not sure he believes me.”
It this upbringing and experience that DiCaprio has never taken drugs, and has a different perspective on privilege. His mother, a secretary and German immigrant dedicated her time between jobs to drive Dicaprio to auditions.
Dickensian” is how Parker has described her upbringing with eight siblings to Esme with hand-me-down clothes, often with no electricity and often skipping birthday and Christmas celebrations.
"That doesn’t mean they’re lazy or uneducated or have low standards. It’s just that they can’t manage at the moment and my family was a good example of that."
“Some people have assumptions about who is dependent on our state and federal governments for need. I think sometimes people think it’s a lot of people of colour—but this is what welfare looks like. …. That doesn’t mean they’re lazy or uneducated or have low standards. It’s just that they can’t manage at the moment and my family was a good example of that,” she told Esme.
The flamboyant rapper has spoken often with brutal honestly about her difficult upbringing when moving from Trinidad to Queens in New York City at the age of five. One account is documented in Rolling Stone where the rapper tells the music title that her ambition stems from a troubled childhood. "I would go in my room and and kneel down at the foot of my bed and pray that god would make me rich so that I could take care of my mother," she tells Rolling Stone.
According to The Guardian, the Serbian-born tennis champion used journaling as a coping technique when living through war in Belgrade as a child. He often looks back on these entries to remember what he’s been through:
“[My parents] did everything they could to give me and my brothers a carefree childhood, despite the fact that we lived through two wars, 1992 and 1999, and in between times we had an embargo on everything, so people would have to queue for milk and bread. The economy was non-existent and often it was just a matter of survival … In the state of emergency we learned to appreciate and value life itself,” Djokvic told The Guardian.
At a young age in Ontario, Canada, Twain was using her singing talent at bars to help earn money for the struggling family of five kids, according to her autobiography. She recalls that, at a young age, she witnessed experiences of domestic violence fuelled by arguments about money and being unable to buy food, pay for rent or bills. In an interview with ABC News in the USA, Twain spoke about this suffering and of being constantly hungry: "it's very hard to concentrate when you're stomach's rumbling”.
استمعوا هنا الى البث المباشر لاذاعتنا و لاذاعة BBC أيضا
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