This young girl was born into a large, ethnically Albanian family. Her parents moved to London from Albania three years before she was born. She grew up in London for much of her formative years.
However, when she turned 11, her parents told her they would no longer live in London. Instead, they were moving back to their native country. It was the end of primary school for the girl, and all her friends were also going to different schools, but none were in a foreign country.
Despite the significant change, the girl was excited to go to Kosovo and see her cousins who lived there. However, three years later, at 14, she told her parents she didn’t want to live there anymore. She moved away and went on to break Guinness World Records.
The Girl’s Childhood
The girl was born to a Bosnian mother and a Kosovan father. In the 90s, her parents experienced war in their home country. Her mother and father were living with her paternal grandfather, the head of the Kosovo Institute of History.
Although the girl’s grandfather took pride in his career, it ended when the war broke out. She shared:
“Once the Serbians came in, they wanted a lot of the historians to rewrite the history of Kosovo. To change it – that Kosovo was always part of Serbia and never part of Yugoslavia. And my grandfather was one of those people who wouldn’t, so he lost his job because he didn’t want to write a history that he didn’t believe to be true.”
In 1992, the girl’s parents moved from Albania to London to seek refuge from the war. However, their parents stayed behind in Bosnia and Kosovo. The girl’s father never got to say goodbye to his father as he died of a heart attack the year the war ended when the borders were still closed. Despite all the heartache the couple had experienced, they welcomed their daughter in northwest London in 1995.
The girl said that she watched her parents work every day of her life. Her father was working toward becoming a dentist and her mother a lawyer when they were forced to flee their home country. Being in London forced them to take jobs in cafés and bars. They also went back to school.
Although she was proud of her parents growing up, the girl was not always proud of her name, which means “love” in Albanian. Although she is proud of it now, she wanted a more common name growing up. Her name made her feel different from everyone else.
Another thing that embarrassed her growing up was the fact that her parents looked different from others. In school, the boys would tell her how attractive her mother was, and the girls would say the same about her father, which she didn’t enjoy.
As a young girl, she was strong-willed and ambitious. She knew she wanted to be a star and figured she wouldn’t be able to make it happen living in Kosovo.
One day, she sat her parents down and told them she wanted to return to London. She explained that she wanted to be a superstar and knew she would never be able to do it without being in a city like London. She planned to go to the Sylvia Young Theatre School on Saturdays and wanted to be where a lot was happening. She admitted:
“I didn’t think I’d be able to do this on a global scale, living in Kosovo.”
She tricked her parents into letting her go by telling them she wanted to attend an excellent British university and said she would need to do her GCSEs and A-levels in English to get there.
Her parents relented, and when she got back to London, she went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School and began recording demo tapes, which she uploaded to YouTube and Soundcloud.
Although she could have run wild in London without much parental supervision, the girl knew that her parents trusted her, and she needed to uphold her end of the deal. The only parental supervision she had was from the family friends she was staying with while in London. She joked that she was the mom of her friend group and always responsible.
With this responsibility came ambition. The girl knew she wanted to be a star and started contacting producers. When one offered a publishing deal, she found a lawyer who told her not to accept it. He then found her her current manager, leading to her being discovered.
Her love for music, singing, and dancing started when she was very young, putting on performances for her friends and family all the time. She knew she had a natural talent when her singing teacher in London moved her into a class with teenagers when she was nine.
The first concert she attended in Kosovo was Redman and Method Man, as hip-hop was massive in Kosovo then. She also wished to see performers like Nelly Furtado and Pink in her hometown, but they had yet to come.
When she finally became successful, she returned to Kosovo with the Sunny Hill Festival, which brings international artists to Kosovo. She hopes that this festival is something that the people in her hometown can enjoy for many years.
Her younger brother and sister are also interested in the entertainment industry. Her little sister graduated from drama school, and her brother started producing music when he was seventeen. The girl is incredibly proud of her family, especially her parents. She once gushed:
“Everything I speak about comes from my upbringing. Seeing my parents adapt to any situation, raise a family, work many jobs, go to university in the evening… I watched them sacrifice, yet I understand how lucky I am to have a British passport and to have come back to London for my career.”
Her parents’ relationship also challenged the girl because, as she told it, her mother married her first love and first boyfriend. She felt pressure and thought that people saw something was wrong with her because she was single in her mid-20s.
However, she realized that it’s okay to be selfish and work on yourself before getting into a serious relationship and certainly before bringing any children into the world.
Who Is the Girl?
Dua Lipa is the girl with the name she couldn’t stand when she was a little girl. Despite all the adversity she faced growing up, she has now become a world-famous pop star and has broken many records.
In March last year, her song “Levitating” became the longest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit ever. Her 2020 Thanksgiving weekend Studio 2054 livestream also broke records, amassing over 5 million views, and breaking the Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a live-streamed concert by a solo female artist. She enjoyed the experience so much that even when she was allowed to tour, she would livestream again.
In 2021, she also became the most listened-to female artist on Spotify, for which she landed another Guinness World Record. However, she remains humble and does not take too much note of the awards she has won, even though she has been nominated for 10 Grammys and has won three.
Lipa’s professional life is going well, and her personal life is on the up, too. She recently gained Albanian citizenship. A video shows her signing the papers and beaming from ear to ear as she is granted citizenship.
My Mom Left Me in a Cardboard Box in the Supermarket When I Was a Baby — 20 Years Later She Asked For My Help
Sue was left in a cardboard box as a small child. Luckily, a store clerk took her home and changed the course of her entire life. Now, in the form of an unexpected knock at the door, Sue has to face her past and the disappointment that comes with it. Is this a grand reunion or the biggest disappointment of Sue’s life?
I was left in a cardboard box in a supermarket twenty years ago. I was just a few months old, and all I had to my name were a few photos of my mother and a note.
A baby in a cardboard box | Source: Midjourney
The note read: I will always love you, Sue.
Nobody knew my surname or whether I had a middle name. Nobody seemed to know my mother or what had happened to my father. I was all alone in a world that didn’t know anything about me.
A folded piece of paper | Source: Midjourney
But even then, at a few months old, I seemed to be fortune’s fool. I was found by a kind store clerk, Ruby, who took me in.
“I couldn’t leave you there, Sue,” she would say whenever the story came up. “I became your guardian shortly after and raised you as my own. You became my little bug.”
Ruby was everything to me. And as I grew, the closer we became.
A smiling woman in a grocery store | Source: Midjourney
I was forever grateful that she gave me everything I needed. But still, I never stopped wondering why my mother left me and if she would ever come back.
“I know that it bothers you, darling,” Ruby told me one day as she made lasagna for dinner. “But she’s an enigma now. We have nothing that could lead us to her.”
A tray of lasagna on a board | Source: Unsplash
“I know,” I said, grating more cheese for when the dish was ready. “It’s just frustrating when I start thinking about it.”
“You love the internet, you love social media, Sue. Use it, share your story, maybe it will resonate with people, and you can connect with others just like you.”
A person grating cheese | Source: Pexels
She opened the oven and put the tray of lasagna inside.
So I did just that, and I became a well-known video blogger, sharing my story with the world.
“You’ve created a safe platform for people to share their stories, too,” Ruby told me when I read comments from my latest video to her.
A young woman holding her phone | Source: Unsplash
“It means something to me,” I said, helping myself to the eclairs on the table.
Fast forward to the present. I am successful and able to provide for myself and my guardian.
“So much for being an abandoned baby,” I said to myself as I washed my face one night.
A woman washing her face | Source: Pexels
But imagine my surprise when an unexpected knock on my door changed everything.
I opened the door to find a frail, older woman standing there, her eyes filled with regret and desperation.
“Sue, darling,” she said. “I am your mother, and I need your help!”
A person opening a door | Source: Pexels
I just looked at her, unable to blink for fear of missing the moment.
“Do you still have the note I left with you when I left you safely in the store?”
Safely? I thought to myself. I stood there, paralyzed by the flood of emotions that had come in when she entered my home.
A sad woman holding her face | Source: Pexels
“Yes, I have it,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “I kept it.”
“I know I have no right to ask for your help after what I did, but I need you to believe me when I say I had no choice back then. I was running from a dangerous situation. And I thought leaving you in a safe place was the only way to protect you. I needed to disappear.”
A person wearing boots | Source: Unsplash
“What kind of situation?” I asked.
I had wondered about this moment for years. And every second that went by, I was just disappointed by the reunion with my birth mother.
She hesitated, looking down at her hands.
A person holding their hands together | Source: Unsplash
“There were people after me, people who wouldn’t stop until they got what they wanted. I stole something once, just to help me out financially. I stole the wrong thing from the wrong people. I had to keep you safe. So I left you.”
Of course, my mother was shady.
Two people dressed in black | Source: Pexels
“You could have come back sooner. You could have tried to find me.”
“I know, but I was scared.”
I took a deep breath, trying to process everything.
“What do you need help with?”
A woman with her eyes closed | Source: Unsplash
She looked up, her eyes pleading.
“I need a place to stay, just for a little while, until I can get back on my feet. I have nowhere else to go.”
My heart ached. But I knew that Ruby would want me to say yes. She would tell me to do it. I could almost hear her words in my head.
A smiling older woman | Source: Pexels
“That’s your birth mother, Sue. Help her,” Ruby would say, most likely bribing me with something to eat.
“Okay,” I said finally. “You can stay. But this doesn’t mean everything is forgiven. We have a lot to talk about.”
She nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks.
A crying woman | Source: Pexels
“Thank you. I promise, I’ll make things right.”
She reached down, picked up a worn duffel bag, and followed me in.
The first few days went by relatively smoothly. My mother seemed genuinely remorseful and tried to help around the house.
A worn duffel bag on the floor | Source: Midjourney
“I’ll cook and I’ll clean for you, darling,” she said.
But it didn’t last long.
One evening, I came home earlier from the local radio studio where I was being interviewed for my content. The house was unusually quiet.
A person holding cleaning supplies | Source: Pexels
Walking to my bedroom, I heard the faint sound of drawers opening and closing.
And there she was, standing there in front of my open jewelry box, my most precious pieces clutched in her hands.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, unable to contain my rage, but also wanting to keep calm at the same time.
An open jewelry box | Source: Midjourney
She looked up, startled, and for a moment, I saw a flash of guilt in her eyes.
“I was just… I thought maybe I could sell some of these to help me out. They’re heavy, so they’re real.”
“Of course, they’re real! They’re gifts from my mother! She saved up for years just so that she could get that diamond necklace for my 18th birthday. And you want to steal from me?”
A diamond necklace | Source: Unsplash
She looked shocked, like the wind had been knocked from her sails.
“You have so much, darling,” she said, almost whimpering. “I just thought that you wouldn’t miss a few pieces. We could use the money.”
“We? This isn’t about us; it’s about you. And it’s not about money, either. It’s about trust. You said that you wanted to make things right, but all you’ve shown me is that I cannot trust you.”
A woman holding her head | Source: Unsplash
She reached out to me, but I stepped back.
“Please, don’t do this, Sue. I can change. I just need some time.”
I shook my head, tears of betrayal and disappointment filling my eyes.
A close-up of a crying woman | Source: Pexels
“I gave you a chance. I let you into my home. I let you meet Ruby. And you still chose to betray me. No, I’m sorry. But you need to leave.”
Her face crumpled, and she pulled a tissue from my vanity.
“Please, just one more chance,” she said.
“I can’t,” I said, my voice breaking. “You need to go.”
A box of tissues | Source: Midjourney
“Sue, I gave birth to you,” she said, putting the necklace down.
“And you left me in a box,” I said.
I watched as she gathered her things and left, the duffel bag looking considerably fuller than when she arrived. But I didn’t have it in me to fight her again.
A full duffel bag | Source: Midjourney
Sadness and disappointment weighed me down heavily. But there was also a sense of relief.
Later, I went over to Ruby’s house. It was the one place that would always feel like home to me.
“Darling girl,” she said, flipping grilled cheese onto a plate. “You took a chance on someone who loved you, that’s what you take away from this experience.”
Grilled cheese on a plate | Source: Midjourney
I smiled at her. At the woman who had taken me home in a heartbeat and had loved me ever since.
But now, I worry that I’ve just sent my birth mother back into the world she had been trying to escape from.
A worried woman with her head on a table | Source: Pexels
Was I right in my decision?
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