'It lit a fire in me' - the barrister who was told she'd never amount to much

'It lit a fire in me' - the barrister who was told she'd never amount to much6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMichael BuchananSocial affairs correspondentLeonie HughesIt has been the craziest of weeks for Leonie Hughes.A video of her expressing delight at becoming a barrister and the challenges she's overcome has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media, leaving the 30-year-old overwhelmed."The amount of people saying they're really proud of me [has been amazing]," she tells the BBC. Allow Instagram content?This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s cookie policy and privacy policy before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.Accept and continueThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Instagram content may contain adverts.Those kind comments are reactions to the heartfelt honesty of Hughes' story, and her struggles to get to the Bar.One of three children, she grew up on a council estate in Hillingdon, north-west London, watching her mother suffer domestic abuse. In that environment, a lot was expected of Hughes around the house. When she was 11, she says she effectively became her baby sister's mother."I had to step up and do the jobs that my mum couldn't do, everything you can imagine that a six-week-old baby needs: pick them up, change them, whatever," she tells the BBC.Leonie HughesLiving in a pressurised household took its toll, and when Hughes was 15, she was expelled from school. "I had a lot of anger in me as a child, [which was] the outcome of dealing with trauma, abuse and neglect at home."I didn't really know what to do or how to process things, so I ended up channelling it all within myself. I became disruptive, a nuisance, and I ended up getting kicked out."...