Activist, Actor and Baroness Lola Young - Defying The Odds
Feb 7, 2025
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In a compelling conversation, Lola Young, an activist, actor, and Baroness renowned for her advocacy on modern slavery and climate justice, reveals her extraordinary journey from foster care to prominence. She shares insights on the importance of understanding personal history and how it fuels resilience. Young discusses the role of art in public policy, emphasizing storytelling's power in shaping societal values. She also addresses the need for reform in the House of Lords and highlights poverty as the UK's pressing issue, advocating for compassion in tackling systemic inequalities.
Lola Young's search for her identity and understanding of her childhood catalyzed her memoir, highlighting the impact of fragmented family narratives.
Her struggle to access care records underscores systemic issues in the care system, emphasizing the need for improved transparency and support.
Young's experiences with racism during her upbringing shaped her activism, illustrating the intersectionality of race and personal history in her advocacy work.
Deep dives
Uncovering Personal History
Lola Young discusses her motivation to uncover her personal history, stemming from a desire to better understand her past and resolve internal conflicts. After receiving a package containing her mother's passports and photographs, she was compelled to document her childhood experiences in foster care, leading her to write her memoir, "Eight Weeks." This exploration is intricately linked to her quest for identity and the completion of a fractured narrative regarding her family dynamics. Young notes that friends encouraged her to share her story, highlighting a communal aspect to her personal journey.
The Significance of Eight Weeks
The title of her memoir, "Eight Weeks," reflects a pivotal moment in Young's understanding of her early life. She learned from her care records that she was placed with her foster mother, Daisy, at eight weeks old, contrary to her lifelong belief that it was six weeks. This two-week difference symbolizes a crucial period she spent with her biological mother, impacting her sense of belonging and identity. The experience underlines the importance of accurate memories and how even small discrepancies can hold significant emotional weight.
Accessing Care Records
Young recounts the complexities she faced in obtaining her care records, a process that was made possible after a friend brought it to her attention. After a year of navigating bureaucratic challenges, she finally received her notes from Islington Council, which contained fragmented histories that deepened her understanding of her childhood. The experience exposed disparities in how care records are accessed and maintained, revealing a lack of awareness that many individuals from similar backgrounds might have. Young emphasizes that this knowledge is crucial for those looking to piece together their narratives.
Ambivalence Toward Family
Throughout her exploration, Young grapples with conflicting emotions regarding her parents, each of whom tried to reclaim her at different stages of her childhood. While she acknowledges her mother and father's shortcomings, she also reflects on how her role as a parent has shaped her understanding and lack of bitterness towards them. She recognizes the complexities of their lives, suggesting that their inability to care for her was rooted in their struggles. This nuanced perspective illustrates the challenges of reconciling hurt with empathy, reflecting on the broader implications of family dynamics in care systems.
Impact of Racism and Identity
Young's experiences in a predominantly white upbringing underscored the racism she faced during her childhood, which she faced with resilience. She remembers instances of being taunted and the heavy implication that her identity as a black girl was often viewed through a racialized lens. While her foster mother provided stability, Young recognizes the lack of understanding surrounding civil rights and the complexities of being raised in a racially charged environment. This dichotomy between personal safety with foster care and the external threats of racial discrimination shaped her identity and purpose throughout her life.
Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner, well known for her work on modern slavery and climate justice. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children’s homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood.
Now she tells Hannah MacInnes the powerful story of how she defied the odds of the ‘care cliff’ to become one of the country’s most prominent activists, a story of care records, lost letters and one of the highest offices in the country. She joins us to share her insights into parliamentary reform, the role of art in politics, and why poverty is the biggest problem facing the UK today.