I was pregnant when I left school, so I needed income support. I didn't even have functional skills, not even GSCEs in English and Maths, so I needed to go back to college.
From 13/14 I was always hanging about with older boys. Boys in school used to call me names. But outside older boys would pay me attention because I looked older for my age. I was going to clubs from 14. I wanted to be loved.
One the reasons I talk about my story is I want other people who are in the circumstances I was in to understand they are just as good and as valuable as everyone else.
We must ensure that every single child can go as far as their ability and their aspirations will take them.
Grammar schools are about stigmatising children, not on the grounds of their ability, but on their background.
The evidence shows that grammar schools overwhelmingly benefit those from more affluent backgrounds.
We need to focus on helping EVERY child to get a world-class education in EVERY school in this country.
In the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrats built their campaign around a pledge to abolish tuition fees. By the end of that year, however, they had tripled them instead. The Liberal Democrats had made young people feel as if they were on their side. They were not.
I'm a mum and I hate the thought of any child going a whole day at school without a healthy meal.
We as a nation cannot be satisfied with our children suffering health problems through no fault of their own.
2018 marks 30 years since Margaret Thatcher's government introduced Section 28, one of its most abominable policies. As a part of the Local Government Act, this Section was designed to prevent local authorities and schools from the so-called promotion of LGBT+ issues.
During the 2010 election campaign, Liberal Democrat candidates, including Swinson, signed the National Union of Students pledge to vote against tuition fees. Looking back, students were among the first to see the reality of the Liberal Democrats in government.
It took 15 years and a Labour government to finally see Section 28 taken off the statute books. But this victory belongs to the LGBT+ activists who campaigned for so many years, fighting for change from the ground up.
I've met many lesbian, gay and trans activists who've told me what they face, sometimes even within the school gates: hate crime, fear of discrimination, physical and verbal abuse, domestic violence and homelessness.
Child poverty is more than an abstract problem to me. It's something I know all too much about.
Growing up without love, without being cared for, might be the worst type of poverty.
Many parents know that hugging your children - telling them how amazing they are - is so important. Some parents, through no fault of their own, don't realise this. My mum was one of those who didn't realise, and I almost was too.
We can't have children growing up feeling unloved - the price is too high for that.
I first learned the power of a Labour government to transform lives growing up in my hometown of Stockport.
At 16, out of school and pregnant, my own life could have been written off. It was the help I had from some of the then Labour government's policies such as Sure Start that turned it around.
