Amy Lloyd, United Kingdom: “My mother has never really been there for me. She used to leave me on my own for days at a time. When she came home she would just say ‘What have you done?’ and beat me.

When I was 10, my mum called social services and said that if I stayed with her my life would be in danger, and that she would kill me. That day, it was time for me to leave home.

I was taken to a stranger’s house, where I just kept asking myself what I had done wrong. My mum always said everything was my fault. For a while I believed her, and blamed myself. Then I realised that it wasn’t my fault.

The only thing I have ever wished for is a proper family that loves me whatever I do, however I look, because of who I am.”