From Bronx Stairwells to Harvard Yard

Liz Murray grew up in the Bronx, in New York, in the 1980s and 1990s. Her parents loved her, she has said, but they were unable to look after her and her older sister, Lisa. There were stretches when she went days without enough food and had to handle everyday problems on her own. At one point she and her sister shared a single tube of toothpaste and lip balm because they were so hungry.

At 15 she left home after her parents separated and she felt unwanted at her mother's boyfriend's apartment. She slept in stairwells, on the subway and at friends' houses, and she mostly skipped school. She first thought of it as breaking night, staying out until dawn, and only later understood that she was homeless. When she was 16 her mother died, which she has described as the moment she realised she was repeating a cycle and that something had to change.

She enrolled at an alternative school in Manhattan, Humanities Preparatory Academy. She needed her father's signature, which she got at a shelter. She kept her situation secret, partly because of an earlier bad experience in foster care, and went on sleeping wherever she could while she attended classes.

After graduating she won a New York Times scholarship, which brought wide attention and offers of help. She attended Harvard University and graduated in 2009. Her memoir, Breaking Night, tells the story of her journey from homeless to Harvard. It led to a television film, to speaking engagements through the Washington Speakers Bureau, and to her own seminars and workshops under the name Manifest Living.