Politics and Peppa Pig: The intersectionality you never expected
- Amelie Abass
- Jun 4
- 6 min read
It’s the end of my first academic year as a politics student at university. Here is a little dive into the rollercoaster of the first year with a one-year-old in tow.
I honestly never thought I would be going back into full-time education. Isaac came along, and I honestly wanted to stay as far away from education as possible, but a bit of convincing from my mum (childcare), and back I was in.
I think 18-year-old me would probably not believe anyone if she’d have been told in 4 years, I would be a single mum studying politics at university. I don’t know which one is more difficult to believe, that I’m a single mum or studyingpolitics.
As a music scholar at school, I always expected music to be the next step. It's funny how your life turns out when you just let things happen.
What brought me to the world of politics? Well, I didn’t study it at the A-level, and until last year, I hadn’t interacted with politics in the slightest. The reality is that despite my childhood, my pregnancy was interesting to say the least.
For about 8 months out of 9, I was homeless, then in the 9th month of pregnancy, when I moved back in with my mum, I separated from my son's father. I gave birth to my son at 38 weeks and despite thinking I was going to have a home birth accompanied by the sounds of a live flautist, no pain medication, and a lovely home-trained doula telling me to ‘breathe’, the reality was a little more dramatic.
Due to my gestational diabetes, I had no choice but to have a hospital birth with an induction. Isaac, my headstrong little boy, did not want to come out, so the doctor had to pull him out with forceps at the operating table (not at home with the sweet sounds of Beethoven), and I lost over 2 litres of blood. So, a life lesson: things will not always go as planned.
All these experiences changed me; I now knew that I wanted to make a difference, so that I could minimise the suffering of young people in situations similar to what I went through. I am not just talking about young or single mothers, I am talking about all the young people who are not supported by a system that, in theory, is meant to do just that, but in practice has shortfalls.
Fast forward to September of 2024, now living in a flat in Woking with my son for over a year, I was worried about starting university. Despite attending mainstream school all my life, the past couple of years before starting my degree, I had been very isolated from people my age.
As a single mum, I thought I had something to prove. I did not want to just be seen as the single mum; I wanted to work so hard and do something so great that people would not even talk about the fact that I had a son. I love my son, but in a university environment, it is difficult not to want to ignore that side of myself or even overcompensate for it.
As a university student, I am fortunate to send my son to nursery full-time and have support from my mother and my son's father.
My first term at university did not go as planned. My grandad had died at the start of September 2024, and I was not able to fully grieve, as if I was to let myself feel those emotions, then it would be difficult to keep going for my mum, my greatest form of support.
This difficult period, coupled with this intense desire to prove myself, honestly, led to me making many mistakes in the first term.
Looking back, I wanted too much to pretend I was not a single mum and was still a student with no responsibilities. It’s a lonely place to be in, and instead of accepting it, I acted like something I was not. The reality is that I had not realised that without Isaac, I probably never would have gone back to university, let alone entered the world of politics.
Over the Christmas break, I finally did something I should have done as soon as I turned 18: I got an assessment and diagnosis for ADHD.
This put me on the right track, but it also took me understanding that I would likely have to work twice as hard as my non-ADHD, non-single-parent peers. One of my saving graces during this period was my activism and campaigning, something that gave me purpose that I was able to do separately from the University environment, which I was still struggling to navigate at the time.
Activism allowed me to engage with what I cared about with a real purpose. I worked so incredibly hard, almost too hard. Many people told me to relax and take time, which I did not do. My hard work paid off, though.
I won Campaigner of the Year at the 2025 Inspirational Youth Awards for my campaigning for electoral reform and youth engagement in politics.
When I say that I am a single mum and a student, most people are amazed, and the first thing they say is: ‘Wow! How do you juggle all that workload with your son?’ It is no different from being a working parent with young children, of which there are many.
The most challenging thing about being a single mum and a full-time student is the acceptance of your life no longer looking like that of your peers and being in the same environment as them for the majority of the year. I needed to go to university because I did not even realise it. Still, I had never come to terms with becoming a mother until I was inserted into that environment.
I felt a lot of pressure to do well, coupled with wanting to overcompensate because now that I had committed to doing well, there was no going back, and there was also a little boy counting on me at home. Yes, I let the pressure get to me in the first term, but everything slowly improved in the second term. Now, I am not saying that I am the perfect student by any means.
However, I am on track to finish my degree despite having been close to dropping out in the first term.
Through all of the incredible highs and difficult lows of the first year studying Politics & International Relations, there is one thing that maybe took me a little too long to realise. I would not have gotten to where I am now without everything I have experienced, especially Isaac.
There was a time when I cared too much about people's thoughts and was also not confident in myself. Now, I can confidently advocate in my campaigning and life because of the experiences that being a mother has brought me, and for that, I am forever grateful to my son. Lessons learnt from the first year: Many. Although I am told that the second year is the real test, I am confident knowing that if I can make it through nearly dying during childbirth, I can make it through a politics degree.
This academic year, I was able to do things I never dreamed of being able to do as a single mum.
I made long-lasting friends, found things that I love to do that give me purpose and got to raise a beautiful boy who is much too fond of Peppa Pig (to get through it, I'm telling myself it's just a phase and I’m practising mindfulness, hopefully he will transition to Paw Patrol soon).
I like to think that Isaac gave me the strength to be a mother, student and campaigner; however, in reality, he helped me see that I was always capable of doing it, without having to prove myself to anyone. Thank you to my family, friends, and everyone who helped me along the way in my first year.
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