Yes. I began working illegally at fifteen, I was lucky my boss didn’t bother to look at the age I wrote down on my application. I was able to buy clothes and food. At sixteen I got a second job and still went to high school. I was homeless and lived with my boyfriend, I did as much homework as I could and pulled C’s that year. My mother and her boyfriend bought a house and then decided they had enough room for me to live with them. My father was missing and presumed dead. I worked and spent my free time at the library and the gym. Being home meant subjecting myself to verbal abuse. I saved my money and moved to Silicon Valley right after my 21st birthday. I became a bioengineer and now I’m a stay at home mother and married a programmer. You can escape. Work, save, study and stay away from family members. Join a gym, use ear plugs. Live in your car/van in a nice town if you must. Do not stay around others in a poverty mindset. Get a cup of coffee in a cafe in a wealthy part of town, observe how they interact and emulate them. Go to free meet ups to be around people in a higher social class. You’re going to be working harder than anyone else around you for a while, that’s ok. Follow advice from early retirement blogs, take any shortcuts you can to success, don’t waste time getting a degree. Don’t do anything risky with your health or money. You can take risks in a few years. You can make it out. If there is anyone reading this in a terrible situation I can offer more advice.

Switched parents to the one that wasn't doing drugs and had good work and no mental health issues. The kids I remember from that time probably didn't see an escape route in their own lives. A lot of their parents were shits. Some of them were straight chaotic evil. Some, if you put their minds into their children's bodies, they could fit right in and assume their children's roles. Children raising children is a sure way to harm brain development. Also, beating them. Saw a bit of that. Makes me sad to think where those kids might be now.

The typical answers are: education, military, sports, entertainment. You either need to work hard in education or go join the military and survive or be naturally gifted in sports/music.

Maybe the commenter was not as poor for the other half of their childhood.

Yes, similar to the other responses I found work wherever possible and moved away as soon as I was able to afford it. Having a safe place to then study and focus on school while working made a huge difference, as did eating properly and getting somewhat reasonable amounts of sleep. Its amazing how much other people can notice your mood drop when you haven’t slept or eaten properly and it just becomes another thing they can single you out over...