The Brat: Rosie Deeks, 16
Rosie grew up in Leytonstone, East London. Her mother, Jenny, is a lesbian who had Rosie and her sister by arrangement with a friend. He was an equal carer for the first couple of years, and still sees his children regularly. Rosie says she always felt loved, and was on a gifted child register at school.
Then, at secondary school, she was badly bullied. At 13, Rosie started avoiding school, and got involved with Michael, who was 18. “Michael was quite violent and he pressurised me into taking drugs. I spent £20 on cannabis every single day. I stole off my family to get the money.”
Rosie knew things couldn’t go on as they were. “I got more and more depressed, and I thought there must be something else in life, but I couldn’t see how to get out of the drug lifestyle.” When Jenny, in despair, suggested Brat Camp, Rosie agreed out of desperation. She reasoned that parading her problems in public would be a small sacrifice if those problems were solved.
Luckily for Rosie, Brat Camp was a success. She graduated first in the group and achieved the highest possible level (eagle). “I was having the best time of my life, and I realised that this was how I wanted to feel.”
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She is a keen defender of the centre’s authoritarian methods: “If they weren’t controlling, everyone would have run off. No matter how much we screamed at them, they would never back down, which is what broke us. Then when you get up to the higher levels, you’re in control of yourself. When I was on my own for two days in the forest, I thought very hard and I realised that, actually, I deserve a nice life, and if I respect others, I will get respect back.”
For many of the group, proper food and outdoor life were as important as the counselling. “The food was all balanced, and there was lots of physical exercise, which none of us were used to — that’s what helped change us.”
Rosie found the strength to stick to her resolutions on her return home. “I felt completely different — and everyone could tell just by looking at me that I’d changed.” She has cut ties with her old life, and boyfriend, and has got a job with a community development programme, helping young people on estates to find work. She beat 200 others to the post.
The Mum: Jenny Deeks, 44
Jenny works for Continyou, a learning charity. She considers herself a good parent, and says that Rosie was talented at primary school, “particularly at English — she still writes poetry”. Rosie became depressed from the age of 11. “The turning point was when she was attacked by six older boys who threw raw eggs at her. The next morning we went to see the year head, who said ‘She deserved it because I’ve seen her flirting with boys in the playground.’ I made a complaint but it wasn’t dealt with. Rosie stopped doing her homework and found reasons not to go to school. If I drove her there, she’d just walk out the gate at the other side.”
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When Rosie started going out with Michael, Jenny lost control of her daughter. “She started drinking very heavily and smoking cannabis. She got beaten up quite badly a couple of times. I got to the point where I thought I’d get a knock on the door and she’d be found dead.”
Rosie filled in a Channel 4 questionnaire for Brat Camp one night out of desperation, when Rosie had gone missing again. “It was either that or my daughter was going to end up dead. There wasn’t really a choice.”
After meeting the producers, Jenny felt she “really trusted the ethos behind it”. She says the film “is really fair. The staff were incredibly patient — the dictatorial moments were a tiny part of the process.”
Jenny feels nothing but gratitude to the show and the camp staff. Rosie is now “a completely different creature”.
“I said to them that I want my daughter back, but I haven’t got my daughter back, I’ve got an incredibly grown-up, amazing person back. She’s healthy, she’s dumped all her old associates, she’s got a job.”