Jarvis shares her tough childhood with a sick mother and no father

Nigerian TikToker Elizabeth Amadou, known as Jarvis, recently talked about her tough childhood. She grew up without her father, faced challenges with a mother who has bipolar disorder, and went through times of hunger and money problems.

In a video that is now very popular, Jarvis shared her story on Sunday. She spoke alongside her husband, Peller, and Pastor Tobi during their Sunday service in the UK.

Jarvis reflected on her childhood, saying living with her mother was hard due to her mother’s bipolar disorder. This sometimes changed how her mother acted towards the family.

“My grandpa was sick and I came into a family through a mother that has bipolar disorder. Growing up with her has been very stressful and depressing because sometimes the disorder is crazy. Today she is nice and good and next minute she is violent, insulting us, you this stupid child, your father is mad.”

She added that this kind of environment was stressful and made her childhood even harder.

Jarvis also mentioned that she did not grow up with her father. Her mother had traveled abroad and returned pregnant with her.

“I didn’t grow up with my father because my mother travelled out of the country and came back pregnant and gave birth to me. Growing up without a dad has not been good because my mum is not mentally okay.”

The content creator said her grandparents helped raise her. They provided discipline and guidance during her early years.

“I grew up with my grandma and grandpa. They did their best to raise me up and they are very learned and strict. The strictness made me who I am today.”

Besides family issues, Jarvis faced money troubles while growing up. There were times when her family could not pay her school fees.

She was determined to stay in school and not get drawn into bad ways to make money.

“When everything was going down and there was no school fees, I don’t want to drop out from school or go through the wrong way to make money. You know peer group influence.”

Jarvis also shared that sometimes she and her sister went hungry. They would watch cooking videos on TikTok, even though they could not afford the food shown in the videos.

“I and my sister used to watch cooking food videos on TikTok just to salivate and at the end of the day we pray that God help us, cry and sleep because there is hunger.”

Eventually, this situation led her and her sister to find out about TikTok livestreaming as a way to earn money.

Someone reached out to her on TikTok, encouraging her to start going live and explained how she could make money from it.

“Someone messaged me on TikTok app and told me if I start going live on the app I can make money. The first time I had 200 videos and I was like whoa.”

Though she felt shy about being on social media, Jarvis and her sister decided to start livestreaming together.

Their first earnings were small but felt big to them given their financial struggles.

“So I started with my sister and we made like $5 at first and we were very happy because it was crazy. I was so shy but with my sister I did it. My family must not see us on social media because there will be problem. Along the line we started content.”

Jarvis said this experience grew beyond just livestreaming. She and her sister began creating content and building an online audience.

Her main motivation was to support her sister and become financially independent.

“I wanted to take care of my sister. I want to be able to provide a living for ourselves,” she said.

What started as a way to earn enough money to survive turned into a journey of TikTok livestreaming and content creation for Jarvis.