A sign of the times it seems. This is what happens when so much of how one constructs oneself is as a mere product of circumstance. We are of course, but something in the culture is weirdly centering it.
Jeez, she is more than middle class, she is upper middle class, 750k home in st.louis is huge, and Whitfield private school is very expensive. It is like if Mark Zuckerburg claimed to be from the streets. One thing i will say is i've also seen plenty of underrepresented minorities who are pretty much upper middle class or just rich, claim racial hardship and whatnot to get really good opportunities (Imagine if Obama's children wrote an essay about how hard their lives have been cause they are black). I guess there will always be people who will use dirty tactics to get ahead. One i particularly love is when a friend i had in high school, used the immigrant experience to try to get into his target school, like both of his parents were doctors lol
Unless I'm missing something, she seems to be a student, possibly estranged from her family since 17, having spent the last year of her adolescence in foster care, so it's plausible that she is currently poor, and needing of a scholarship to afford further education.
We don't know any more details from this article, and there is a big difference between having grown up poor verses being currently poor, as ones early life can give them a huge advantage, but this might not be as clear cut of a case of "rich kid blatantly lies to get opportunity" as it may seem.
