TikToker Jarvis Opens Up About Poverty, Bipolar Mother and Absent Father

Nigerian TikToker and content creator Elizabeth Amadou, popularly known as Jarvis, has described a childhood marked by family instability, hunger and financial hardship.

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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.

Speaking in a trending video on Sunday, Jarvis said she grew up without her father and faced the challenges of living with a mother who had bipolar disorder. She said her mother's behavior could change sharply, making home life stressful and depressing.

“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,” Jarvis said.

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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.

She said her mother had traveled abroad and returned pregnant with her, meaning she did not grow up with her father. Her grandparents played a major role in raising her. Jarvis described them as educated and strict, adding that their discipline helped shape her.

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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.

The family also struggled to pay school fees. Jarvis said she did not want to leave school or turn to harmful ways of making money under peer pressure. She recalled that she and her sister sometimes went without food and watched cooking videos on TikTok simply to imagine eating the dishes. “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,” she said.

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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.