Madeleine Lambert was two days shy of her 14th birthday when she gave birth to her daughter Everly in 2018.
“People were like, ‘She’s never going to amount to anything. She’s throwing her life away,’” Lambert, now 21, tells TODAY.com. “So I said to myself, ‘I’m going to prove them wrong. I’m going to be a success story.”
Lambert completed her GED in 2022, and went on to earn her associate’s degree while pursuing a career as a YouTuber. But she wanted more, so she applied to a four-year biomedical program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and her heartfelt application essay went viral.
She just found out — she got in!
After Lambert shared her college entrance essay about overcoming adversity, it went viral on TikTok with more than 10 million views. In the piece, Lambert opened up about her struggles with mental health, and the names she’s been called throughout her life, including, “dropout” and “teen mom.”
The kicker had people in tears.
“My name is Madeleine, but one day it will be Dr. Lambert,” she wrote. “The world has given me labels, but this one — this title — I will earn myself.”
“This is the best personal statement I’ve ever read,” one person wrote.
Added another, “As an admission director for a school, this is a beautiful essay and truly encompasses who you are and who you want to be.”
Lambert, who describes herself as a “research nerd,” gets giddy as she talks about the university’s cadaver lab and the courses she plans to take when she starts classes.
“Just the amount of resources I’m going to have access to, it doesn’t feel real,” Lambert says, noting that she’s loved science since she was a little girl.
Lambert lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her husband, Randy, and their children Everly, 7, and Ryder, 9 months. (Everly is from a previous relationship.)
She hopes her story will inspire other young mothers.