Best known for being a member of the Camden-based hip hop group N-Dubz, Tulisa is currently winning hearts and fans as a down-to-earth judge on the X Factor. But away from the present glamour, the path to fame for her has been far from easy. For the first time, using extensive research and interviews with those closest to the superstar, the UK"s leading celebrity biographer Sean Smith tells the story of the real Tulisa. Tulisa"s story was tough from the start: when she was just five, her mother was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and her father left home when she was nine years old. Tulisa was brought up on a council estate and endured tough and gritty teenage years: violence, depression, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anorexia nervosa, mental health issues, financial difficulties and bullying. At thirteen she was suicidal and has revealed that she twice tried to kill herself as well as regularly self-harming. She left school without sitting any GCSE"s.