Khadijah Ismail endured stares and 'boys' armpit smells' on her way to a dream apprenticeship.
She even wrote the airport a letter "on fancy paper and everything", giving her address and asking them to send more planes past her house.
The eldest of four children, Khadijah loved maths and got a scholarship to a highly academic private day school.
Her mum and dad hoped she would be the first in the family with a university degree.
At 16 she won a prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship and put the award, of several hundred pounds, towards buying a robot for her school.
But her A-level choices left her parents puzzled.