My name is Merveille Kanga. I’m originally from Congo and moved to Denmark in 2003 with my family. My close ones see me as an ambitious, curious, and an open person. I’ve always been curious about the social sciences and the combination of law and economics. This is the reason why I studied for a master’s in economics and law and economics (cand.merc.jur.) at Aarhus University in Denmark. I’m passionate about corporate law and love working with financial regulation especially because the financial sector is so important to our society, both for citizens and companies. I work as a business lawyer at the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, and in my spare time I work pro bono and as a mentor.

Besides working in law, I love running and doing fitness. Fitness is a huge motivator for me, because the better I get at running or lifting weights and the more I push myself and don’t give up, the more it reminds me of how to better tackle challenges in life. My passion for fitness is a big part of my life and has led me to become a fitness influencer.

I moved to Denmark in 2003, to a small town in North Jutland called Thisted, where there weren’t that many people of colour. I remember the feeling of feeling alone, and back then in Thisted I actually got bullied for being brown in primary school and high school. Sometimes I got the feeling that people saw you as stupid or less worthy because you had another [skin] color or weren’t the best at Danish. It was a hard childhood, but with the help of my family, I learned very quickly, at a very young age, to be strong and focused on what I really wanted to do with my life.

Despite being surrounded by siblings, cousins, and women whose only dream and desire was to marry and have children, I have always looked up to strong and smart women who could earn their own money and support themselves and their families. I have always aspired to become an educated and smart woman myself. One of the women you saw in the series *”Suits”, was smart and had exceptional business sense and communication skills. Since moving to Denmark, I have worked hard to achieve this dream. To achieve my dream, in addition to high school and university, extra courses and an effort to understand Danish culture, language, and working life were required. I think deep down I wanted to strive for more in my life than end up as another colored girl who only managed to get married and have children.

I have been dyslexic all my life. I just didn’t know it until I was about to drop out of law school at the age of 24. I’ve always had difficulty keeping up at school, but I thought it was because my Danish wasn’t good enough or that I wasn’t smart enough. Since I was a young girl, I had dreamed of studying and working in law. In the course of earning my bachelor’s degree in business law, however, the dream started to crumble. Everything was so difficult, and I couldn’t understand why reading and writing was so much more challenging for me than for others.

Therefore, my self-confidence dropped and I developed anxiety. After almost dropping out of my dream study, I made one last attempt to figure out why it was so difficult to study. So I sought out a language school. Here I was presented with dyslexia for the first time. I was assigned a writing tutor and the results from the targeted courses quickly became noticeable. When I returned to my studies, my grades jumped from *02’s and 4’s to 10’s and 12’s.