I began reading words when I was eight months old. By the time I was two, I had read Charlotte’s Web. My parents thought it was odd, but because I didn’t have any siblings for them to compare me with, they didn’t realise just how odd.

At pre-school in Northport, New York, I quickly overtook everyone. At seven, I was going into high school for my classes but still doing all my social activities with kids my age. But when I was nine, the public school administration said that I had to go to high school full-time with 16-year-olds. I didn’t want to, because some kids there were always teasing me – it was pretty horrible when they called me a know-it-all and tried to grab my homework.

My parents tried to find me another school but, in the end, because I was so advanced, the only place that was on the same level as me was State University of New York at Stony Brook.