She has a history as a loser.
From an old bio:
Ellen’s current success, however, did not come easily. A casualty of the dotcom bust of the early 2000s, she lost her job at an emerging tech company and was unable to find similar work. Struggling financially, she took a job cleaning and painting apartments in exchange for her rent. Thirty-nine and almost homeless, Ellen felt defeated, but a good friend encouraged her to pursue her dreams of higher education. Ellen took the advice and enrolled at SJSU in 2006 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in English. By the spring of 2013, she had completed both her B.A. and her M.F.A. in English, and in fall 2013, she was teaching her first class at SJSU.
I think I may have spotted the problem.