"It's the Hard Knock Life" is a song in the film Annie (1982) sung by the character Annie and some of her friends in an orphanage.
For American Courtney Price-Dukes, Annie is not only a fictional character in a favourite film from childhood, but the “reality for thousands of children” who are living “The Hard Knock Life” in the foster care system.
“Being pulled from your home, having to live with strangers, pushed through the judicial system as if you’re just a number, and just simply trying to hold yourself together – that is the Hard Knock Life.”
Courtney—who was in foster care and is now studying at Wichita State University—has a message in her 2020 TedTalk: that more people are needed in the foster care system and not necessarily as foster carers, but as advocates and mentors for children, to provide support for parents too, and to donate toys, suitcases, etc.