Before winning the 2015 Irish Choice Music Prize Album of the Year and making the shortlist for the Mercury Prize, SOAK had to overcome severe dyslexia as a child. "When I was really young, like five, I had severe dyslexia and they said I was never going to be able to write," she confessed to The Independent back in October 2015. "The specialists said I should go to special schools, but my parents wanted me to have the same chances as my two brothers." SOAK ended up attending an integrated school, where she worked her way up to the top set in English all on her own.