A Dutch court sent a 13-year-old girl to “state care” because she wanted to become the youngest person to sail alone around the world.
The authorities feared for her well-being under the test.
Child welfare authorities took care of Laura Dekker for two months while she was evaluated by psychologists. Despite this, she still lived with her father.
The Social Welfare Service then argued that Laura Dekker was too young to properly assess the risks of the trip.
Psychologists also said that being alone for so long is harmful at an important time in her development.
After 8 hearings, she got the green light to leave, and she left the country in Gibraltar on the sailboat “Guppy”.
The departure was on 21 August 2010 and she returned home on 21 January 2012.
It took her a year and five months to sail around the world.
