Andrea Elliott’s five-part New York Times essay “Invisible Child” is a brutal but absolutely necessary read.

In it, Elliott follows Dasani, a bright, athletic girl who, along with her parents and seven siblings, struggle through daily life in savagely underfunded homeless shelters and public schools.

It’s a reminder of how strong you have to be to grow up in a situation like that, and how far our country has yet to go to do right by its homeless.