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Lisbeth Malene Zornig Andersen (born February 12, 1968 in Vanløse, Denmark) is a Danish economist, activist, author, and professional debater who focuses on socially challenged people.

Childhood and family Andersen grew up in a lower-class family in Nakskov, on the island of Lolland in Denmark. As a small child she was abused and neglected. She grew up with three brothers, only one of whom is still living. During the course of her childhood, Lisbeth was sent to a number of institutions. After a stay at Hylleholt, a boarding school for difficult girls, she attended and graduated from Haslev High School in 1986. She then attended the University of Copenhagen, where she earned a master’s degree in Political Economics and wrote her thesis on game theory.

Today, Andersen has five children, and in June of 2013 she married the author, journalist and former editor-in-chief Mikael Rauno Lindholm.

Andersen describes her childhood in both her autobiography Anger is My Middle Name (2011) and in the documentary My Childhood in Hell (2012). Both depict the challenges and abuse she experienced throughout her childhood, as well as the factors that enabled Andersen—unlike her brothers—to break the pattern of abuse, complete her education, and escape her economic and abusive upbringing. Anger Is My Middle Name was translated into English by Mark Mussari and published by AmazonCrossing in 2019.

In her memoir, Zornig recounts being born into a violently dysfunctional home in working-class Denmark. Throughout their childhood, she and her three older brothers were bounced back and forth between foster care, state run institutions, and then back again to their chemically dependent mother and sadistic stepfather. Andersen’s childhood was blighted by poverty, sexual abuse, neglect, betrayal, and further victimization by the broken Danish social services that forced her to live where and how they saw fit. Coming of age with myriad fears and emotional disorders, Lisbeth maintained three driving forces in her life: she was extraordinarily bright, exceptionally willful, and quite angry.

By the time she was 17, Andersen was already living by herself and attending college. At 24, she got her master’s degree in Economics in record time, graduating at the top of her class. She then launched a career with Denmark’s largest bank as an IT-programmer and went on to become CEO of the Specialists, a company employing people with Asperger Syndrome as IT-testers. In the meantime, she gave birth to and raised five children. In 2010 she was appointed by the Danish government as the Chair of the National Council for Children (Children’s Ombudsmand). In 2012 she formed her own company, the House of Zornig, creating social innovation in the form of new methods and practices, and disseminates knowledge, for example, through lectures, conferences, and publications, as well as advice from authorities, companies, and institutions.

Public Profile One of Denmark's most profiled public figures, Lisbeth Zornig Andersen is known primarily as an author, activist, and debater in the socio-political arena, where she fights for better conditions for society’s most vulnerable children and teenagers.

Andersen often participates in TV debates and has written for numerous newspapers. Having been appointed Chair of the National Council for Children (Children’s Ombudsmand), she rocketed onto the political scene to become one of the most powerful opinion-makers in Denmark on the social agenda. As Chair of the National Council, Andersen waged war against the abuse of children, especially the socially disadvantaged, and managed to influence Danish legislation in favor of more and faster support for disadvantaged children. She initialized the IT-Foundation that assures that all institutionalized children in Denmark receive a free computer. Following her stint as Chair of the National Council for Children, she initialized a political campaign—“Voices on the Edge”—rallying socially disadvantaged voters to vote and make their voice heard. The campaign was a huge success, increasing voter turnout far beyond expectations. She is a frequent key note speaker in Denmark as well as abroad, working with A-speakers.

Andersen was included in the Danish newspaper Politiken’s list of the 50 most influential people in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Anger Is My Middle Name stayed on the Danish bestseller lists for almost two years. My Childhood in Hell also became a great success, winning an award as best documentary of 2012 [2]. In 2014, Andersen won the Radio Award of the Year, Prix Radio, in the category Interview of the Year for her program Zornig’s Zone on Radio 24-7 [3], in which she interviewed vulnerable people [4]. In 2015, she won the TV Award of the Year for the series Burnt Children on TV2, in which she follows adult burnt children back to childhood to investigate why it went as it did [5]. In 2015, she published the debate book Born with True Grit (Underdanmarks Jægersoldater), which received six out of six stars in the newspaper Danish Municipalities and went directly onto the bestseller list. Andersen and her husband Mikael Rauno Lindholm have also published a number of thrillers, including The Dregs (2016) and The Archimedes Project (2017), in which the main characters have also been affected by child abuse, and Exodus (2018) and An Insignificant Murder (2019).

Andersen received global recognition in 2015 when she was charged and later sentenced for picking up a family of Syrian refugees in her car. The criminalization of this simple act of charity earned coverage in such publications as the Washington Post, Le Monde, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and on air at the BBC and Al Jazeera, igniting an international debate about the ethics and legality of humanitarian aid.

Publications Andersen has published, participated in, and contributed to nonfiction books, autobiography, literature, film, TV series, radio series, and reports on social subjects.

Literature Zornig—Vrede er mit mellemnavn (Gyldendal, 2011); translated as Anger Is My Middle Name (AmazonCrossing, 2019) Fra vred til voksen (Gyldendal, 2018) (autobiography) Underdanmarks Jægersoldater (Gyldendal, 2015) (debate book) Bundfald (novel) Arkimedes (novel) Jeg ville have sagt det, hvis … (nonfiction) Jeg gør mig ondt, når… (nonfiction) Jeg er godt anbragt, når… (nonfiction) De fordømte forældre (nonfiction) Social flygtninge i eget land—Et indblik i livet hos lukkede nomadefamilier i Danmark (report*) Stemmer fra kanten—Om livet på kanten af velfærdssamfundet (report*) Demokratikampagnen: Stemmer på Kanten (report*) Nottinghamshire modellen—Hurtig opsporing af socialt udsatte familier (report*) Forslag til social exit program—For voldsramte kvinder og børn (report*) Seksuelt krænkede børn—Om børn der har svært ved at fortælle og voksne der har svært ved at forstå (report*) Projekt Unge Mønsterbrydere (report*)
 * all reports are produced by the House of Zornig