Gabrielle Turnquest

Gabrielle Turnquest was born to Bahamian parents and raised largely in Windermere, Florida, the third of six children in a family that placed exceptional emphasis on accelerated education. Homeschooled for periods in both Florida and the Bahamas on a custom curriculum her mother designed, she began undergraduate study at just 14 and earned a psychology degree from Liberty University in Virginia at 16 — then the youngest graduate in the university's history.

Following her mother and older sister, both lawyers, Turnquest travelled to London to study law at the University of Law, passing her Graduate Diploma in Law at 17. The following year she completed the Bar Professional Training Course and, at the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, was called to the Bar of England and Wales — becoming, at 18, the youngest person to do so in the profession's more than 600-year recorded history, against an average qualifying age of 27.

Turnquest was also called to the Bar of the Bahamas, her parents' home country, and has spoken candidly about the scepticism her age attracted early in her career, adopting the social media handle "BabyLitigator" with a bio noting: "I did pass the Bar at 18. No, I'm not still a teenager."

Rather than pursuing a conventional legal career immediately, Turnquest went on to study at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, working toward a specialism in fashion law that combines her legal training with an interest in the international apparel industry.