Born in a city called Sverdlovsk – now Yekaterinburg – in 1988, Varya didn’t know anything about her father either, and almost immediately after she was born, her mother sent her to be raised by her grandparents in the small town of Sibai, near the Kazakhstan border. Her mum lived between the two places, visiting Varya only on holidays. "It was beautiful there, but every time my mum left it felt like an injury," she says. Her relationship with her mother was fraught and though Varya loved her, she couldn’t accept the way she tried to control her life choices despite barely being around. "She was particularly fearful of me being in contact with boys too, and I truly think my desire to start a family young came from wanting to rebel against that."