The story isn't real, so I had a hard time with it. If you read the book, you realize she was a upper-middle class kid with normal parents, they just cut her off when she kept getting pregnant with losers from the bar.
Her parents are regular people, she was provided for by them throughout college but they cut her off financially.
So she stole her story from someone else. She lied about the details to make it seem noteworthy that a single mom had to work.
The whole plot line is how disgraceful cleaning is. She only did it for a few years it's white privilege at its best.