British princess gives life lesson to inner-city London kids

Princess Beatrice has shared her experiences of classroom life on a visit to an inner-city school in London.

Princess Beatrice, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew, is co-founder of the charity foundation Big Change, which offers support to young people to develop their skills outside traditional academic curriculum.

Princess Beatrice told a class of 11 and 12 year olds how dyslexia had been her big barrier at school.

"My earliest memory is trying to read Beatrix Potter and the words were literally jumping off the page. And exams were terrifying, despite the support of teachers," she told her audience Wednesday at School 21, an innovative free school in East London's Newham.

The princess said projects such as those at School 21 were about developing a type of education that was not just about learning for a test, but about learning for life, adding: "It is good to be pushed out of your comfort zone."

The princess ended her visit with her own message for the young students: "There have been many recent concerns about the well-being of young people and worries about increasing problems with mental health. It's a really important thing to tackle."

"We can do something that focuses on the symptoms of stress -- but it's better to get to the root causes. What is this extra pressure? Why do we have young people leaving school not equipped for life? How are we letting them down? We live in a world where everything is moving at such a fast pace. You have to find an identity that's true to yourself. You really have to find your own voice," she said.

The princess visited the school along with another co-founder of the charity, Holly Branson, daughter of billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin. Endit