She may have had a difficult past, but Mexico City resident Adhara Pérez has a bright future. At just eight years old, she already has an IQ of 162— higher than both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, who each had an IQ of about 160.

Now, the little girl has written a book about her experiences (Do Not Give Up is the rough translation), and was recently featured in Forbes México‘s 100 Most Powerful Women in Mexico list. She’s even working on a smart bracelet that will monitor the emotions of differently-abled children.

But it took a long time before Pérez’s extraordinary gifts were recognized.

After being diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder at three years old—a developmental disorder that oftentimes causes difficulties with social interaction and communication—the little girl faced bullying and harassment from the other kids at school.

Pérez was “made a joke at school,” reports The Digital Weekly, and her mother Nallely Sanchez said: “I witnessed that Adhara was playing in a little house, and they bolted her up. And they began to chant: ‘Oddball, weirdo!'”

The bullying got so bad that Pérez fell into “intense” depression and stopped wanting to go to school. Teachers said when she did go to class, she would often fall asleep and daydream.

It wasn’t until her mother took her to therapy that Pérez’ unusually high IQ was discovered and she was placed into classes according to her abilities.

Her rare intelligence allowed Pérez to finish elementary school at five years of age, middle school at six, and high school at eight. She is currently studying two online degrees: Industrial Engineering in Mathematics at UNITEC and Systems Engineering by CNCI, and she dreams of entering the University of Arizona to study astrophysics in the near future, according to The Yucatan Times.