Exclusive:
Mensa member Melissa Todd, who took the IQ test at the age of 12, has a higher IQ than perhaps Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein – but her profession is far from what you would expect
Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein are commonly seen as great thinkers with great minds. Pioneering the theories central to scientific research, it’s clear they made their mark on the world as we now know it.
Yet, there’s another genius out there with an IQ that may just trump them both. Melissa Todd from Hertfordshire took the Mensa test when she was just 12, joining the world famous ‘high-IQ society’.
Coined as ‘Brain of Britain’ decades ago by the Herts and Essex Observer, Melissa had ambitions for university and an economist’s life. But her path took an unexpected turn – a direction even she hadn’t seen coming.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, she said: “It seems like a very long time ago now… I heard a piece on the radio, I think, like on Jeremy Vine or whatever the equivalent was then and it sounded interesting, I like tests really.
“Yeah, then I got a lot of A-Levels and passed the Oxford entrance exam and I went to Oxford briefly but then I went mad and dropped out, which is not uncommon among undergraduates. I was doing PPE [Philosophy, Politics and Economics] with Liz Truss although we were different colleges so I don’t remember her at all.”
Although Einstein and Hawking reportedly never took Mensa tests, many sources speculate their IQs were around the 160-mark. For context, an ‘average IQ’ is somewhere between 85 and 115.
However, documents shown to The Mirror suggest Melissa’s IQ averaged at 178, making her ‘exceptionally gifted’, in the eyes of testers. She was the first person in her family to attend university, but it wasn’t a natural fit.
She continued: “I took a year out because I was going completely mad and annoying everyone sobbing over lecturers and stuff. So, I thought I’ll take a year out and I saw a job advertised in The Evening Standard for table dancers at [a bar].
“And I really didn’t have any ideas of what to do but thought ‘that sounds fun’ and they say you’ll make £600 a night and I really desperately needed money and I like dancing, so why not give it a go?”
Despite being naturally introverted, Melissa found herself thoroughly enjoying the job. She was captivated by the glitterballs, sequinned outfits and endless bottles of Champagne – it felt as though she had finally found where she belonged.
“It was just literally just meant to be a summer job, or not even that,” she said. “But you get used to being happy and rich, and you meet interesting people who say ‘why don’t you do this’, ‘why don’t you make p*rn’, ‘why don’t you go in a peep show’…and here I am 28 years later thinking ‘I’m probably not going to go back to Oxford am I?’
Edging towards her 48th birthday, Melissa has now spent decades of her life working for the adult sex industry. She stars in magazines and travels the globe on wild adventures – from ‘spanking conferences’ to lavish sex parties – all while raking in millions.
And although she certainly has a wealth of entertaining stories to share at parties, she believes there’s an unjust stigma attached to her profession. Many people mistakenly assume that all sex workers are ‘stupid’ or victims in every situation – she’s adamant that isn’t the case.
She’s now written two books that shine a light on her experiences and the industry as a whole, with the newest ‘Americained’ released just a few weeks ago. “An awful lot of sex workers I know are just so bright and creative – you have to be,” she said. “You’re constantly marketing yourself, there’s millions of us out there all trying to do the same thing, so it means you have to be different, ahead of the curve.
“I’m 48 next month. They’re not looking at me because my t*** are amazing – they’re looking at me because I’m kind of funny and interesting and I’ve been around for a long time… it’s a real misnomer I think.”
Have you got a story? Get in touch, at lauren.haughey@reachplc.com
