Story by Stars Insider
Adolescence is a challenging period in anyone’s life, and for celebrities it was no exception. Sure, some of these teens went on to become hugely successful, but back when they were high schoolers, life was a lot different for (most of) them. Some were popular, some were bullied, and others really had quite fascinating experiences as teens.
In this gallery, you’ll get to know what these famous stars were like as teenagers. Curious? Then click on!
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds has been acting since he was a teenager, but he struggled to talk to girls. “I remember, it took me a while to learn that you could actually talk to girls. I remember during elementary school, I used to ‘accidentally fall’ on [girls] during volleyball practice. And just a few years later, that’s illegal. That’s straight up inappropriate,” recalled the actor.
Harrison Ford
The actor might have been “kind of short and geeky,” but girls liked him. Ford did struggle to find his niche though. “I wasn’t an athlete, I wasn’t a student leader, I wasn’t anything. I was a late bloomer, I think,” he said.
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck did okay in high school, until his buddy Matt Damon left. “So I did really well my first two years in high school and then when Matt left, I would cut class and… get in all kinds of trouble. When he started getting paid for his acting jobs, Affleck’s mother would put his earnings in a college trust fund. But then the actor would withdraw the money and spend “$200 a week on pizza, beer and video games.
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore started acting at a very young age and by the time she was a teenager, the actress had a lot of contact with drugs and alcohol. After spending over a year in a mental institution, Barrymore went to live on her own at age 14. “I had no idea how to run an apartment at 14. There was fungus growing everywhere, it was a disaster. It was in a dangerous neighborhood and I was so scared to sleep,” confessed Barrymore.
Gwyneth Paltrow
The actress “got real into the alcohol” as a teenager. “I remember I once had a party — my parents went out of town — and I had a party. I got so drunk at this party and I was like, ‘I’m gonna get caught.’ I woke up and I cleaned the house top to bottom. I got busted because one of my friends had gone into my dad’s shower and drank a bunch of beers and left them in the shower,” she recalled.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Before becoming a successful wrestler and actor, The Rock had a few problems with the law as a teenager. So much so that by 17 he had been arrested “eight or nine times.” “I was getting in trouble; I was doing a lot of things I shouldn’t have been doing, getting arrested. That started happening when I was 13 years old. And, you know, I could’ve easily been one of these kids in lockup and in jail. I was fortunate and I was lucky that I had a couple of people in my life who cared about me. I had good, loving parents. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized the importance of that consistent love at home, and that’s something you realize that a lot of these kids don’t have,” he said.
Halle Berry
Despite being a cheerleader and the editor of the school newspaper, the actress didn’t have an easy time, growing up as a mixed-race teenager. “[We] were in an all-white school with all-white kids, like 3 out of 2500 students to attend a school,” recalled Berry
“Because my mother was white and my father was [B]lack… we got called Oreos and names, and kids just didn’t understand, so we were different. We were the brunt of a lot of jokes. So, I think my need to please and my desire to achieve was because I was constantly trying to prove that I was as good as the other white students. I felt very ‘less than,’ and I thought, ‘If I can beat them at everything, then I can be as good as them,'” she added.
Angelina Jolie
The actress was a bit of a rebel during her teenage years. “I was the punk outsider nobody messed with. I was fearless. At 16, I graduated and moved out
Jake Gyllenhaal
The actor was “kind of a nerd” back in his high school days. And despite playing sports, Gyllenhaal was still made fun of because he also liked singing and performing. And, of course, it didn’t help that he “had really thick glasses.”
Dua Lipa
At 15, she left Kosovo for London to chase music, posting cover songs online. “I knew I wanted to perform but didn’t feel like I could do it there,” she recalled.
Originally published at StarsInsider
