In an ideal world, yearbook photos wouldn't exist. No matter how cool we think we are when we're at school, fashions change over time. That means the hairstyle, makeup, and outfit you chose for your commemorative picture will probably look completely absurd ten years after the photograph has been taken.
Some of us were sadly never all that cool to begin with. Our teenage years can be awkward. We haven't fully grown into our bodies yet. That can mean bad skin, crooked teeth, shy smiles, and a general appearance of being uncomfortable in our own skin - all captured for posterity!
It isn't just us mere mortals who have reason to regret our yearbook photos, though. All of our favorite celebrities were young once, and they have their own embarrassing yearbook pictures to worry about. As a consequence of their fame, those pictures end up becoming public - and here they are!
Taylor Swift still looks young enough to be at school, and we're all envious of the way that the passing years don't seem to age her at all. She's barely recognizable here, and looks a million miles away from the superstar she's become. These days, Swift has a perfectly prepared pose for every camera she sees. That wasn't the case in her younger years. Her cheeks have the chubbiness of youth, that smile looks a little forced, and those cornrows probably aren't a hairstyle she'll ever be visiting again.
If you were someone who laughed at Swift during her school days, though, look what you made her do! Swift is the single most successful female singer-songwriter of her generation, and is regularly voted one of the sexiest women in the world. You'd never know she ever had a day in her life where she wasn't bursting with confidence - but we've got the picture to prove it happened!
Kesha once had a dollar sign in her stage name - she was known as Ke$ha. The sign of riches was supposed to be a joke, as the singing superstar actually grew up poor. She would go on to make some of the catchiest pop hits of the last ten years, but it all started somewhere for Kesha, and it was right here. Kesha was an innocent-looking brunette, who was known around her school for being big on sports, and particularly enthusiastic about her favorite basketball team the LA Lakers.
Fast forward a few years, and everything changed for Kesha. The brunette became a blonde bombshell, and the conservative fashion choices gave way to daring outfits and crazy makeup. At one point, she was said to spend one thousand dollars per day on glitter. She has always been one to sparkle, but you would never have known it from her demure yearbook photo.
Do not adjust your computer screen - you really are looking at one of the most handsome men in the world today. This should be the photo that gives hope to anybody who considers themselves to be something of an ugly duckling during their school years. Everything that Clooney could get wrong in this picture, he got wrong. His hairstyle seems to be two different things at once - neither of which are working for him - and he looks like he borrowed the glasses from his mother. We can be fairly sure that girls at Clooney's school weren't as interested in him as they are now!
We all know how this story ended for Clooney. He shot to fame as a gorgeous doctor in E.R., got picked up by Hollywood to make movies, and even ended up wearing the famous Batman outfit once - although that film didn't quite turn out the way he wanted to. These days he's as busy behind the camera as he is in front of it, and is the suave, sophisticated face of the 'Oceans' series of movies.
A few of the people you're going to see in this list fall into the 'completely unrecognizable' category. We'd have to say that Ryan Seacrest is one of them. If we hadn't told you that this was a youthful photograph of the all-star TV host, would he even have been one of your first five picks as to the young man's possible identity? The cheeks, the hair, the glasses, the brace - everything about him must have changed the day he left school for the last time!
According to his parents, Seacrest was walking around the house pretending to interview people almost from the moment he could talk. It sounds like he spent years training himself for his perfect role, and he was just waiting for his body to catch up with him. When it did, he became unstoppable. He apparently never showed any interest in comic books, sports, cars, or girls. Seacrest grew up with one dream and one dream only - and he's still living it to this day.
We wouldn't have picked this as a picture of January Jones. If we're going to be completely honest with you, we wouldn't even have said with complete confidence that it was a picture of a girl. The hairstyle seems to suggest a tomboyish streak, although the loud nature of her outfit gives you a hint that this child can style out pretty much any outfit. That's a useful trait to have when you grow up to be a model and an actress.
It wasn't all that many years after this picture was taken that Jones became a star. She was modeling by the time she was 18, and then moved into acting. Very few people know that her first major role was as a background character in the classic romantic comedy 'Love Actually,' in which she was one of the Americans in the bar who fell in love with the British boys. Her roles have become progressively bigger since then, as we've seen in 'Anger Management' and 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.'
This picture is a little odd to look at. If we didn't know any better, we'd say that someone had done a little Photoshop work, and put the face of Jamie Foxx onto somebody completely different. They haven't though - this is definitely Foxx, and we can totally confirm that this is his real yearbook photo. He was just working with the fashions of the time; the curly hair and the gray suit were a great look for the era. We think he might have had a little work done at some point to get rid of that tiny gap in his teeth, too.
There now seems to be nothing that Foxx can't do. In fact, we still don't know what he considers to be his main profession - is he an actor, or is he a musician? When he's not doing either of those things, you'll find him up on stage making people laugh as a comedian. And he doesn't even have to show them this picture to do it!
Megan Fox is generally thought of as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She doesn't even have appeared to have struggled with her looks when she was at school - most of us can only dream of having a yearbook picture that looked this good. That smile could melt any heart in the world - and it makes us wonder why she doesn't seem to smile quite as much these days! Her hair's completely on point, too. The eyebrows needed a little bit of work, but she got there in the end.
Fox was turned into an international megastar by the success of the 'Transformers' movies. She hasn't always seemed to be one hundred percent comfortable with her level of fame - she says she doesn't consider herself to be a sex symbol, and is conservative in her private life. That hasn't stopped her from continuing to star in 'Jennifer's Body,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and several other films which have put her looks front and center.
Zooey Deschanel has spent most of her adult like correcting people who think she's Katy Perry. She's probably glad that Perry wasn't famous when she was at school, because she even has a look of her back here. This little girl wasn't quite as stylish as Deschanel is now, but we'd know that trademark wide-eyed look anywhere. Had her career in showbusiness gone the way she originally intended it to, she and Perry could have convinced the world they were singing twins; Deschanel was a singer long before she was an actor.
The first thing that most people think of when they see Deschanel will be the super-successful sitcom (try saying that three times fast) 'New Girl,' although if you're a fan of arthouse cinema, you might know her better for '500 Days of Summer,' where she played the perfect girl-next-door character.
Yes, really. We think you can probably blame Justin Timberlake for this. That strange, crimped hairstyle was briefly all the rage for boys in the early 2000s, and it would appear that 'High School Musical' star Zac Efron was quick to jump aboard that particular bandwagon. He probably regrets it now. If you can overlook that mop on top of his head, you'll notice that the eyes and the smile are exactly the same as they were when millions of children and young teenagers fell in love with him just a few short years later.
Anybody who wrote Efron off as a star who would only appeal to teenagers probably feels ridiculous now. Efron is now all grown up, and quite the consummate performer. His starring role in 'The Greatest Showman' opened people's eyes up to what a versatile and charismatic actor he is, and he's now a rippling hulk of muscle. Perhaps he plans on taking over the action movie business when Dwayne Johnson decides he's getting too old for it all.
This one is all about the face. Jennifer Garner's face has a very distinctive shape, and it's easily recognizable even when it's as heavily disguised as it is here. She's gone to so much trouble to cover up her appearance with glasses and her hairstyle that it's a little like Clark Kent disguising his 'Superman' alter-ego; which is appropriate, considering that Garner grew up to become Elektra! As for the sweater? Don't hold that against her. That's what everyone who grew up in the 1980s looked like once.
Before she was Elektra, millions of us knew and loved her as Sidney Bristow in 'Alias' - a role that she played for five years before making the seemingly-permanent jump from Hollywood. That's where she met her ex-husband Ben Affleck, with whom she has two children and still enjoys an excellent relationship despite their divorce.
We're back in 'obvious' territory here. We expect most of you would have been able to pick this as a picture of Chris Pratt if it was presented to you in a line-up. This confident-looking young man was always destined for stardom, but if things had gone another way, we might have seen him in WWE ring as opposed to a cinema screen - Pratt was a gifted wrestler. Perhaps money turned his head - in his yearbook quote, he said that he didn't care what he did when he grew up so long as it made him rich and famous.
As a good-looking tough guy, Pratt is a natural choice for any macho roles that come up - such as his turn in the most recent revival of 'Jurassic Park,' or as 'Star-Lord,' in 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' But it hasn't always been that way. Before he was as ripped as he is now, Pratt was making us laugh with his performances in the much-missed sitcom 'Parks and Recreation.'
She still has exactly the same demeanor and confidence - she's just had those teeth straightened out since her teenage years! Blake Lively is tall, elegant, and utterly enchanting. She's always turned heads every time she walks into a room- and some of those heads have had to look up, because she towers over them! Lively initially had no interest in acting, and preferred her schoolbooks. She only caught the bug because her parents took acting classes, and thought it was better to bring her along with them than leave her at home.
Lively's big breakthrough into the world of fame came with the role of Serena in 'Gossip Girl.' She then met and married Ryan Reynolds, forming one of our favorite Hollywood power couples. She has all the makings of a movie star, and bewitched audiences with her complex performance in 'A Simple Favor.' Lively is a star who's still going places, and she's been that way since long before this yearbook picture was taken.
If you look past that dreadful excuse for a pencil mustache, you'll see Jimmy Fallon staring back at you, wearing a comedy mullet wig to make you laugh. OK, it's not a wig, it's his real hair - but again, this was very much the fashion of the times Fallon grew up in. Amazingly for someone with such a cheeky personality, Fallon once considered himself destined for the priesthood. His mind was still on the church at the time his yearbook photo was taken, but he'd soon change both his ways and his mind.
Like many of America's most prominent comedians, Fallon got his start on 'Saturday Night Live,' staying with the show for six whole years before branching out on his own. After trying his hand at acting in movies like 'Fever Pitch,' his first experience as a chat show host came in 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' back in 2009. He's chopped and changed shows a few times in the ten years which have come since, but the basic format remains the same - as does Fallon's popularity.
We haven't printed the wrong picture by mistake - this genuinely is Cristin Milotti. If you're squinting at the picture and wondering how, try covering her hair with your hand, and focusing on the facial features instead. Her mouth and eyes have barely changed at all as she's grown up. It's just the fact that she once walked around with closely cropped hair that's throwing you off the scent. Milotti grew up in New Jersey, and was a star of local stages as soon as she understood the concept of acting.
Whether it's in 'How I Met Your Mother' or the terrifyingly unsettling 'Black Mirror,' most people have seen Milotti in something even if they're not familiar with her by name. She might have got more credit for her role in 'Wolf of Wall Street' if everyone hadn't been so distracted by Margot Robbie. It's not all about being in front of the camera for Milotti though - she's just as happy on the stage, where she's been the winner of a coveted Tony Award on Broadway.
All the basic features of Iggy Azalea are present in this photo from her high school days. The face is the same; the hair is the same; even the pose is basically the same as the one she'll offer to cameras today. All that's missing is the smoldering attitude which tells you that she's not someone who should be messed with in any way, ever. Azalea moved to America from Australia to pursue a career in music when she was very young, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
As she had a liking for rap, she initially started a girl group with the idea that they were going to be a modern take on TLC. Unfortunately for the two girls she was working with, Azalea didn't feel that they were committed enough to the band, and so she fired them and went alone. The strategy paid off for her in a big way. That's not a bad result for someone who took the first part of her stage name from the name of her childhood dog.
We're about 99% sure that Eminem didn't want this photo to become public under any circumstances, so we offer the legendary rapper our apologies. Don't blame us; blame whichever one of your former classmates uploaded it onto the internet. Back when this picture was taken, Eminem was just humble Marshall Mathers, and was yet to discover the art of looking fierce, dying your hair, or spitting bars so vicious that grown men wince when they hear them.
It's no secret that Eminem grew up poor - he's talked about the subject at length, and even covered it on screen in the semi-biographical movie '8 Mile.' It's been a long time since he had to worry about money. Thanks to a meeting with Dr. Dre, Eminem is now one of the most successful rappers of all time, and can still break the internet by dropping a fresh new album with no notice today.
It's almost a little sad to look at this picture now. This little girl is so full of life and hope - her eyes are sparkling so much that they practically burst out of the screen at you. The young Amy Winehouse appeared to be a happy, smiling child of the type that any parent would love to have. The hair is a little all over the place, but Winehouse was always something of a trendsetter when it came to hair. She single-handedly made the beehive fashionable again, and who would have thought that was possible?
Tragically, we all know how Winehouse's story ends. She struggled with alcohol and drug issues her whole adult life, and her body gave up on her when she was only 27. She left behind a legacy of heartbreakingly beautiful and candidly honest songs, most of which are contained on the legendary album 'Back to Black.' She was controversial, outspoken, outrageous, and never sorry for a second of it. Winehouse's life was a wild ride, and she's still very much missed today.
This British comedian and political commentator might take the prize for 'biggest transformation.' Brand has often said that he was a very different person as a child, and based on the evidence he wasn't joking. Who would have thought that this chubby kid would grow up to entertain and outrage half the world? Just about everything about him has changed, although you can just about identify him from those distinctive eyebrows. Brand struggled with bulimia when he was younger, although we're happy to say he recovered as an adult.
Brand is now considered to be something of a sex symbol - something which won him the attention of Katy Perry, although their volatile marriage only lasted a single year. He migrated from comedy to politics as he entered his late 30s, with his socialist views making him something of a polarizing figure in the press. These days he's more interested in writing books than making movies, and has settled into domestic bliss with his second wife.
This picture serves as evidence that the camera loved Kate Moss from a very early age. You don't see her around quite as much as you used to, but during the 1990s and the early 21st century, Moss was the ultimate 'it girl.' The British model was the first name anybody called when they needed a glamorous star for an advertising campaign, and she was the biggest supermodel in the world for a long time. All that really changed when she hit the big time was her hairstyle.
The only thing that followed Moss around as much as the paparazzi when she got older was controversy. She developed something of a love for bad-boy musicians, and was briefly married to 'Libertines' star Pete Doherty. Not all of the press attention she's received has been positive, but that hasn't stopped her from being one of the most enduring 'Vogue' cover stars of all time. Even now, well into her 40s, she regularly appears on 'most beautiful women in the world' lists.
The absolute worst time for a need for dental braces to arise is when you're due to have your yearbook photo taken, and so we feel for Jeremy Piven here. You can sense the awkwardness radiating from him - although part of that might come from his hairstyle, which doesn't appear to know what it's doing, or what it wants to be. Somehow, despite looking like this, he would play a college jock during his first major role in 'Lucas' during the 1980s.
Somewhere along the line, Piven clearly learned a thing or two about personal grooming. You won't see many men in Hollywood as well turned out as Piven always seems to be. His immaculate good looks (along with his acting talent) have won him a number of big roles in shows like 'Seinfeld,' but our younger readers probably know him better for the part of Ari Gold in 'Entourage,' for which he's been decorated with awards. When he's not acting, you'll sometimes find him playing drums for the band 'Bad Decisions,' of which he's made very few in his career.
Posh Spice, also known as Victoria Beckham, has something of a reputation for never smiling in photographs. Looking at this, we have no idea why - she has a beautiful smile! It wasn't the smile that needed to change; it was the cute-but-shabby side ponytail. There was no sign of that when she emerged as one-fifth of the world-conquering Spice Girls during her early 20s. She says she never felt attractive enough as a child, but there's no sign of a lack of confidence in her now.
The Spice Girls were just the beginning for Beckham. She married her husband, legendary footballer David Beckham, while she was in the band, and they became the most celebrated celebrity couple in the UK. After her music career came to an end, she branched out into fashion, and is now recognized as one of the most popular and innovative designers in the business. Her client book is full of celebrities - many of whom also appear on this list.
Somehow, Avril Lavigne looks younger now than she does in this picture. You have to concentrate really hard to see past the glasses and the outfit, but when you do, you'll see her face is exactly the same. Not a day of all the years that have passed between then and now seems to show on her face, but back then Lavigne was just a small-town girl with a lampshade haircut, and the dress-sense of a librarian twice her age.
From these humble beginnings, Lavigne broke out and became a pop-punk princess, introducing many of her younger fans to the whole idea of rock music. No matter what she does, she'll always be associated with the badly-spelled hit 'Sk8r Boi,' but her contribution to fashion might have been as important as her contribution to music. For a while during the early '00s, it seemed like every teenage girl wanted to dress like Lavigne.
That is quite the hairstyle. We think it's awesome, but Kidman hated her hair when she was younger. In fact, she didn't like much about herself - she says she used to experience anxiety when leaving the house on her own, and was so insecure that she developed a stutter due to her fear of speaking in public. It's remarkable that someone could overcome all of that to become a Hollywood legend - and so we guess that makes Kidman a remarkable person.
The Australian was once better known for being married to Tom Cruise than she was for her acting achievements, but things have changed since then. Her body of work speaks for itself, and everybody probably has their own favorite Kidman film. If you ask us right now, we might say 'Moulin Rouge,' but we're sure we'd have another answer if you asked us again in an hour's time.
We have two former wives of Tom Cruise in a row! Katie Holmes helped a lot of us through our teenage years as Joey in 'Dawson's Creek,' but we wonder who it was who helped her find her own confidence to become a teen star? She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth in this picture. The hairstyle and the decorative bow make her appear younger than she actually is, but her face is still basically the same.
Holmes' ascent to fame might have come even earlier than it did. She was offered the lead role in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' - the part that eventually went to Sarah Michelle Gellar - but at the time she wanted to focus on completing her studies. The decision didn't affect her potential, and movies such as 'Batman Begins' appeared when she was ready for them. She no longer married to Cruise, but she's working as a director and a producer as well as still stepping in front of the cameras when the mood takes her.
That's a very strange face that Shia Lebeouf is pulling in this picture. Perhaps it's an early attempt at one of his frequently bizarre artistic projects. Lebeouf is easily recognizable because he was famous before his childhood came to an end - he was one of Disney's plethora of stars, and played Lewis in 'Even Stevens.' By the time he was ten, he was on stage trying his hand as a stand-up comedian. If there's one thing you can say about him without any reservation, it's that he's a performer who fears nothing.
His first major role as he transitioned into adulthood was as the sidekick of Harrison Ford in 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.' Not long after that, he decided he was more interested in making challenging art projects than movies, and started releasing strange motivational videos on YouTube, and then sitting in cinemas watching all of his own movies back to back. Each to their own!
Take a close look at that adorable face, because one day soon he's going to be Batman. We should explain the haircut; at the time Pattinson was a child, the biggest band in his native Britain was Oasis. The bowl haircuts of the Gallagher brothers were considered to be the 'must-have' look for men, and Pattinson fell for it just like most of the boys his age did. He wore it better than the majority.
This picture was taken at a specialist London theater school, so even back then Pattinson (or, more likely, his parents) knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. We don't need to tell you what made him famous - we've watched the 'Twilight' films, and so have you! For a while, he didn't seem to enjoy the level of fame that his part in the film brought him - so we're not sure why he's decided to take on the mantle of the Caped Crusader from Ben Affleck. We're looking forward to it, all the same.
Something about this picture of Jake Gyllenhaal makes us think that he was actually quite a naughty child, and that he's wearing the glasses to throw people off the scent. We think it's probably the cheeky smile. If you've ever seen the 1991 movie 'City Slickers,' you'll already have seen Gyllenhaal looking like this - he played Billy Crystal's son in the film. He went back to school afterward, but he'd already chosen acting as his profession.
It's hard to say what the definitive performance of Gyllenhaal's career has been so far. You could definitely make an argument for the boundary-pushing 'Brokeback Mountain,' in which he had incredible chemistry with Heath Slater. Fans of darker, more arty films would probably point to 'Donnie Darko,' instead. In any event, he's one of the brightest acting stars of his generation, and he's never short of work.
Fashion, acting, and music icon Jennifer Lopez has been widely mocked for her song 'Jenny from The Block,' in which she professed to be a regular child from a rough neighborhood when she was growing up. We don't want to call J-Lo a liar, but this picture doesn't exactly scream 'rough childhood' to us. That combination of hairstyle and jewelry is enough for her to pass as a younger member of the British royal family.
Lopez did turn out to be royalty in the celebrity world, and has shown that she can achieve success at anything she turns her hand to. People haven't always loved her movies, but they've still paid to go and see them. She had to start out as a backing dancer for Janet Jackson to get her break - but dare we say that she went on to become even more successful than Jackson was? Well, we've said it now - and so we're sticking to it!
Looking more like your local librarian than an international sex icon, here's what Pamela Anderson looked like during her days in the education system. If you take the mullet haircut out of the equation (again, hard as it is to imagine now, this was the defining hairstyle of the 1980s. We can only assume most people didn't have mirrors.), you can quickly identify her from the eyes and lips. They would appear on posters of the walls of millions of teenage boys just a few years later.
Anderson became a household name when she put on a red swimming costume and started running down the beach in 'Baywatch.' The world went crazy for her, and she capitalized on her looks and fame by accepting several big-money photoshoots in Playboy magazine. She's another star who's shown a taste for bad-boy rock stars; her marriage to Tommy Lee from Motley Crue was the subject of particular media attention. These days she's a prominent animal rights campaigner.
Poor Calvin Harris. It looks like his mom cut his hair by putting a bowl on his head and then cutting around the edges of it. He doesn't seem to mind too much though - that's quite a sweet and satisfied smile he's wearing. Harris was a big lover of dance music even when he was at school, and worked part-time at a fish packing factory until he'd saved up enough money to buy himself his first set of decks. It might have been smelly, but it was all worth it in the end.
Harris is now one of the biggest name DJs in the world, having branched out from his native UK to perform internationally. Music stars like Rihanna queue up to collaborate with him. Now he's sorted his hair out, he's also one of the world's best-looking men, and can count Taylor Swift and Ellie Goulding among his ex-girlfriends. According to Forbes magazine, he's been the best-paid DJ in the world every year since 2013.
Remember what we said right at the start of this list about your teenage years being awkward? When it comes to Brad Pitt, you can forget about it. Apparently, he was born good looking, grew up good looking, and will probably still be good looking when he's 70 years old. Some people have all the look! As you might expect from someone who all the girls were chasing, Pitt admits he was quite a jock at school, and was on most of the sports teams. He also made sure he had the lead role in all of the school plays and musicals.
He went from being a leading man at school to a leading man in Hollywood almost without pausing for breath. Pitt is as iconic as actors come, whether we're talking 'Fight Club,' 'Snatch,' 'Interview with The Vampire' or any of his other smash hit films. When he married Angelina Jolie, we wondered if there had ever been a better-looking couple in the world, and we're still not over the fact they've split up.
We wish we had half the confidence in our teenage years as Ben Affleck clearly did here. He's almost sneering down the camera lens at us. This is a kid who's going places, and he knows it. Both his mother and his father were involved in the acting profession, and so Affleck was writing plays for himself and his friends when he was as young as seven years old. When he met Matt Damon a few years later, a dream team was born, and Hollywood has no choice but to surrender to them.
When we talked about Robert Pattinson, we mentioned that Affleck has had a stint as Batman on the big screen (although he didn't get the same level of acclaim for the role as Christian Bale did). His career survived the indignity of having his relationship with Jennifer Lopez referred to as 'Bennifer' in the press, and he continues to take on more serious roles as he gets older.
Bradley Cooper, are you absolutely sure you have enough gel in your hair there? We think we can see a single strand out of place somewhere toward the back! Cooper's nervous smile almost makes him hard to identify here - he had something of a difficult childhood after his mother insisted on making him wear his hair long when he was young, which led to many people mistaking him for a girl. He never thought of himself as being handsome. He was wrong.
We're fairly positive nobody mistakes Cooper for a girl now - he's one of Hollywood's most handsome leading men. His biggest recent success was as the writer, director, producer, and star of the movie 'A Star Is Born' with Lady Gaga, which didn't pick up quite as many Oscars as it probably deserved to. He also didn't win an Oscar for 'American Hustle,' despite being nominated. He'll get there one day!
When you're known exclusively by one name, you're at the peak level of fame. Looking at Beyoncé Knowles' face in this picture, it's almost like she knows what's coming. If you look at the history of music since the turn of the century, you'd be hard-pressed to say that anyone has done more than Beyoncé. Whether it's music or fashion, she' a global icon. Even the somewhat-flat hairstyle and the basic dress she's wearing here can't take away from those superstar looks.
Talking about what Beyoncé hasn't done might be a faster process than talking about what she has. When she married rap legend Jay-Z, she became one half of the biggest celebrity power couple in existence. 'Crazy in Love' is one of the biggest dancefloor anthems of the past two decades. She even managed to take Jay-Z's apparent infidelity and turn it into a big-selling music and art project in the shame of 'Lemonade.' Everything that Beyoncé touches turns to gold - and that's why she's irreplaceable.
This is the man with the greatest voice in the history of acting - and yet he was nearly robbed of it before he even had the chance to show it off to the world. Just six months before this picture was taken, Freeman suffered from a bout of pneumonia. The illness would return again a year later and almost take his life. He made a full recovery and went on to begin a legendary Hollywood career, and for that, we should all be grateful. A world without Freeman scarcely bears thinking about.
It's commonly said that Freeman could read a telephone directory, and people would still happily sit and listen to it. His deep, rich voice has become his trademark, but he's also a wonderful actor with or without the voice. The best example of him using his voice and performance skills together is in his role as 'Red' in 'The Shawshank Redemption,' but he's also been called upon on more than one occasion to play God!
What do you imagine Jennifer Lawrence was up to during her high school years when you look at this picture? Head cheerleader, perhaps? Prom Queen? Girlfriend of the head jock? It would be easy to imagine such a thing, but nothing could be further than the truth. Lawrence is smiling through the pain here. She says she suffered badly from both insecurity and anxiety when she was at school, and actually turned to acting as a way of getting over it. The profession has benefited from that decision.
The actor, nicknamed J-Law by the press, has been a big deal for such a long time now that it's almost surprising to hear that she wasn't a household name until she made the 'Hunger Games' films. The crowning moment of her career so far was when she picked up the 'Best Actress' Oscar for 'Silver Linings Playbook' in 2015, but the smart money says she'll pick that award up at least one more time before she calls it a day.
For quite a while now, there's been a rumor going around the internet that Pharrell Williams is actually a vampire. Looking at this picture, you can see why. He has the same face here as he does right now, and he doesn't ever seem to age a single day. By the time of this photo, he'd already taught himself how to play drums and keyboards. He'd also met Chad Hugo, with whom he'd go on to form the chart-topping band The Neptunes. To put it another way, his ticket to fame had already been stamped.
Since then, he's discovered that his favorite accessory is an enormous hat, and he's both written for and produced several of the world's most famous stars. Whether it was 'Blurred Lines,' 'Get Lucky,' or 'Happy,' you've danced or tapped your foot along to a Williams-penned classic in the past few years. Here's a top trivia fact; he's such a massive 'Star Trek' nerd that he called his record label 'Star Trak' in tribute to the show!
If you're struggling to identify Jerry Seinfeld from this picture, it's only because you're not used to seeing him with quite this much hair. He's always wanted to make people laugh, and says he got his sense of humor from his Hungarian father; his dad wrote a lot of jokes during World War II to keeps the minds of himself and his friends off the battle that raged all around them. Seinfeld didn't have a war to worry about during his own youth, which he spent living quietly in the Massapequa district of New York.
Telling you what Seinfeld is famous for feels a little bit like stating the obvious; it's 'Seinfeld.' Widely regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all times (many people would put it in the top spot on that list), it was the show that seemingly everybody in America watched. When it came to an end after nine successful years, an incredible seventy-six million people tuned in to the last-ever episode.
Even without the long dreadlocks which have become one of his many trademarks, this is still very obviously a picture of rap superstar Snoop Dogg. He looks like a respectable and charming young man, but he's hiding a lot of misbehavior behind that smile. As he's spoken about many times, Snoop was a gang member during his younger years, and his criminal activities landed him a brief prison sentence before he was able to turn his life around through music.
The full name Snoop was given at birth was Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, although we don't think even his close friends call him 'Calvin.' We're less clear on whether he now prefers Snoop Dogg or Snoop Lion, but we've gone with the title he's most famous as. He can point to the fact that he's sold more than three million albums as a sign of his success, and he's also racked up an impressive seventeen award nominations at the Grammys.
Posing in his school's basketball gear and trying to strike a cool pose with the ball can't hide the fact that Joe Manganiello is very much in the middle of the awkward stage as this photo is taken. That hairstyle looks like a mullet with gel in it - which is a questionable choice even for a mullet - and he's grown up faster than he's grown up. We're sure that if he went back in time, he'd tell himself not to worry about it - this boy was destined to become one of the world's most desirable men.
Manganiello first smoldered his way onto the screen in 'True Blood' as Alcide Herveaux, before showing the world what he was hiding under his shirt in the 'Magic Mike' series of films. We imagine that one of the people watching those films was Sofia Vergara, because she's since married him. He's got brains to go with the looks, though - he both directed and produced the documentary movie 'La Bare' in 2014.
What's bigger; Mariah Carey's voice, or Mariah Carey's hair in this picture? Yet another person who seems to have been a natural-born star, we believe that Carey's hair here is all her own - although wearing a huge hairpiece for a yearbook photo would be precisely the sort of larger-than-life behavior we've come to expect from this one-of-a-kind diva. Unbelievably, Carey was subjected to racist bullying when she was growing up, because her father is African-American. We think it's safe to say that she's had the last laugh over the bullies.
Very rarely has there been a pop singer with an octave range as large as Carey's. Whether she's singing one of her more hip-hop influenced songs like 'Honey' or the softer 'Endless Love,' you're never in any doubt about who's singing from the moment she opens her mouth. All of us think about Carey every single Christmas; people will still be singing 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' fifty years from now.
Many men grow up worrying about losing their hair. If you know someone who's worried about it right now, show them this picture. Bruce Willis just looks weird with hair. Without it, he's an all-action tough guy. It's not just what's on top of his head which makes the young Willis appear a little odd here though; why can't he bring himself to look at the camera? Is there something fascinating going on in the corner of the room? Maybe he's just seen a mirror.
Willis grew up with a stutter, but is yet another example of a performer who took acting classes to get over it, and then progressed from there into becoming a professional actor. His career-defining role was John McClane in 'Die Hard,' (a role he's still threatening to come back to), but he also famously chilled us all when he worked with a little boy who could see dead people in 'The Sixth Sense.' He has something of a reputation for being difficult to work with, but it hasn't stopped him from becoming a legend.
When you hear about Eddie Murphy's childhood, it's amazing he looks as calm and self-assured as he does in this picture. He was barely eight years old when his father passed away. Not long after that, his mother was struck down by a serious illness, and was left with no option but to place her young son in foster care. He took solace in stand-up comedy, and was mesmerized by the work of Richard Pryor. Following in Pryor's footsteps, he started out in the entertainment business as a stand-up comedian when he was fifteen years old.
It didn't take long for the talented Murphy to gain attention from television producers, and he was recruited for 'Saturday Night Live,' which gave him his first big break. He took the ball and ran with it, converting TV fame into movie fame by landing parts in 'Beverly Hills Cop,' and then more child-orientated comedies like 'Dr. Doolittle.' There's still a whole generation of people in their early 20s out there who only know him as 'The Nutty Professor,' but that's better than not being known at all!
Matthew McConaughey - one of America's finest actors of the past twenty years - had something of an interesting childhood. He was popular at school, and his classmates certainly appreciated his good looks - he left school having been voted 'most handsome' in his class. Back at home, though, things were a little more complicated. Both of his parents married three times - to each other! They divorced and got back together on three different occasions while he was growing up. At least things must always have been entertaining in the house.
As is the case with most good-looking actors, McConaughey started off in Hollywood starring in romantic dramas and comedies such as 'The Wedding Planner,' but demonstrated that he's more than capable of handling more serious material when he landed the leading role in 'Dallas Buyer's Club.' He still knows how to laugh at himself though - nobody could play his part in 'Magic Mike' without having a great sense of humor!
This young man has Hollywood good looks - so perhaps it's a surprise that he decided to spend his career behind the camera instead of in front of it! His cool, level gaze carries a lot of authority - precisely the kind of aura he needed in order to grow up and become one of the greatest Hollywood movie directors in history. Even by the age he was here, he'd made a few low-budget movies. Back then, he relied on his father's camera, and his subjects were his friends. Soon, all of that would change.
Some of the highest-grossing and best-regarded movies of all time are Spielberg productions. The first 'Jurassic Park' film was made with him at the helm, as was 80s classic 'E.T.' You can add 'Jaws' to that list as well. Not everything he's ever made was intended to be a blockbuster spectacle though; 'Schindler's List' was as serious a piece of film-making as you'll ever see. It's not without reason that he's been awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen of England!
You can just tell that this young man would go on to be a 'Man in Black' from this picture - but only because he looks like he might be a member of the FBI! This is a serious, brooding look for Jones, who's described as being something of a jock and a ladies' man when he was at high school. He's benefited from looking like he might be involved in law enforcement though; his first big role was in 'The Fugitive.'
You could say that detective roles have defined Jones' whole career, from 'No Country for Old Men,' to 'Captain America: The First Avenger.' He is capable of cracking a smile every now and then though - we've already mentioned 'Men in Black,' where he struck a fine on-screen partnership with Will Smith. He was also entertaining as a terrorist in the first 'Under Siege' movie - where his off-kilter performance made his character more likable than we imagine he was supposed to be.
Did we just mention Will Smith? Why yes, we did, and here's The Fresh Prince in his own yearbook photo! Smith is someone who's grown up on the screen, and he looks roughly the same here as he always has. It's terrifying to think that he's older now than Uncle Phil was in 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' but he doesn't look a day over 30. We wish we knew what his secret was.
Smith is a great all-round entertainer, switching from a career in rap music into acting when he was offered the chance to become the Fresh Prince.' He would later go back to rap and release a few great albums, but he's better known now for his work in front of the camera than his work behind a microphone. He's a better actor than most people give him credit for; if you doubt that, you should check out his performance in the biopic movie 'Ali.'
Heather Locklear looks quite cheerful here for someone who probably quite recently found out that she wasn't going to be allowed on the cheerleading squad at Newbury Park High School, which is where she spent her formative years. Maybe it's because she'd already hatched a plan - if the cheerleading squad wasn't going to have her, the drama club would. She performed an audition, got in the club, and the rest is history.
If you were a child of the 1990s, Locklear would be instantly recognizable to you as the star of 'Melrose Place,' in which she starred as Amanda Woodward for almost the entire decade. 80s kids, by contrast, are more familiar with her as Sammy Jo Carrington on 'Dynasty' - a part she also played for ten years. She must just like taking ten-year-long jobs. At least they give you some stability as a performer!
Melissa McCarthy looks every inch the respectable young lady in this picture, but it's only because the photographer caught her outside of one of her rebellious phases. In interviews, she's said that she went from being a cheerleader and a tennis player one year to getting into rock music the year after. At one point she'd cut her hair short, and dyed alternate parts of it black and blue. By the year of her graduation, she was voted 'Most Punk' in her class. She must have made a special effort for the picture.
Just as she can change her appearance with ease, McCarthy can also change up her talents depending on how she wants to make her money on any given day. She's famously both a comedian and an actress, but she's also a fashion designer in her spare time. Time Magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and we don't think her influence has waned any since then.
We know what you're thinking - this is witchcraft. Tom Cruise is currently fifty-seven years old, and he looks exactly the same as he did here if you ignore the haircut. Apparently, he went to school looking 30 years old, and has spent the last forty years looking 30 years old. Even back then he was showbiz - he missed his high school graduation ceremony because he was rehearsing for a production of 'Godspell.' There has never been a time in Cruise's life when he wasn't a performer.
Whether it's bouncing around on a sofa in front of Oprah Winfrey or fending off questions about his role in the Scientology religion, Cruise is a master of attracting media attention. The publicity has been helpful though; whenever he makes a new 'Mission Impossible' movie, people come to see it in their droves. He'll shortly be stepping back into his famous 'Top Gun' role, despite the fact he's now in his 50s. There's simply no stopping him.
