The Awful Way Haters Bullied Lady Gaga Before She Was Famous

Before she was a global superstar, haters tried to destroy Lady Gaga’s confidence and belief in herself.

Since becoming one of the world’s most famous singers, Lady Gaga has dealt with her fair share of criticism. From being abused by haters online to being cruelly mocked after suffering a hip injury, Gaga has endured plenty of challenging experiences that have contributed to her thick skin. Sadly, the bullying didn’t just begin after she became a household name; Gaga was the target of hate and ridicule even as a teenager, before she ever started working in the music industry.

A person with a big dream is an clear target for bullies. It seems easy to undermine that person’s confidence and make them feel like their dreams are never going to come true. But even though Gaga’s haters tried to stop her when she was still in college, it looks like they failed miserably. Here’s the awful way Gaga was bullied before she was famous.

Gaga’s Early Life

Before she amassed a crazy net worth, Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York City in 1986. As a child, she showed an aptitude for music and her mom made her sit at the piano for an hour every day—whether she actually rehearsed or not.

According to CNN, she started performing at a very young age, appearing on stage for the first time in a first grade play where she made her own costume out of tin foil. She started working with a vocal coach at the age of 11, and by the age of 15, had an uncredited role in an episode of The Sopranos.

In high school, she was in a band that covered the likes of Led Zeppelin and U2. She attended a prestigious independent girls’ school in Manhattan and had an after-school job as a waitress at a diner on the Upper East Side.

Her Time At College

Gaga’s musical path started to really take shape when she was accepted into New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was selected as one of 20 early admission students, but withdrew after the second semester so she could focus on building her career.

While she was in college, she was the target of haters who took to mocking her.

The Facebook Group

Something that even die-hard fans might not know about Lady Gaga is that she dealt with cyber-bullying while she was in college. CNN reports that someone made a Facebook group called “Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous”.

While this might not seem like a big deal to the average person, it may have been upsetting to Gaga, who had huge dreams of being famous at that time. In hindsight, it seems like the group was specifically created just to get her to second-guess herself, which obviously didn’t work.

Gaga’s Hardships At The Beginning Of Her Career

Unfortunately, Gaga’s hardships weren’t over once she left college and actually started working in the music industry. In 2014, the superstar opened up about being assaulted as a 19-year-old musician who was just getting her start in the business, and being left pregnant.

“I was 19 years old, and I was working in the business, and a producer said to me, ‘Take your clothes off,'” she said (via the BBC). “I said no and I left, and they told me they were going to burn all of my music. And they didn’t stop.”

Now more than a decade later, Gaga is still dealing with the trauma of the experience. She has revealed that she won’t name her attacker as she does “not ever want to face that person again.”

How She Recovered

The assault took a major toll on Gaga’s physical and emotional wellbeing, the effects of which carried on for years. According to the BBC, she was sent to see a psychiatrist after being admitted to hospital for acute pain and numbness.

She has also addressed her feelings in her music, including the songs ‘Swine’ and ‘Til It Happens to You’, which appeared on the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated documentary about sexual assault on US college campuses, Hunting Ground.

Although Gaga has processed her trauma in different ways, she has explained that it will always be with her.

Her Crazy Success Today

Despite the huge obstacles that she had to overcome to find success, Gaga made her dreams come true after getting her big break in 2008. Her debut single ‘Just Dance’ charted around the world and she went on to win over millions of fans with each subsequent album release.

Today, Gaga is estimated to be worth $150 million. The fact that people targeted her in college and tried to make her believe that she would never make it just makes that all the more satisfying.