9 Celebrities Who Were Raised In Poverty By Their Parents

According to a recent report, the poverty statistics are even worse than during the Great Recession. The report states that in 2013 about 22% of children in the US lived below the poverty line, compared to 18% in 2008. It also found that one in four children, for a total of 18.7 million children, lived in low-income households in the Year 2013.

To say growing up poor would be a massive understatement. It is traumatic physically, mentally and emotionally. And when you grow up in such sparse and limited circumstances, your hopes for the future are bleak and all you care about is where you will find your next meal. However, there are some shining and inspiring examples that prove that despite humble beginnings, you can still make significant achievements in your life. There are some celebrities who have just done that – they grew up in great poverty but still managed to amass a massive fortune.

The celebrities included in this list have overcome the odds and everything that comes with lean origins to build a successful career. They have achieved fame and, most importantly, financial success. Musicians, authors, actors, and TV presenters, among others, here is a list of celebrities who grew up in poverty. Read and be inspired by these great personalities.

• Leighton Meester

Leighton Meester is an American singer and actress best known for starring as Blair Waldorf on the teen drama series ‘Gossip Girl’. Her other endeavors include country drama Country Strong, thriller The Roommate and romantic comedy Monte Carlo. The final crowning moment was her Broadway debut with the well-known novel Of Mice and Men. While her roster of roles and films may seem a bit modest compared to some of the industry’s leading women, her position is far better than she’s had at any point in her life. Her mother was pregnant with her in prison. Her mother nursed her in a neighboring house before returning to prison. Things got a little better when Meester started modeling at age 10 and moved from Florida to New York City. She then moved to Los Angeles with her mother at age 14, where she auditioned for TV pilots and took acting classes.

However, as a positive person, Meester has often claimed in interviews that it was a happy time. She sees most of her childhood in a positive light. While she admits her family history is a bit wacky, she’s had fun and happy times paying outside and visiting the beach. Plus, she didn’t have to worry about trivial teenage things like whether a guy liked her or not, there were far more serious issues that occupied her attention.

• jewel

Jewel Kilcher before becoming a star on the release of her debut album Pieces of You was struggling to make ends meet. Previously offered a six-year record deal by Atlantic Records, she lived in her car and toured the country performing street performers and small gigs. During this time, she was best known for performing at the InnerChange Coffeehouse and Java Joe in San Diego, California. Moving around and putting on countless gigs just to cover basic expenses eventually paid off when their aforementioned debut album went 15 times platinum and became one of the best-selling debut albums of all time. In addition to her successful career as a singer, she was also very successful as a writer.

Her current financial success is far fromspent her childhood in Alaska. According to one interview, their house didn’t even have a proper plumbing system and they had to use a simple outbuilding instead. Jewel and her father also sometimes made a living singing in bars and taverns. And during these performances she learned to yodel, which is always present in her singing.

• Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank has appeared in a number of memorable films such as ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, which earned her an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, ‘Million Dollar Baby’, for which she earned a second Oscar and a Golden Globe for best actress and “PS I Love You”, the most commercially successful film of her career. In several interviews, Swank attributed her success to the support of her mother, who was also her role model. In fact, when her parents separated, her mother moved with her her daughter to Los Angeles, where they lived out of her car until Swank’s mother saved enough money to rent an apartment to support Hilary’s desire to be an actress.

Even Hilary’s childhood was very averageconditions. When she was six, her family moved to a trailer park in Bellingham, Washington. But even then she had a hunger for success and competitive advantages. She competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State Swimming Championships. She also placed fifth in the country in all-around gymnastics.

• Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker is arguably one of the most famous faces in the TV industry. Her role as lead actress Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City has made her a global icon and a role model for legions of her female fans. Her role in the film not only helped her become a huge star but also made her a multi-millionaire. For the first season of the TV series, which is definitely a godsend, she was paid $325,000 per episode. However, Eye Candy paid her $15 million for her work in the 2008 film of the same name. Her status as a fashionista has helped her land lucrative endorsement deals. 2004, shortly after the conclusion of the last season of the famous show,gap . She has her own portfolio of fragrances and has also launched the SJP Collection, a shoe line at Nordstrom.

Parker is definitely far from herpoor childhood, when her family was on the prosperous. In some interviews, she even stated that her family sometimes had no electricity. Although her mother had a steady job running a kindergarten and teaching, it’s worth noting that Parker has seven siblings.

• Jim Carrey

Even Jim Carrey, everyone’s favorite funny man, had managed to face financial problems in adulthood. Although his childhood was normal, his father Percy Carrey had a steady job as an accountant, but when Carrey was a teenager things started to fall. His father lost his job and as Carrey said in his interviews, his family went from lower middle class to poor. They lived in a van and at the age of 15 Carrey had to drop out of school to help his family get out. He started working as a janitor. However, his father tried his best to help the young comedian put together a stage act. He drove him to Toronto to debut at comedy club Yuk Yuk. However, Carrey’s act was bombed and he had serious doubts about his ability as a professional entertainer. His family’s financial difficulties made it difficult for him to focus on his career. Fortunately, his family’s financial prospects improved and they moved to a new home. With less of a financial burden, Carrey was able to improve his performance and quickly build his reputation as an entertainer. And the rest of the story is all too familiar. With less of a financial burden, Carrey was able to improve his performance and quickly build his reputation as an entertainer. And the rest of the story is all too familiar. With less of a financial burden, Carrey was able to improve his performance and quickly build his reputation as an entertainer. And the rest of the story is all too familiar.

• Demi Moore

Demi Moore, along with many other properties, owns a $75 million triplex penthouse on the San Remo in Central Park West. However, by the time she was seventeen, she went on a full-length photoshoot to achieve her goals. In fact, she was so desperate for money that she lied about being eighteen. Also, her childhood was tough. Her biological father left her mother after a two-month marriage before Moore was born. When she was three months old, her mother remarried. However, her stepfather struggled to thwart his job and her mother had her own addiction problem. In addition, her mother had a long record of arrests for crimes, including drunk driving and arson. At age 28, Moore severed all ties with her mother after she exited rehab. Things got pretty shambolic and bizarre in 1993 when her mother posed in a parody of Moore’s Vanity Fair pregnancy and body paint covers n*de for P*rn magazine. However, the mother-daughter duo reconciled shortly before the mother’s death from cancer.

• Eminem

If you watch Eminem’s biographical film 8Miles, you need no introduction to Eminem’s troubled childhood. However, I would still indulge in a little chatter as some of the readers may not have seen the film. Eminem’s mother, Debbie, was 17 when she gave birth to Eminem and nearly died from working 73 hours. During his childhood, Eminem and Debbie constantly moved homes, rarely staying in one place for more than a year and regularly commuting between Missouri and Michigan. Aside from financial problems, Eminem’s childhood was plagued by constant bullying and being beaten by African American boys. In fact, a punch from a boy named DeAngelo Bailey at his school left Eminem with a concussion. Her mother filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, which was rejected a year later. Eminem also regularly fought with his mother. In fact, one social worker described her mother as “very suspicious, almost paranoid.”

• Leonardo Dicaprio

With a net worth of more than $200 million, Leo is one of the most successful players in the industry. He has been critically acclaimed for his impressive work across genres. He has won two Golden Globe Awards and five Oscar nominations for his immense achievements. Long before he became a young heartthrob for his role in the megahit ‘Titanic’ or impressed for his guest spot on the TV series ‘Growing Pains,’ he had a pretty rough childhood. Living in a rough neighborhood near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, he was exposed to crime, drug use, prostitution, and violence. In an interview, he revealed that he was beaten up every day at school, and that eventually motivated him to become an actor.

• Stephen King

According to many, Stephen King is the best American writer of his generation. With more than 350 million copies of his work sold, many of which have been adapted for feature films, mini-series, TV shows and comics, little can be said about his qualities as a top writer. However, like other celebrities on the list, King had a difficult childhood. When he was two years old, his father told his mother that he would buy a pack of cigarettes and never return. Due to his father’s abandonment, King’s mother raised King and his adopted older brother David under great financial strain. Her problems worsened when her parents fell ill. King and his family moved to Maine as his mother took full responsibility for caring for her parents. King was eleven years old at the time. Another haunting childhood experience King had was seeing one of his friends get hit and killed by a train. Although he does not remember the incident, some commentators believe the event psychologically inspired some of King’s darker works.