Stefani Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of to Italian American parents Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta (née Bissett), in New York City.Playing piano by ear from the age of 4, she went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mic nights by age 14. At age 11, the singer attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school. An avid thespian in high school musicals, Germanotta portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak."Acquaintances dispute that she didn't fit in in school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1", recalled a former high school classmate."She was always popular," said Julia Lindenthal, Marymount ’04. "I don’t remember her experiencing any social problems or awkwardness."
At age 17, Germanotta gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. There, she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics.Germanotta lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street but quickly felt that she was further along creatively than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she says. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career. Her father reportedly agreed to pay her rent for a year on the condition that she reenroll if she was unsuccessful. “I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen,” she said.
Contrary to her subsequent outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." "She was a very suburban, preppy, friendly, social party girl," says a former dorm-mate, who was friends with members of her former jam band. "There was nothing that would tip you off that she had this Warhol-esque, ‘new art’ extremism." Another acquaintance noted that her 'crazy' outfits at the time, "was putting suspenders on her jeans."
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