7 Favorite Superstars You Didn't Know Were Nerds As Kids

When a famous musician enters a room, they instantly become the most hip person there. Simply put, rock stars are cooler and more attractive than the rest of us normal folk. To state the obvious, it is what the scientific community has found. They may not have classical good looks or model physiques, but their charisma on stage and talent as musicians set them apart. This isn't the first (or last) school the famous have attended. It's a common misconception that rock performers automatically exude coolness.
Many famous musicians never really felt comfortable in their own skin until they made it big. The following list of musicians may surprise you since they were geeks (and some still are), but don't get too smug. Many great rock stars today may have been geeky kids, but it doesn't make them any less cool than you.

1. Adam Levine

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Adam Levine didn't always appear as hip and dapper as he does now. The lead singer of Maroon 5 admitted to being a "nerdy, awkward child" who was "crazy with music" and "extremely uncool" in a 2012 interview with Access Hollywood: "I was uncool, had awfully long hair, and shorts down to [to my knees], cut off shorts."

2. Marilyn Manson

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Even as a youngster, Manson embraced his inner geek and fantasist. Much of his education occurred outside of the classroom when he "escaped into a fantasy world engrossed in role-playing games," as he put it in his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. However, in an interview, Manson mentioned that he had been bullied frequently as a child.

3. Jack White

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Jack White claims he spent most of his boyhood indoors, consuming media like "The Godfather," "Hank Williams," and "World War II." It's hardly surprising that Jack White has consistently violated musical norms throughout his whole career.

4. Taylor Swift

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Taylor Swift may have a famous and influential group of friends now, but she had difficulty making friends as a child. She was bullied as a child and infamously remarked, "When I go back to when I was in high school, I realize that the main reason I started composing music was because I spent so much time by myself. While I sat in class, I overheard students exclaiming, "Oh my gosh, this party that we're going to is going to be so fantastic on Friday." Everybody is invited except for Taylor."

5. Travis Barker

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Travis Barker was a member of the madrigals choir, marching band, and jazz ensemble at Fontana High School before he became the badass drummer for Blink-182.

6. Kanye West

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As it turns out, Kanye West, the famous, mysterious, and occasionally incredibly unpleasant rapper and producer, is a major admirer of Japanese anime and something of an anime nerd. For example, 'Ye once sparked a heated Twitter controversy when he tweeted, "No way Spirited Away is better than Akira. And he previously tweeted that his two favorite Movies are Akira and There Will Be Blood.

7. Justin Timberlake

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After receiving the Innovator Award at the 2015 iHeart Radio Awards, Justin Timberlake made an inspiring speech about the challenges of coming of age. The singer made the statement, "In all my years of formal education, I was never once labeled as a creative thinker. I was dubbed "strange" and "odd" by my peers. Lucky for me, my mom instilled in me the value of embracing my uniqueness."