Celebrities are always seen as people who are successful since they seem to have it all. Everyone wants what they have — that is, they’re money and fame. And it’s true, most celebrities do lead lives of luxury and worldly fulfillment. They get the best hotels to stay in and the best vehicles to ride. Their private jets are what a lot of people wish to travel in at least once in their lifetime – although very few ever get the chance to do so.
However, what people don’t realize is that not all celebrities were born into a life of endless luxury. Some of them had to work their way up, and it wasn’t easy whatsoever. Everyone has their personal journey, but for some celebrities, it was much harder to reach fame and glory than others. Here’s how some of our favorite celebrities were able to rise to the top, and we’re sure you’re going to be completely taken aback by their background stories and origins:
Oprah Winfrey
She might be a billionaire right now without a care in the world, but things weren’t so smooth for Oprah during the early phases of her life. In fact, Oprah had it worse than most people on earth, even by global standards! She didn’t even have enough money as a child to be able to afford proper clothing and had to make do with potato sacks. Her early life was plagued with having to move around between relatives since her mother lived away from her. She dealt with abuse and even teenage pregnancy. Finally, she decided to move in with her “father”, Vernon Winfrey, and that’s where her life started to turn around. 
Even though she had been put down during her entire life until that point, she didn’t give up. Under her father’s guidance, she became a star student at her school and started her journey towards where she is today. While she owes a lot of what she has today to her father, it cannot be denied that her bravery and determination played a huge role in her success. She was able to turn a horrid situation into a good one, and from then on, she went to become one of the richest and most influential people on the planet.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo is famous on the internet for having been one of the many talented actors who couldn’t receive an Oscar award no matter how good his performances were (his role in The Revenant surely changed that). He’s the sort of celebrity who can afford just about anything that catches his fancy. However, no one could imagine that his background isn’t one of riches and fame. His parents weren’t famous whatsoever, with his mother being a secretary and his father selling comic books to earn a living. Leonardo had to struggle to make sure that his family was doing just fine in terms of money and wanted to escape the worries that the lack of money brought him. His dream was to become rich and afford whatever he wanted, and he thought that acting was the quickest way that he could achieve his goals. He wasn’t wrong, of course, since his talent for acting paved his way to fame and riches. His first huge role was in the 1997 movie Titanic, after which he became internationally famous and highly-acclaimed. Even since then, he’s been making one huge performance after the next, proving to everyone that working hard can change your life for the better.
Demi Moore
Demi didn’t know anyone when she started her acting career, and for good reason. Her family wasn’t exactly influential since her parents were alcoholics who had to move from place to place in order to keep their finances going. She ran away from home at the tender age of 16 to escape her abusive household and even dropped out of school. Miraculously, that was only the beginning of her good fortune, and after a career as a debt collector and a model, she finally got her big break in the 1981 drama, Choices. From then on, she’s been getting increasingly richer and popular. She can easily maintain a comfortable lifestyle with the kind of money she has, a kind of life that’s far different from her youth.
Celebrities who struggle like the rest of us to achieve their ends are extremely inspirational, and hopefully, the stories of these celebs have given you enough motivation to persevere and work hard!