rags-to-riches

Here are a few things you may not associate with the rich and famous: working as a janitor. Being part of an impoverished family of 14. Living on welfare. Getting shot. Being sexually molested.

And yet, early experiences like these have shaped and driven some of the most powerful and important celebrities in the world, from Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise and Sean “Diddy” Combs to Celine Dion and Oprah Winfrey. Is there a tie between a tough upbringing and fame? Social scientists, who are just beginning to study the phenomenon, say yes.

“We all have a basic need for acceptance and approval by social groups,” says Orville Gilbert Brim, author of The Fame Motive: A Treatise on its Origin and Life Course. “If it’s not satisfied, if a person is excluded either in infancy, childhood or, in many cases, adolescence, this frustration becomes the source of a motive or a desire to become famous.”