9 Celebrities Who Were Born Poor,who made it from the scratch.

Shania Twain

The country star grew up in deep poverty in Timmins, Ontario, where she also witnessed her stepfather abuse her mother. She describes in her memoir "From This Moment On" not having enough money to eat and going to school hungry.

 

Celine Dion

The "My Heart Will Go On" powerhouse -- now worth a reported $400 million -- grew up the youngest of 14 children in a low-income French Canadian family. (Dad was an accordionist).

"I grew up in a very, very, very small house," Dion told Vanity Fair in 2012. "We weren't poor, but we never had money … We were given love and affection and support. What else did we need?"

 

 

Jay Z

Jay Z's beginnings as a street kid peddling drugs in New York's Bed-Stuy district are hardly a secret, thanks to powerful lyrics like these: "And Bigga baby/ My Bed-Stuy flow's malicious, delicious/ F*ck three wishes, made my road to riches/ From 62's, gem stars, my moms dishes/ Gram choppin', police van dockin'/ D's at my doors knockin'" (from "Brooklyn's Finest").

 

 

Demi Moore

Born as Demetria Gene Guynes, one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces grew up in trailer parks in Roswell, New Mexico, and moved over 30 times. She also dropped out of high school at age 16.

 

 

Jim Carrey

All his jokes aside, Jim Carrey has a dark past. The Canadian actor grew up in poverty and at 12 years old was forced to get an after-school factory job working eight hours per day. "My father lost his job when he was 51 and that was the real 'wow', the kick in the guts. We lived in a van for a while, and we worked all together as security guards and janitors," Carrey once said of the experience. His 2003 film "Bruce Almighty" grossed $484.6 million according to the Washington Times.

 

 

 

Leighton Meester

She played a privileged Upper East Side kid on the CW's "Gossip Girl," but Leighton Meester was actually born in jail to her mother Constance Meester, who was serving time for drug smuggling.

 

 

J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling, now wealthier than the Queen of England thanks to her wildly successful "Harry Potter" series, has been open about her lower-middle class background, admitting that she also experienced harsher times. "I, too, have passed through a period of poverty in Britain and can understand some of those issues," she says "I think I've had a very strange life.

 

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker's life was not always as glamorous as it appears on "Sex and The City." She was born to a impoverished family in the small town of Nelsonville, Ohio, and began singing and acting partly to support her family. She is now worth $15 million. 

 

 

Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey's childhood was filled with enough turmoil to all but ensure she would never make it. She spent her early childhood living with her grandmother on a farm in Kosciusko, Miss., while her unwed teenage mother searched for work. She was reportedly sexually molested at an early age and worked as a housemaid. At 17 years old, Oprah got her first big break when she won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant, launching her into a journalism job in Baltimore. The media mogul is now worth around $2.7 billion.