She naturally gravitated toward music, was classically trained in piano and loved to perform as a kid. Then came high school. 她天生就对音乐感兴趣，受过古典钢琴的训练，从小就喜欢表演。然后到了高中。

"I was bullied and made fun of for having big dreams," she later recalled of her years at the elite private Catholic school she attended. “我因为有远大的梦想而被欺负，被取笑，”她后来回忆起自己在精英私立天主教学校的日子。

Being an outcast took its toll, and she began to act out. "I was such a bad kid ... a f-----nightmare," she later explained. 作为一个被社会抛弃的人，她付出了代价，她开始付诸行动。“我是个坏孩子……真是个噩梦，”她后来解释道。

But she was determined to escape the scrutiny of classmates once and for all: Dropping out of New York University in 2005, she made a deal with her dad that if things didn't work out for her music career, she'd go back. 但她决永远地逃避同学们的挑剔目光：2005年从纽约大学(New York University)退学后，她和父亲达成了一项协议，如果她的音乐事业不顺利，她就回去。

She swiftly landed a record deal—and then lost it within a year. 她很快就达成了一份录音协议，但不到一年就丢了。

At the time, "it ruined her life," says friend Brendan Jay Sullivan, who met her in the early 2000s and wrote the 2013 memoir Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, the Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives. 当时，“那件事毁了她的生活，”她21世纪初认识的朋友布兰登·杰伊·沙利文(Brendan Jay Sullivan)在2013年出版的回忆录《里温顿是我们的：Lady Gaga、下东区和我们的黄金岁月》写道。

Her dad didn't force her to return to school, and she continued to take her music and performance art to any stage that would have her. 她的父亲没有强迫她回到学校，她继续带着她的音乐和表演艺术去任何一个她想去的舞台。

She was also dealing with the trauma of having been sexually assaulted at the age of 19 by a music producer, which she revealed to Howard Stern in 2014. 她19岁时曾被一名音乐制作人性侵，当时她正在处理这一创伤，2014年，她向霍华德·斯特恩(Howard Stern)透露了此事。

"I went through some horrific things that I'm able to laugh at now," she told Stern. But back then "she was struggling a lot," says Sullivan. “我经历了一些可怕的事情，现在我可以笑着面对了，”她告诉斯特恩。但那时候“她挣扎了很久”，沙利文说。

On top of everything else, "she was not being taken seriously. Music executives would say, 'Oh, you're just downtown cool, but I can't sell you in mainstream America,' " Sullivan adds. 最重要的是，“她没有被当回事儿。音乐主管们会说，‘哦，你只是在街头大放异彩，但我不能向主流美国推销你，'”沙利文补充道。

"We heard people say, 'You're not pretty enough for a pop star.' And not behind her back either—to her face." “我们听到人们说，‘你不够漂亮，不能做流行歌星。'”而且也不是在她背后说——当面说。

That all changed once she became Gaga, a name based on the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga." 但当她成为Gaga后，一切都改变了，Gaga这个名字来源于皇后乐队的歌曲"Radio Ga Ga"。

Her first producer and later boyfriend, Rob Fusari, who witnessed the creative transformation, says that when he first heard her sing, "it was like watching electricity bouncing off the walls. 她的第一位制作人、后来的男友罗布·富萨里(Rob Fusari)见证了这一创意十足的转变。他说第一次听到她的歌，“就像看着电流从墙上弹回来。

It was the future, it was the past, right in front of me, and it came in the form of this tiny New York girl." 这是未来，这是过去，就在我面前，全都这个纽约小女孩身上表现出来。”

After she inked another deal that led to the runaway success of her first album, her fame grew with every over-the-top ensemble and performance. 她又签署了一项协议，由此她的第一张专辑大获成功，之后每次夸张的顶级服装和表演，都使她的名气大增。

But struggles in her love life followed. In Five Foot Two she linked her success to a string of collapsed romances. 但随后，她的爱情生活陷入了挣扎。在《五尺二寸》中，她将自己的成功与一连串失败的恋情联系在一起。

"I sold 10 million records and lost Matt ("Dada" Williams, a producer she dated in 2009 and 2010). I sold 30 million and lost Luc (Carl, a bar owner she dated in 2005 and 2010). 我卖了一千万张唱片，失去了马特（“达达”威廉姆斯，她在2009年和2010年约会的制作人）。我卖到3千万，失去了卢克（卡尔是一名酒吧老板，她在2005年和2010年约会过）。

I did a movie and lost Taylor (Kinney). It's like a turnover. This is the third time I've had my heart broken like this." 我拍了一部电影，失去了泰勒（泰勒·金尼）。这就像员工流动。这是我第三次这样心碎了。”