See Jennifer Aniston’s Childhood, High School Photos!

February 11, 2012

Circa 1970

Oh, baby! Jennifer Joanna Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, Calif., the daughter of soap actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow.

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1983

Feathered friend! She and her seventh grade classmates took a wintry field trip to upstate New York.

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1983

Popular girl! Then an eighth grader at Rudolf Steiner School, she grinned with her pals in this pic. "There is nothing like being in the city that is just the city of Everyman," Aniston gushed in 2010 of growing up in NYC.

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1983

The sporty eighth grader grinned with the basketball team at Rudolf Steiner School in NYC.

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1984

She posed with her volleyball teammates at Rudolf Steiner School. The athletic teen would later wow fans worldwide with her lean, sexy bod. "[I] run, work out every day. I do a lot of running -- exercise is so important," the yoga enthusiast has said. "Plus it's all about balance. Work, exercise, diet, you need balance."

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1986

Central Park, not Perk! In this yearbook snapshot, she and her pals posed in NYC's Central Park. As a wannabe actress at the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (featured in the film and show Fame), she was dressed down by a drama teacher, who called her a "disgrace to theater."

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1987

She posed for an intense, pretty yearbook photo her senior year. She "grew up with absolutely no money at all," she told Parade in 2009. "I made my allowance as a kid cleaning toilets. I'm actually pretty good at it!"

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1987

Famous pals! She and Chastity Bono (Cher and Sonny Bono's child, now Chaz) hung out in the girl's locker room at the School of Performing Arts at LaGuardia High School in NYC. "Every day a group of us would go to Chaz's house after school," Aniston, 42, recalled during a 2011 interview with Allure. "I haven't spoken to him in awhile." Of Chaz's recent gender reassignment, Aniston said, "Good for him!"

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Circa 1987

Hair she is! She rocked a short, curly 'do at her senior prom.

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1990

Who's that girl? The aspiring actress moved back to Los Angeles in 1989, and popped up at a bash hosted by NBC -- the network that would later launch her stardom with Friends. In a 1989 interview with Howard Stern, she opened up about losing 15 pounds (via NutriSystem) and shared her then-skimpy list of acting credits. "I did a show [For Dear Life] at the Public Theater [in Manhattan]...I've only been in it [acting] a year professionally."

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1991

In her first shot at TV fame, she starred with Charlie Schlatter, Ami Dolenz in Ferris Bueller, a short-lived sitcom adaptation of the smash film; she played the title character's grumpy sister Jeannie (Jennifer Grey originated the part in the movie).

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1992

Denim diva! She also tried her luck in the series The Edge. Before she got her big break on Friends, she made ends meet in L.A. as a waitress, selling time-shares and other odd jobs. "I struggled for a while, but I was happy with my life whether I was making this amount of money, or that amount of money," she said. "I always enjoyed where I was working."