Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence was born on August 15, 1990, in Indian Hills, Kentucky, to Gary, a construction company owner, and Karen (née Koch), a summer camp manager. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. Lawrence's parents were not anticipating a child when she was born, and Karen once said "We thought we were finished having kids. We got rid of the baby bed and everything." The family owned a horse farm when she was a child, and Lawrence owned a horse named Muffin. Her mother raised her to be "tough" like her brothers, as she did not want Lawrence to be "a diva." Karen also refused to let her to play with other girls in preschool, as she deemed her "too rough" with them and worried she would hurt them. Even Lawrence admitted she was a "hyper" child. Lawrence was educated at the Kammerer Middle School in Louisville. She was raised as a Christian.

Lawrence did not enjoy her childhood due to hyperactivity and social anxiety, and considered herself a misfit among her peers. "I didn't have any friends. I remember being kind of lonely," she recalled. Lawrence has said that her anxieties vanished when performing on stage and that acting gave her a sense of accomplishment. Her school activities included cheerleading, softball, field hockey and basketball, which she played on a boys' team coached by her father. Lawrence did not enjoy these activities, and recalled in 2015 "There's something about team sports, classes, I didn't take well to it. I didn't like it. … I hated team sports."

Growing up, she was fond of horseback riding and frequently visited a local horse farm. Lawrence has an injured tailbone as a result of being thrown from a horse. When her father worked from home, she performed for him, often dressing up as a clown or ballerina. Lawrence had her first acting assignment at age nine, playing a Ninevite prostitute in a church play based on the Book of Jonah. For the next few years, she continued taking parts in church plays and school musicals.

Lawrence was 14 and on a family vacation in New York City when she was spotted on the street by a talent scout, who arranged for her to audition for talent agents. Her mother was not keen on her pursuing an acting career, but she briefly moved her family to New York to let Lawrence read for roles. After her first cold reading, the agents said that hers was the best they had heard from someone so young; however, her mother convinced her that they were lying. Lawrence said her early experiences were difficult because she felt lonely and friendless. She signed with CESD Talent Agency, which convinced her parents to let her audition for roles in Los Angeles. While her mother encouraged her to go into modeling, she insisted on pursuing acting, which she considered a "natural fit" for her abilities, and turned down several modeling offers, though she modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch before beginning an acting career, and the modeling photos were never released. She dropped out of school at 14 without receiving a General Educational Development (GED) or diploma. Lawrence has described herself as "self-educated" and said that her career was her priority. Between her acting jobs in the city, she made regular visits to Louisville, where she was an assistant nurse at her mother's camp.