Guess Which Musician This Adorable Child Grew Up To Be!
This is QUITE a throwback.
getty As much as we love looking at our own throwback photos when #ThrowbackThursday comes around, there's never a bad day of the week to look at old pics, especially when they involve our favorite celebs.
And now, in a photo going all the way back to her childhood, we're getting to see what this rocker looked like as a little girl.
Ready to find out who the adorable celeb kid is in this photo? Surprise! It's Courtney Love. Who would have known?!
1. Love is already all about the grunge in her throwback photo.
Love is best known for owning the pop-punk genre and here she is as a kid, looking grunge-y as ever. There aren't any details about how old she might have been when this photo was taken, but we never would have guessed what the future held for the sweet little girl wearing a flannel shirt in this photo.
2. Love had a difficult childhood.
From everything that's been shared publicly about Love's upbringing, it was definitely an uncommon one — and incredibly difficult. Her mother, Linda Carroll, opened up in an interview about how Love seemed to have issues with her mental health beginning at an early age and that she (and the rest of her siblings) were eventually left to live with Carroll's friends until the rocker emancipated herself at 16 years old.
"There's so much I regret about all my kids," Carroll said at the time. "I can see where my chaos and being out to lunch affected Courtney. Certainly if I'd been more stable in my life, it would have been so much better for her."
3. Her teenage years were wild, to say the least.
As a teenager, Love said in a 2011 interview that her addiction to heroin began early, around the time that she was 16 years old and working as an exotic dancer in Taiwan.
"The first time I tried smack I was about 16, I guess. It was a horrific experience," she said. "At the time, I was working at a dance hall in Taiwan, trying to earn money, so I could afford an apartment in San Francisco. I was utterly broke, so I was sleeping in a bed with a bunch of Brazilian dancers. I got crabs, and I had to get up every night to dance to Gloria Gaynor and Billy Idol's "Rebel, Rebel." After a while, I was like, “Get me the fuck out of here.” All these other dancers were constantly nodding out. We all had to wear numbers on our dress. But I had no money and they were holding my passport, so I was kind of stuck."
4. She wanted to raise her own daughter differently.
After her own difficult childhood, Love said during a 2017 appearance on Good Morning America that she wanted something different for her own daughter, Frances Bean Love-Cobain, who is now 27 years old.
“Just by not exploiting her too much,” she explained. “Not letting her get photographed and giving her a normal childhood — as normal as possible for living in Beverly Hills.”
5. Love still pays tribute to her late ex, Kurt Cobain.
In fact, she recently marked what would have been their 28th wedding anniversary in a sweet post on Instagram, where she shared a photo from their big day along with a heartfelt caption.
"I recall feeling deeply, delighted, dizzy, so in love, and knowing how lucky I was," Love wrote. "This man was an angel. i thank him for looking out for me, many parts of the the last 28 years have been torturous chaotic and uphill, and in public? That is the darkest sh*t imaginable, It almost tapped my resilience, almost. But between Kurt’s strange amazing divinity, and the honor of a few true friends, the gift of desperation and sobriety. Of a Higher power and of love, and of empathy, I’m here now. It’ll be ok. F*ck, I see him on the shore. Rocking in the free world. My husband."
6. She's still performing music.
Love, who is now 55, is still very much a part of the music industry, and in March she and former bandmate Melissa Auf der Mar are set to reunite for a performance at a concert benefiting Planned Parenthood. We never would have known she was the little girl in the photo, but all these years later, she still seems to be keeping that spirited smile on her face, no matter what life throws her way.
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.