Nicki Minaj didn’t always have the luxury of being photographed in her bra and panties, with thighs akimbo, while gliding her tongue up and down a giant lollipop. No, the 2010 go-to female MC of the Young Money roster was once like everyone—an awkward, nervous teenager wearing hand-me-down jeans from JC Penney while carrying a Garfield lunch box through the terrifying halls of High School USA.

Or, uh, maybe that was just us. At any rate, those rascals at Bossip did a little sleuthing and uncovered Nicki’s high school yearbook photo, which you can take a glimpse of after the jump!

Oh, Nicki, how was anyone to know back then that behind the sassy stare of that earnest Lauryn Hill-quoting adolescent lay the sucka free “Little Freak” of today?

Maybe the label “Drama” underneath her name should have been the tip-off.

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