Aurora Starchild
JLo’s superstardom didn’t come easy. The multi-hyphenate performer was always interested in show business, but she paid a heavy price for it. Obviously, her choices paid off. Her career blossomed into full-blown diva and Hollywood nova through hard work, making her a spearhead figure for the Latin community. Here’s a look at how much Jennifer Lopez has changed over the years.
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Jennifer Lopez’s Early Life in the Bronx Taught Her How to Be Tough
Born in the Bronx of New York City on July 24, 1969, Jennifer Lynn Lopez is the middle of three girls. Her parents both originally hailed from Puerto Rico but moved when they were kids. JLo was raised in a Roman Catholic family and while they had a two-story house, it was small enough that all three girls had to share a room. Her father, David, served in the U.S. army and then as a computer technician. Her mother, Guadalupe, picked up multiple jobs to help pay the bills.
JLo has said that her parents’ work ethic had a big effect on her own perceptions of life. “I watched my parents. My dad worked nights, and I was aware of how much he was doing for us. My mom was a Tupperware lady and also worked at the school,” she told W Magazine (via Huffpost). “I always felt that I couldn’t let them down. And I had a natural discipline from early on. I was always training for something.”
Her first job was around age 10. “I used to sweep the hair at a beauty salon and clean the sinks,” she told Variety. “I just wanted my $10, to go do whatever I wanted with. And it was such a great feeling.”
It All Started With Dance… And Being Homeless
Growing up in the cultural hub that is New York, JLo and her sisters were exposed to a lot of performances and art. She began taking dance lessons in ballet at age 5. By age 7, she was touring New York with her school dance troupe. JLo then attended Catholic schools before attending the all-girls Preston High School.
In High School, she did gymnastics, played softball, and went to the nationals for track. She began learning flamenco and jazz dance and continued to study ballet while in high school. While JLo’s primary passion was dance, she also participated in school musicals. Some of the performances she was in included Godspell, in which she played a lead role.
After high school, JLo worked as a secretary at a law firm. Her parents wanted her to eventually go to law school. She then enrolled at Baruch College to study business but dropped out to pursue dance after just one semester. She was 18 and had already enrolled at Manhattan’s Phil Black Dance Studio. Upset at their daughter’s choice, her parents basically kicked her out of the house.
“I wanted to go into show business, and she wanted me to be a lawyer,” JLo told Jay Leno. “And I was dropping out of school. We butt heads for a while… I left the house, and we had a big fight, it was like a big Lopez family drama. I didn’t talk to her for a while.” She ended up sleeping on the floor of the Phil Black Dance Studio at times until she made things work.
From Choir Girl to Jenny from the Block
In 1989, JLo found some reprieve when she had the opportunity to travel Europe as part of a musical revue group for 5 months. The next year, she was part of the chorus in Synchronicity while they toured Japan for 4 months. That same year, JLo landed a dance part alongside MC Hammer on Yo! MTV Raps. Then she landed a part in a New Kids on the Block video in 1991. She traveled the country to perform in the musicals Oklahoma and Jesus Christ Superstar. But her big break came soon after, in September 1991.
Remember Jenny from the Block? Jennifer Lopez landed a role as a Fly Girl on In Living Color and it put her on TVs everywhere. She moved to Los Angeles for the gig and stayed with the show for two seasons. After, it seems everyone wanted Lopez to work for them. The Spice Girls considered adding her as a backup dancer but when that didn’t work out, she performed alongside Janet Jackson in her music video “That’s the Way Love Goes.”
JLo Turned Down a Tour With Janet Jackson to Pursue Acting
And yet, after all, her success with dancing, JLo saw a greater potential in herself. Jackson offered her a chance to come along on her 1993 world tour and she turned it down. Instead, she wanted to pursue acting. She landed roles on TV shows like South Central and Hotel Malibu and got an agent. By 1997, JLo played the titular role in Selena, and she officially became a legend. The role got her a Golden Globe nomination. She also became the first Latina woman in history to earn $1 million from a film.
And Then She Became a Diva
But again, despite the massive and historic success that Jennifer Lopez had just achieved, she still saw more potential. All her years of performing in musicals and choirs couldn’t just be dismissed. So, she decided to pursue singing. Despite protests from her manager, who warned her that she wouldn’t be taken seriously as an actress if she was also a singer, she went with her gut. “For me, it was always all one thing,” JLo told People. “It was never, like, two separate things. It was, ‘I’m going to be an actress, singer, dancer.’ Boom. Done” She later told the LA Times that she was also missing the “excitement of the stage” and her “Latin roots.”
JLo Becomes a Fashion Icon and Literally Inspires Google Images to Be Born
JLo’s 1999 debut album, On the 6, was full of hit songs. “If You Had My Love” was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and “Waiting for Tonight” got to #8. While attending the 2000 Grammy’s with her boyfriend Sean Combs, JLo made the world’s collective head spin while wearing her infamous green Versace dress. The plunging neckline and her voluptuous figure made everyone search for “the dress” online, before Google Images existed.
According to then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google started Google Images because of the internet traffic from searches for her dress. “People wanted more than just text. This first became apparent after the 2000 Grammy Awards, where Jennifer Lopez wore a green dress that, well, caught the world’s attention,” Schmidt wrote on Project Syndicate. “At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: JLo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”
She’s Also a Producer
Boom! Jennifer Lopez was now a dancer, actress, singer, and fashion icon. She went on to release 9 albums and has over 125 acting roles to her name. But wait, there’s more. She started a production company, Nuyorican Productions. She’s produced 27 projects to date, including Shotgun Wedding, in which she also stars.
Jennifer Lopez was the first woman to have a #1 album and #1 film come out in the same week. Her second album, J.Lo. came out at the same time as Wedding Planners and both were incredibly successful. Her films have grossed over $3.1 billion worldwide and she’s sold over 80 million albums. She has an estimated net worth of $400 million. Not bad for a girl from the Bronx!
Children and the Return of Bennifer… All’s Well that Ends Well
These days, apart from being an absolute legend, icon, and amazing at everything, JLo is also a momma. She’s been married four times: to Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998; to Cris Judd from 2001 to 2003; to Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2014; and to Ben Affleck since 2022. Her children are from her marriage to Marc Anthony. She has twins Max and Emme, born February 22, 2008.
Amazingly, while her relationship with Anthony began after her previous engagement to Ben Affleck was broken off, everything came around full circle. It’s like JLo has a guardian angel on her shoulder because time brought her back to Affleck. Bennifer is back. And while JLo had her own children during their hiatus, so too did Affleck. He has three kids with his former wife, Jennifer Garner. That makes their blended family a big bundle of love.
