Today I learned about Marilyn Monroe's haunting backstory.  Born Norma Jean Mortensen, Marilyn came from a broken family. She had no clue who her father was, and her mother wound up in a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. This left Marilyn at the mercy of foster care, and that was a downright horror story.

Behind closed doors, she suffered unspeakable traumas at the hands of some of her guardians. She developed a severe stutter, struggled at school, and most of all felt utterly abandoned. At the age of 16, to escape being returned to the orphanage, she decided to marry her foster parent's neighbor, 21-year-old James Dougherty. 

As a housewife, Marilyn found herself dying inside, but that was all about to change. In 1944, a photographer discovered Marilyn working at a munitions factory. Her beauty was her way out, so she left her husband and kicked off her career as a pinup girl. She took her first steps toward becoming the blonde bombshell by straightening and dying her hair.

But when she finally signed a contract with an acting agency, you can bet she brought her childhood demons with her.