Cheerleading has its roots more than a century back, and in its early years, all members of the squad were men. It wasn’t until 1923 when women became part of cheerleading squads. Before they were famous, several celebrities waved a pair of pom-poms as part of their school’s cheerleading squad.
Netflix gets some credit for helping most famous folks revisit their yesteryears through their docu-series Cheer. Since the show rolled out in January 2020, more celebrities we might not have known carried their school spirit back in the day have been sharing photos from their cheering days. Looking back, perhaps that’s where most notable personalities had their first taste of the limelight.
Chrissy Teigen
Born to a Norwegian father and a Thai mother, Chrissy Teigen grew up in Utah, but her family moved around a lot. The one aspect that remained constant in her life is cheerleading. Her family lived in Washington at one point, and Tiegen attended the Snohomish High School. Tiegan joined the cheer squad and took part in several competitions with the team.
Tiegan lent her sense of team spirit and pep to the team while wielding pom-poms during the big games. Pom-poms initially referred to as pompons, became a cheerleader’s tool of trade back in the ’50s. A cheerleader also never lacks a huge smile and an abundance of enthusiasm.
Miley Cyrus
Some cheerleaders start quite early, like Miley Cyrus, who grabbed a pair of pom-poms to rally behind her school’s sports team at the age of seven. Miley cheered for the local Tennessee soccer team, and perhaps that’s what shaped her confidence for her later performances.
Out of the 4 million cheerleaders in 31 countries across the globe, an estimated 3.82 million are in the U.S. Cheerleaders aged 5 to 13 years account for 12% of that number, while another 12% are dancers.
Gabrielle Union
Back in 2000, Gabrielle appeared in the teen cheerleading film Bring It On. She must have drawn inspiration from her cheerleading experience while in school at Pleasanton, California. Growing up in a sports-centric household, Gabrielle participated by joining the cheer squad.
Much like what we saw on Bring It On, cheerleading is shrouded in rivalry and considered a dangerous sport for girls. It accounts for 66% of all sports-related injuries experienced by girls. The injuries include broken bones, torn ACLs, and concussions.
Jennifer Lawrence
Hunger Games established Jennifer Lawrence’s presence in Hollywood. The series of films provided the perfect way for Lawrence to expend some energy for someone who has hyperactivity issues. Back in school, sports did it for her.
Lawrence explained that she joined the basketball, hockey, and softball teams in school. Her already busy schedule also included being a cheerleader. Competitive cheerleading teams took off in the ’80s. Athletes started putting more effort into dancing, stunts, and gymnastics, beyond rooting for their teams.
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan has had career highs and lows in Hollywood. Substance abuse issues and run-ins with the law made her career falter. Thankfully, Hollywood is a place that embraces redemptions, and we still remember her talented childhood years.
The Parent Trap, Mean Girls, and Freaky Friday are some of the films where Lohan displayed the full extent of her acting capability. Before her career took off, forcing her to settle for homeschooling, Lohan was a member of her school’s cheerleading squad.
Sandra Bullock
There’s a reason why Sandra Bullock has graced the world’s top-earning actress on several occasions. Bullock is an exemplary actress with an equally lengthy list of accolades to her name. The sports drama The Blind Side is one of the films that earned her critical acclaim.
It’s even more victory that a sports-themed film earned her both an Academy and Golden Globe. Bullock contributed to the team spirit at Washington-Lee High as a member of the cheerleading squad. Bullock explained that she enjoyed performing at pep rallies.
Halle Berry
Halle Berry always features on the list of Hollywood A-listers, and she has an Academy Award acknowledging the hard work within the industry. Berry started as a model, and she managed to finish 6th place at the Miss World pageant.
Way before all that, Berry was a cheerleader, and we imagine that she excelled at it too. The Bedford High cheerleading squad didn’t prevent her from becoming the prom queen and keeping up with earning good grades to get her on the honor student roll.
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson is the proverbial triple threat in Hollywood, having started her career as a singer before transitioning to acting. Simpson has sold an estimated 7 million albums worldwide, but her career seems to have slowed down in recent years.
It doesn’t mean that Simpson doesn’t have a lot keeping her busy these days. She also has The Jessica Simpson Collection offering clothing and accessories. Her life has come a long way since her cheerleading days at Richardson North Junior High.
Meryl Streep
More than five decades have gone by since Meryl Streep jumped up and down, waving pom-poms alongside the Bernards High cheerleading team. Streep is now a Hollywood A-lister boasting of 21 Academy Award nominations and three wins out of the lot.
Streep narrated the 2020 short film Here We Are Notes for Living on Planet Earth. She also has upcoming credits in The Prom and Let Them All Talk. Streep also serves as the National Women’s History Museum’s spokesperson, and she supports the Chime for Change campaign by Gucci.
Eva Longoria
Gabrielle Solis is the character that Eva Longoria portrayed in the beloved dramedy Desperate Housewives. The show functioned as a launchpad for her success in the industry, and she even went on to executive produce Devious Maids after that.
Longoria attended the Texas A&M-Kingsville College, where she was a prominent member of the school’s cheer squad. She started her cheerleading days back at Roy Miller High, almost three decades ago. These days she holds modeling contracts with several brands and runs the restaurant called Beso.
Megan Fox
Being part of the Morningside Academy cheerleading team didn’t exactly make Mean Fox the Queen Bee. Fox explained that she endured frequent bullying, and things weren’t easy back at home, where she grew up in a strict Pentecostal family.
The 2000s marked her big break with appearances in the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith and her film debut in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. She solidified her place in Hollywood through the series of Transformers films. Her list of 2020 film credits include Rogue and Think Like a Dog.
Madonna
Madonna is now 62, and that means that a good four-plus-decades have gone by since she left school. We know her for her endless series of hits she released back in the ’80s, and Rolling Stone included her in their 2020 “Greatest Of All Time” list.
There was a time when the highest Madonna ever got was at the top of the pyramid, as a cheerleader at Rochester Adams High. She released her 14th studio album dubbed Madame X in 2019, and in 2020 she teamed up with Missy Elliot and Dua Lipa for the remix of Levitating.
Ciara
The 2000s were great for Ciara with three consecutive charting albums, and her second release peaked at #1. Collectively, she boasted of 4 million album sales in the U.S. alone. Not to forget that she gave us a couple of anthems at the time, including 1, 2, Step, and Goodies.
Before her climb up the charts, Ciara attended Riverdale High and captained the school’s cheerleading squad. Once her music took off, she left her cheerleading days in the past, except for a couple of photos like the one above serving as a reminder.
Alicia Silverstone
We still remember Alicia Silverstone from Clueless, which remains one of her most significant roles. Silverstone landed the part fresh out of school, and it’s easy to see how she nailed the role of Cher Horowitz in the film.
The only way her character in the teen drama would have been any better is if she was a cheerleader, something that Silverstone had experience with from school. Silverstone attended San Mateo High, where she was a valuable member of the cheerleading team.
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst is another actress who appeared in Bring It On and drew from her real-life cheerleading experience. Dunk picked up a pair of pom-poms while at both Notre Dame High and the Laurel Hall School.
If you want to see Dunst in something recent, since 2019, she’s had a role in the black comedy On Becoming a God in Central Florida. The role earned her a third nomination for a Golden Globe Award. Dunst also got a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2019.
Blake Lively
Blake Lively also found her footing in the industry as a teenager. She starred in Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen between 2007 to 2012. Lively then found success on the big screen in films like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, A Simple Favor, and The Shallows.
Back in the day, Lively was part of the Burbank High cheerleading team. She’s now married to Ryan Reynolds, and they share three daughters. Who knows, they might follow in their mother’s footsteps and wield a couple of pom-poms along the way.
Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore has reached career highs that most stars aspire to achieve. Moore belted out some chart-topping hits, and she’s also appeared in several films, including The Darkest Minds. Moore then featured in the NBC comedy-drama This Is Us.
In her teen years, Moore was a cheerleader, and on an Instagram throwback photo, she explained that it was long before she knew that cheering wasn’t great for her vocal cords. Back in 2018, when she dropped by the Today Show, Moore proved that she’s still got it by performing a couple of old cheer routines.
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi
Jersey Shore introduced us to Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, who soon became a fan favorite. Long before she was raising mayhem at the Jersey Shore, Snooki chanted cheer slogans in support of her high school team.
Snooki’s time on the cheer team wasn’t smooth sailing, and she developed an eating disorder while trying to keep in shape. She went through the wringer, fearing that if she packed on a few extra pounds, it would get her kicked out of the cheering squad.
Paula Abdul
A look at Paula Abdul’s music videos, and we can all agree that she can move. Before she started recording chart-topping hits, Abdul joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a cheerleader. She was 18 at the time and soon became the Laker Girls’ head choreographer.
Abdul started choreographing Janet Jackson’s music videos, and she later began working on her music under Virgin Records. She has also served as a judge on Live to Dance, So You Think You Can Dance, and The X Factor.
Denise Richards
Denise Richards started her career in the modeling industry before transitioning to acting. Richards appeared in films like Wild Things, The World Is Not Enough, and Madea’s Witness Protection. Before all that, she showed some team spirit as an El Camino High School.
Richards might have gone a bit under the radar in recent years, but since 2019 she’s appeared in The Bold and the Beautiful. She also currently appears in the Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Nene Leakes
We can thank The Real Housewives of Atlanta for getting us acquainted with Nene Leakes. The Bravo reality series also helped Leakes bag other gigs in shows like Fashion Police, The New Normal, and Glee. Before all that, Leakes cheered for her team back in grade school.
Leakes continues to work within the showbiz industry, and she also featured on The Celebrity Apprentice as well as Dancing with the Stars. She also runs SWAGG boutiques located in select cities in the U.S.
Katie Couric
Aspiring journalists look up to Katie Couric because she’s amongst the professionals in the trade who enjoy prolific careers. Like everyone else, Couric’s big dreams started forming during her days as a student. Besides digging into books, she also spent her days on the cheerleading team.
Eventually, the pen proved mightier than pom-poms for Couric. She held her first job at ABC News before moving to NBC and then CBS. Couric has also worked with Yahoo News, and she’s guest-starred in several TV sitcoms, including Will & Grace.
Renee Zellweger
The romcoms Jerry Maguire and Bridget Jones’s Diary helped Renee Zellweger achieve A-list status in Hollywood. Zellweger has earned accolades along the way, including four Golden Globes and two Academy Awards. She topped off her previous performances with her stellar performance in the 2019 biopic Judy.
Zellweger might have always had a desire to perform from her days at Katy High as a member of the cheering squad. Her time on the team stuck with her to this day, and she still recalls most of the cheer moves.
Diane Sawyer
Diane Sawyer is among the women credited for helping shape the landscape for female journalists. Sawyer began her career in politics, working as a White House staff member. She joined CBS News soon after, and in 1984 she became the first 60 Minutes female correspondent.
Sawyer is the recipient of numerous awards, and her victory streak started in her teen years. She went to Seneca High, where she found a way to shine on the cheerleading squad. These days Sawyer focuses on producing documentaries and working on interview specials for ABC News.
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin co-hosted Live! for an incredible 15 years. Gifford moved on to Today, where she’s equally become famous co-hosting with Hoda Kotb for 11 years. She eventually left her media days behind for Hollywood.
Gifford developed her interest in showbiz when she was a drama student. She also found time to lift a pair of pom-poms to cheer for the school’s teams. Gifford also enjoyed an illustrious music career with several album releases to her name.
Brooklyn Decker
Brooklyn Decker’s modeling career has seen her grace the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues. Decker also worked with Victoria’s Secret 2010 swim collection. She guest-starred in several TV shows like Ugly Betty, Royal Pains, and Chuck.
Decker might have known that she was destined for fame because she started shaping her confidence as a cheerleader. She attended Butler High, where she was also the senior class president. Most recently, Decker appeared in Celebrity Family Feud, Match Game, and Lip Sync Battle.
Rashida Jones
Cheerleaders have a stereotypical reputation for being focussed on boys and not paying too much attention to their grades. Rashida Jones went against the norm and enjoyed the best of both worlds. Jones was a member of the National Honor Society, math club, and the school’s spirit squad.
Jones found her way to Hollywood with appearances in shows like Boston Public, The Office, and Parks and Recreation. In 2020, she starred in the sitcom #blackAF, and as a filmmaker, she directed an episode of the Netflix docu-series Hot Girls Wanted.
Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Alley had a wholesome American upbringing. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas, with her folks and two siblings, and she also joined the cheerleading team in school. Alley went to Wichita Southeast High before enrolling at Kansas State University.
Alley dropped out during her sophomore year, and she then worked as an interior designer and eventually pursued acting. Most recently, she featured in the 2020 film You Can’t Take My Daughter. Alley’s other credits include Scream Queens, The Goldbergs, and Kirstie.
Steve Martin
Steve Martin has built his career on laughter, starting in the ’60s as a writer for comedy shows. Martin soon became a Saturday Night Live host and soon ventured to the big screen. His list of credits includes Cheaper by the Dozen, The Big Year, and The Pink Panther.
Martin’s sense of cheer goes back to when he was a cheerleader, and that’s not a joke. He attended Garden Grove High, where he offered the sports team moral support. Martin gave his comedic abilities a test drive, writing funny cheers for the squad.