10 Things You Didn't Know About Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta; better known to you and I as Lady Gaga. There probably isn't one person alive in the Western world that hasn't at least tapped their foot to one of her songs in the last 5 years.

A otherwise unassuming 29 year old musician from New York - known for her hits like Pokerface, Telephone, Born This Way and Bad Romance - has recently made an acting name for herself with her debut as The Countess in FX's American Horror Story: Hotel.

Gaga surprised everyone with her incredible acting abilities, and pulls off the role as Elizabeth Johnson The Countess with pure class and mystery, and there are even talks of her getting an Emmy nod next year. What you might not have known though, is that this isn't even Gaga's first acting gig, and she's known for her theatrical background. One of many surprising strings her to her bow.

But for every Gaga song you've heard, there's an outlandish story about with the girl behind it. So, what should you believe?

10. She Suffered From Bulimia And Anorexia As A Teen

In 2012, Lady Gaga was criticized for her 25lbs weight gain and was called "meaty", "heavy" and "porky" by various tabloids. Though she did pile on a few pounds, the singer thought that she should share something with both fans and haters alike and posted 3 pictures of herself in yellow underwear on her website LittleMonsters.com, and the caption read: "Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15."

A few days later she added a subsection to her website entitled "Body Revolution" and even posted a message to her fans saying "Now that the body revolution has begun, be brave and post a photo of you that celebrates your triumph over insecurities."

Gaga has always tried to show her fans that she's just like them and felt it was her duty to stand up for herself when people were critiquing her weight, not because she is a celebrity, but because she wanted to show her fans that every person has the right to stand up against anyone who calls them "ugly" or "fat".

9. She Slapped Taylor Kinney When They First Met

Gaga has been engaged to Chicago P.D star Taylor Kinney since February 2015 when he proposed to her with a Candy Ring Pop before finally revealing her heart-shaped diamond engagement ring after she said yes. The pair have been quite the sweet couple, posting pictures of themselves on Instagram regularly and looking loved-up on the regular, but it didn't start out so sweet.

In an interview with Watch What Happens, Kinney revealed that when he met Gaga on the set of her music video, You And I, in 2011 they had an awkward encounter.

"I show up and they're like, 'Oh this is the idea. This is the idea.' and I go, 'OK, just let me do my thing," he told host Andy Cohen. "And I remember I went up, and we're rolling, and I kissed her and she didn't expect it. They cut, and she slapped me."

8. She Was Bullied At School For Her Nose And Teeth

She might be a babe now with two middle fingers raised up high to anyone who says otherwise, but once upon a time, Gaga was heavily bullied for her nose and teeth and says that some of the hurtful things that her bullies said still sticks with her today.

They said I had a big nose and I had buckteeth,” she told Access Hollywood in 2011. “I had my teeth fixed and I got thrown in a trash can."

When asked if she saw herself as a role-model for kids that get picked on, she says she does feel pressured, but she does try her best to be the best influence she can be. “I had to look inside myself and say, ‘Well, what do I have to offer?’ Because for so many years I felt like I didn’t have very much to offer.”

7. Cocaine Inspired Her First Songs

Lady Gaga is no stranger to doing heavy drugs and caused quite a stir when she told Vanity Fair that she occasionally did cocaine to get her creative juices flowing. The singer was in hot water after that, but she defended herself by saying that she isn't "some chick on the road getting high and f***ed up every night. I wake up, drink coffee and get on the phone to talk about the creative direction of the next video."

Some celebrities (and parents of her young fans) felt this was no way to defend her statement and model Janice Dickinson made it known to the world just how unhappy she was about it. "As a recovering addict who knows how dangerous occasional use is, I can think of no reason for Gaga to reveal this to her young audience," she told Life & Style. "She is a f**king idiot. The way she mentioned cocaine, I think she should really get spanked. You can damage and hurt kids. I'm appalled."

The singer has refused to comment on the matter any further, so it's anyone's guess whether she's still doing it to get inspired, but we know The Countess sure likes to sniff a line every now and then.

6. She Appeared On MTV's Boiling Points

The year was 2005 and an unknown girl with long brown hair and a rather short temper was one of the contestants on MTV's Boiling Points. The show took random strangers and set up annoying situations that they filmed for MTV. Examples included poor or incompetent customer service in a store or restaurant, being accosted by a date's ex-love-interest while out together, and unprovoked rudeness from a total stranger.

In Gaga's case they took away her salad as she left for the ladies' room and replaced it with a meal that wasn't hers. Watch the video below to see just how angry the Mother Monster can get:

5. She Taught Herself How To Play Piano At Four

At the tender age of only 4 years old, Lady Gaga taught herself how to play piano by ear, and by the time she was 13 she had already written her first piano ballad. When she was 14, she was performing at New York City Nightclubs when they had open mic nights and at 17 she was accepted to the Tisch School of Arts at New York University.

By the time she reached 20 years old, she was signed up as a professional songwriter with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and wrote songs for the likes of Britney Spears before famous singer Akon noticed what amazing voice she had and helped her to sign a joint deal with Interscope Records and his own KonLive Distribution, but he cashed out when Gaga was at her highest peak and said that it was purely a "business decision".

"My involvement is always going to be whatever she wants it to be," he said. "I just know how the business works. You're only hot for so long before you become cold." Well, that explains why we haven't heard from Akon in a while.

4. Her Meat Dress Was 100% Real

Who could forget Lady Gaga's meat dress that she wore at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards? Even The Simpsons made a spoof of it! Designed by Franc Fernandez and styled by Nicola Formichetti, the famous "meat dress" was condemned by animal rights groups, and named by Time as the top fashion statement of 2010. It was made from 100% pure beef, and it was quite the controversial topic of conversation that year.

Lady Gaga said that she didn't mean to offend animal rights activists by wearing the dress to the award ceremony and explained to Ellen DeGeneres that it was her protest against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and was a statement against the governmental restrictions placed on the rights of gay soldiers.

However, Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) was not convinced. "Wearing a dress made out cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment" they said. "But someone should whisper in her ear that there are more people who are upset by butchery than who are impressed by it - and that means a lot of young people will not be buying her records if she keeps this stuff up." Whoops.

3. She Was On An Episode Of The Hills

In 2008 when MTV was still hot, an up-and-coming Lady Gaga was dressed by Lauren and Whitney before performing on stage in one episode of The Hills, a reality TV show that focused on Lauren Conrad as she pursued a career in the fashion industry.

A nervous Gaga stands rather unsteady and sneakily eyes the camera, and if you blink you might just miss her sneaking a peak at it, just have a look at only (and very bad quality) the video below.

2. She Had Four Entries In The Guinness World Records In 2012

Although her records have been surpassed since then, Gaga was once the holder of 4 records in The Guinness World Records.

Her records included being the world's most followed person on Twitter with over 10,131,629 followers in 2011, her single "Born This Way" became the fastest single to sell a million downloads on iTunes (it was in five days) in 2012, the "Born This Way" album also became the fastest selling US digital album and sold 1.1 million copies in its first week and the last record was in 2012 when she became the most followed person on Twitter again when she reached 11,259,372 followers.

Since then the record's been beaten by Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, but with her new fame on American Horror Story, it wouldn't be surprising if Gaga had a flood of new fans that put her back on top of the Twitter's Most Popular Accounts list.

1. She Was The Inspiration For The 2016 Prius

No, really.

The chief designer of the 2016 Prius, Shunsaku Kodama has revealed that the new Prius wanted a new, edgy design and was inspired by several human elements, techie features and... by the Queen of Pop.

“There were very high expectations for the Prius,” said Kodama of his first assignment overseeing a revised nameplate to Automotive News. “As a concept, we were thinking Lady Gaga. We wanted to be more extreme in our design.” Extreme really is her thing, so it completely makes sense.

According to studies, Prius has become boring in their design and Kodama made it his goal to create an exiting look for the 2016 model and here’s where "Lady Gaga’s in-your-face ethos was “channeled,” said Automotive News. I wonder if Gaga gets dibs on her own model when it gets released. Can you just imagine The Countess in a Prius? Something tells me you can't.

Do you know any other facts about this awesome singer/actress/humanitarian? Let us know in the comments below.