How did comedy icon Tina Fey get the mysterious scar on her chin?
How does she feel about it today? And can a scar possibly boost your self-esteem?
Keep watching for the answers to all these questions and more.
Tina Fey has been one of the top names in comedy for the past 20 years.
She made a name for herself as head writer on Saturday Night Live before showing off
her comedy chops performing on the show. She later co-hosted the show's spoof news segment,
"Weekend Update," first with Jimmy Fallon, then with Amy Poehler. Following her stellar career on
the NBC late-night comedy staple, Fey went on to win critical acclaim through her sitcom 30 Rock,
based loosely on aspects of her old SNL job.
"Suck it, monkeys, I'm going corporate!"
These days, Fey is still writing, making movies, and leaving her mark on the comedy world.
Born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey, the Pennsylvania native has always considered herself a nerd.
She studied drama at the University of Virginia and moved to Chicago after graduating.
Fey then joined The Second City, a well-known comedy training center.
There, she perfected her comedic skills and was eventually scouted by SNL. By 1999, Fey had become
the first female head writer in SNL history. Soon after, she joined the show's onscreen cast.
Fey left SNL in 2006 to work on 30 Rock. However,
she briefly returned in 2008 to impersonate vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
"I was embarrassed to be wrong but mostly disappointed I wasn't right."
Beyond her television work, Fey has written and starred in several popular films,
from Mean Girls to Date Night. In 2011, she published her autobiography, Bossypants,
in which she tells the story behind her notable facial scar.
For much of her life, Fey has had a scar on the left side of her face.
And though she steadfastly refused to discuss it at first — with anyone for
any reason — she did finally open up about the injury in 2009, and later in Bossypants.
As it turns out, the comedian was a victim of a random act of violence as a small child,
and she still bears the literal scar. When she was just five years old, she was playing in the alley
behind her Upper Darby, Pennsylvania home when a random stranger attacked her and sliced her face.
At the time, she didn't think much of it, as her husband, Jeff Richmond, later explained. He noted:
"She just thought somebody marked her with a pen."
Of course, it was far worse. Fey's parents got their daughter into therapy,
but Fey, who described herself as a "very confident little kid,"
failed to "go crazy," as she claimed her therapist thought might happen.
In fact, Fey forgot about the injury until she started appearing on camera.
Fey wrote in Bossypants that her assailant has never been found or arrested. More than four
decades after the incident took place, police have no suspects. As for Fey, the only way in which the
scar seems to affect her is in her preference for the camera to photograph her from her right side.
Apparently, Fey never brought up her scar, or the traumatic story behind it,
simply because she did not want to publicize the incident. However,
she did write in BossyPants that the scar made her a minor celebrity in her hometown of Upper Darby.
Fey says that the neighborhood kids knew who she was because of it and that adults
treated her kindly. She added that she didn't realize until later that this was
more because they pitied her and less because they believed she was an exceptional child.
Nonetheless, Fey feels like the scar boosted her self esteem instead of deflating it.
Jeff Richmond has added to this sentiment and praised his wife. He told Vanity Fair:
"I think it really informs the way she thinks about her life. When you have that
kind of thing happen to you, that makes you scared of certain things [...] your comedy
comes out in a different kind of way, and it also makes you feel for people."
In Bossypants, Fey also mentioned how people constantly bring up the scar.
Now, though, she doesn't mind telling the story behind it — except when they
tell her that it's "beautiful," that is, or ask if it's from a cat scratch.