Posted 28 minutes agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret Down38 Celebrities Who Are Entirely Self-MadeZendaya said, "I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early, and there was a lot of role-reversal happening."by Kristen HarrisBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink It's harder for aspiring creatives from humble beginnings to "make it" in an industry chock-full of nepo babies and rich kids. However, plenty of celebs have truly built their careers brick by brick without the help of family money or connections. Here are 38 celebs who are entirely self-made: 1. Viola Davis spent her childhood "in abject poverty and dysfunction" and lived in "rat-infested and condemned" apartments. When she was 2, she was taken to jail with her mother, a civil rights activist, who was arrested during a protest. She studied acting at Young People's School for the Performing Arts, Rhode Island College, and Juilliard. Amy Sussman / Getty Images 2. Selena Gomez's mom, Mandy Teefey, who was 16 when she had her, "gave up everything for [her] and had like three jobs." The two of them would dig through the car to find quarters to pay for gas. As a kid, Selena also accompanied Mandy to her play rehearsals, which inspired her to be an actor. She made her onscreen debut in Barney & Friends at 7, then booked her first Disney Channel pilot at 12. Allen Berezovsky / Via Getty 3. When Addison Rae was 7, her family moved into a camper on a lot her dad's employers owned because they "didn't have anywhere to live." A few years later, they moved to a new state, where she was bullied for wearing off-brand shoes. Speaking with her mom on her That Was Fun? podcast, she said, "My mom, being the sweet mom that you are, was like, 'We're gonna buy you Uggs so that people aren't mean to you anymore.' She literally [took] me to buy Uggs that day. I remember we went to the mall... They were, like, $200 Uggs, which was not cheap for us." Stephanie Augello / WWD via Getty Images Growing up, Addison felt that becoming an actor was an unattainable dream, so in college, she studied journalism so that she could still be on TV. She told Elle, "Then I got super lucky with TikTok, and was so blessed with the chance to move to LA." Addison Rae / Via tiktok.com 4. Eva Longoria told BuzzFeed News, "We didn't have any money growing up. I grew up at the Boys & Girls Club. I grew up at the Salvation Army, folding coats for their winter. I grew up at soup kitchens every Thanksgiving. That was just the way it was. My family is a very selfless family because we benefited so much from all these community programs that my mom was like, 'We have to give back.' And the only way we could do that was by volunteering. We pay it forward." Marc Piasecki / WireImage / Via Getty 5. Cardi B told Global Grind, "I have real good parents; they [are] poor. They have regular, poor jobs and whatnot. They [are] real good people and whatnot; I was just raised in a bad society." Noam Galai / Getty Images for Global Citizen Before her rise from social media personality to reality star to A-list rapper, Cardi worked as a stripper to make ends meet. She told Vibe, "I'm not gonna lie, and I'm not gonna ever hate on the game, but it paid my bills. It also lifted my spirits when I needed some lifting. Yes, went through a lot of sh't. But I made a lot of money doing it, and there were times when being at the strip club was better than the alternative... When I got kicked out of my mom's house, I had to live in my boyfriend's house. I wanted to come here, to my family's house, but my dad was so mad at me. And he was like, 'Don't you even think that you're going to go to your grandma's house. You're not staying there.' He told me that, and I was like, 'Oh, well, I'm not going over there.'" Rob Kim / Getty Images She continued, "I was going to sleep hungry. I was crying a lot. There were days where I couldn't wait to go to work, at the supermarket I worked at before stripping... I couldn't wait to go to work so I could eat. It's sad to feel that way. And I wanted to move out of [my boyfriend's house]. There was two pit bulls in that house, and I had asthma. I was dying in there. There was bedbugs, too. There was always guys going in and out, his homeboys playing PlayStation, stealing money from us. I wanted to move out so bad. And then on top of that, I felt like my ex-boyfriend was cheating on me, but it was like even if he was cheating on me, I still can't leave because - where was I gonna go? ... I was working at the supermarket for about $200 a week. I was not going to go nowhere on that. I wasn't gonna go anywhere. So, I started dancing and made enough money to move out of that house. And I've never looked back." Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images 6. When Leighton Meester was born, both of her parents were in prison for their involvement in a drug smuggling ring. Before giving birth, her mom moved into a halfway house, then delivered her in a hospital. After three months, Leighton was s