Awkward Photos Of Glamorous Celebrities On Prom Night Will Make You Feel Better About Yourself

Celebrities. They’re just like us. Except with a lot more money and much bigger houses. But there is one moment when everyone was pretty much equal — at least looking back on it. Prom night.

With prom season about to sweep high schools around the country, you may be looking back on your high school experience and feeling awkward or embarrassed about yourself. Well, don’t.

If you ever look at your old prom photos, take a look at what back then seemed like stylish attire and wonder, “What was I thinking?” these 10 photos are for you.

We believe that once you check out these actual shots of glamorous celebrities on their prom nights, you’ll start to feel a lot better about yourself. Take a look at see if you don’t agree.

The photo above, by the way, is ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass who was already a star in 1999 with the boy band. But he didn’t skip the prom, with his date, Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel.

Yes, that’s Britney Spears, two years before “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” at Louisiana’s Parklane Academy prom in 1997.

We will charitably assume that Walk of Shame star Elizabeth Banks did not need a walk of shame after her 1992 prom, at Pittsfield High School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She looks like she had a lovely, and very wholesome, evening.

Halle Berry was named prom queen at Bedford High School outside of Cleveland, Ohio in 1984. But scandal soon surrounded the prom with allegations of ballot-box-stuffing. Berry said it took her “a long time” to get over the spurious charges.

Now, we’ll give you a minute to guess this next one (we’re talking about the girl).

Figured it out yet?

That’s Ellen Degeneres, daytime TV queen and Oscar host. We’re not sure of the exact year of this shot, but judging by the very 1970s couture of Ellen’s date, and that fact that Ellen was born in 1958, that this picture was snapped sometime around 1975 or 1976.

She was just called Stacy Ferguson when she went to her Glen A. Wilson High School prom in Hacienda Heights, California back in 1993. But Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was accompanied by a date, not seen this picture, who later became a convicted bank robber.

Looking every bit the southern belle, Paula Deen had yet to make any controversial racial remarks — not publicly anyway — when she attended her Albany (Georgia) High School prom in 1965.

Before she was Sleepless in Seattle, or loudly faked the heights of ecstasy in When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan looked starry-eyed at her 1979 senior prom at Bethel High School in Connecticut.

Showing not a hint of the tormented, self-loathing Don Draper character who would make him famous, Jon Hamm dated another future Hollywood actress, Sarah Clarke, at his senior prom. No date on this one, but Hamm was born in 1971, so we’re guessing 1988 or 1989.

Another vintage 1980s shot. That’s talk show host and reality TV personality Bethenny Frankel, who posted this photo on Instagram, asking, “Who else rocked the 80s puff sleeved prom dress look?!”

Finally, that’s a shaggy-haired George Clooney who was just a junior in high school when he took his date, college freshman Laura Laycock, to the 1978 prom at Augusta (Kentucky) High School. According to Laycock, they spent most of the night cruising around in his dad’s Corvette while George made fun of everyone he saw.

There. Wasn’t that good therapy? Seeing what those big-time celebs looked like in their awkward years, we hope your own self-esteem has taken a boost.