Back when Madonna first exploded into our lives and every girl in the world wanted to emulate her rebellious, strong, sexy style no one would have guessed that in high school she felt like just the opposite of the icon she was becoming: an outcast who was very aware of how much she didn’t fit in.

In December’s Harper’s Bazaar, Madonna talks to Naomi Wolf about how she knew she could never fit in or do the things you had to do to be considered attractive in high school, so she went exactly the opposite way. ET Online had the short skinny on the interview:

“Madonna said while in high school, she recognized that girls had to behave a certain way to get boys. ‘I knew I couldn’t fit into that. So I decided to do the opposite. I refused to wear makeup, to have a hairstyle. I refused to shave. I had hairy armpits.’ As a result she said she felt ‘tortured’ and boys would make fun of her and call her names. ‘Hair monster.’ You know, things like that.”

Talk about it getting better.

Wolf also talks to Madonna about her upbringing without a female role model, her new film about Wallis Simpson and the cultural view of celebrity and powerful women.