Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir

I used to say I was Saint Cyndi of a Feces, because wherever shit fell, there I was.

The thing is, when I was made fun of in high school, it was hurtful. I felt totally like an outsider. Although everyone is different, for me the outside started to feel otherworldly -more thoughtful. And after a while I didn´t give a hoot what anyone thought about me, just what I thought about me. In that space I could educate myself. I walked around a little crazy sometimes. You´d be surprised how afraid people get if you look a little crazy.

All I want to convey to anyone who is suffering while they're young is that sometimes you get a reprieve when you're older. Maybe it's just your perception that changes, but somehow it eases up, because life ebbs and flows. When you're ebbing, maybe you're strengthening your perspective of the world. And when you're flowing, maybe you can use everything to create, to write, to sing, act, and eventually stand taller and see farther.

We lived large in a way that people who really live large don't - there's a spice, a richness, a joy that working-class people have. And even though we were kind of products of misery, we still had a vibrance.

I was always cutting my Barbie and Pollyanna dolls' hair. I lined them all up and put a cloth around their necks, like they were at the beauty parlor. Barbie was a real heartbreaker, but then all of a sudden, Barbie was freakin' bald. That was a shocker.