We were all awkward teenagers once.

It's refreshing, and encouraging, to know that even the biggest celebrities were all once regular teenagers just trying to get through the complexities of young adult life. The Bay Area has always been home to some great talent; catch a glimpse of a few before they got famous, in this little jaunt into NorCal history.

MC Hammer

  

via Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle

Before he became the untouchable MC Hammer, Stanley Kirk Burrell was voted Most Talented at McClymonds High School in Oakland. A native of Oaktown, the future megastar also worked as a young teen for the Oakland A's.