Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is a reality TV star on MTV’s Jersey Shore who likes to live hard, play hard and party harder. A short, busty human firecracker who could simultaneously mud-wrestle Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag and emerge victorious, Nicole Polizzi has gained substantial fame in the MTV crowd and on the guido circuit for her television exploits. The aliens observing our daily activities might be perplexed about her fame, but it’s curiosities like this that keep them coming back for more. Nicole Polizzi, or Snooki, may be Italian-bred, but she was not Italian-born. Born to Spanish parents, she was adopted by the Polizzi family in Poughkeepsie, New York and given a crash course in the joys of Italian food, fashions and family bonding during her childhood years. Even with some of the wild antics that later accompanied her party-happy lifestyle, Nicole Polizzi’s relationship with her family remained close.

If Nicole Polizzi’s early Italian years were somewhat ordinary, things changed quickly when she moved to New Jersey. Her music got louder, her hair got bigger and adopted a signature poof, her fashions got racier, and she went the cheerleader route to star on the dance squad at Marlboro High School. With her mini-makeover, Nicole Polizzi eagerly sought out attention wherever she could and usually found it. One such moment came in 2007, when she did continuous handsprings for a beach full of admirers in a candid video recorded during Spring Break.