Newly-minted Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is the belle of the Hollywood ball right now, loved for sassy forthrightness, her Dior-drenched fashion dense and her ability to act in dramas like 'The Silver Linings Playboook' and to be a bada-- as Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games' franchise.

But things haven't always been easy for J. Law, as she revealed her childhood battle with a form of social anxiety.

"My nickname was 'Nitro,' as in nitroglycerin," the actress, 23, told French magazine Madame Figaro (via Us Weekly). "I was hyperactive, curious about everything. When my mother told me about my childhood, she always told me there was like a light in me, a spark that inspired me constantly."

That spark was extinguished once J. Law went to school. "When I entered school, the light went out," she recalled. "We never knew what it was, a kind of social anxiety. But I had friends."

J. Law did see a therapist for the problem, but it failed. "Nothing worked," she said.

That is, until she stepped onto the stage and started acting. That provided the boost and the creative outlet she needed.

She confessed, "One day, I begged my parents to take me to a casting. We went to New York, and that's where I started acting. Just on stage, my mother saw the change that was taking place in me. She saw my anxieties disappear. She found her daughter, the one who had this light and joy before school."

Acting was therapeutic for Lawrence, since "I finally found a way [to] open the door to a universe that I understood, that was good for me and made me happy, because I felt capable, whereas before I felt worthless."

Her legion of fans, especially those that girl crush on her, are certainly glad J. Law got bitten by the acting bug.

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