Lea Michele’s unlikely success

Lea Michele isn’t your typical Hollywood “It Girl,” said Marshall Heyman in Harper’s Bazaar. Unlike so many of her peers, the 25-year-old actress and singer didn’t find her way to fame through the Disney Channel or American Idol or YouTube. Instead, she did it the old-fashioned way, on the Great White Way. She got her first role on Broadway in Les Misérables, when she was 8, and her big break came at 19, when she was cast in the musical Spring Awakening, which won the Tony for Best Musical.

But getting people to take her seriously as an actress has been a challenge, says Michele. “I’m 5 foot 3. I don’t look like a lot of other people, you know what I mean? I look like I’m 12.” And then there’s her nose, which is, by Hollywood standards, Streisand-esque. “How many managers told me, ‘Get a nose job. You’re not pretty enough’? But I proved them wrong,” she says. She’s done so primarily with her singing voice, which is also somewhat Streisand-esque, as showcased on the television show Glee. Soon she’ll be starring in a film version of the show. “In 3-D,” she says with a laugh. “My nose is going to look fabulous.”

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