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The Rock Just Posted the Cutest Throwback Photo of Him at 7 Years Old

By Sophia Bowman
Former wrestling great and current Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson.
Shutterstock

When you think of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, you likely picture a muscular build, a bald head, and perhaps an arched eyebrow. Of course, before he was The Rock, little Dwayne Johnson was just like any other kid, and he has the adorable school pictures to prove it. On Friday, Oct. 16, The Rock posted his school photo at age 7, "just drippin' cool with my buck teeth, aloha shirt and … my afro matted down on one side," he posted on Instagram. "No way this stud doesn't grow up to become Sexiest Man Alive," he joked. Nearly 40 years later, this awkward kid grew up to do just that, earning the title from People in 2016.

This is hardly the first time The Rock has poked fun at his past self on social media. Read on to see him at all stages of life, and for more stars back in the day, here are The Biggest '90s TV Teen Idols, Then and Now.

Read the original article on Best Life.

Here he is rockin' buck teeth at age 7.

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Throwback to 7 years old in Hawaii, and just drippin' cool with my buck teeth, aloha shirt and WTF is going on with my afro matted down on one side!?🤦🏽‍♂️ No way this stud doesn't grow up to become Sexiest Man Alive 🤣 #HellooooLadies #BuckyJohnson #SmellsLikeHotDogs #KingOf2ndGrade

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"#HellooooLadies" indeed!

And for more celebrities from their younger years, here are The Biggest '80s Teen Idols, Then and Now.

For an even younger The Rock, check him out smiling with his mom as a curly-haired toddler.

The matching plaid is just too much.

And here he is goofin' off with his mom in his pre-teen days.

His shirt is definitely an homage to his dad, Canadian professional wrestler Rocky Johnson.

Want to see another adorable celebrity mother-son duo? See Kate Hudson's Lookalike Son's Hilarious Impersonation of Her.

Of course, there's this one of The Rock showing off his "creepy mustache" at 15.

The stereo! The supplement bottles! The corded phone!

And if this photo sends you down memory lane, check out, The Best Slang Terms From the 1990s That Aren't Cool Today.

And one year later, he had aged a decade (and gained 25 pounds)!

"In Nashville, I was already hangin' out in honey tonk dive bars on Music Row," he wrote on Facebook. "Also grateful I straight up kicked puberty's *** early in life."

As a 22-year-old college football star, he was already signing autographs.

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#TBT to The Blamoan (Black & Samoan) Beast – pregame autograph signing at our famed Orange Bowl when I was ballin' for THE U. 22yrs old, broke like a MF'r and extremely hungry to make it. And as you can see being bald is my choice dammit 😂 Took me years to finally understand what a lucky SOB I am to actually have fan ask for my autograph. Back then, I didn't understand how cool it is or how grateful I should be to have someone care enough to ask for your signature. Because the alternative is simple — go back to being broke and nobody givin' a shit about gettin' my autograph. Once I realized that, I never turned down an autograph request again. Unless the person's an asshole 😉. #TheBlamoanBeast #94OnTheField #1InYourHeart 🤢

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At the time, he said, he "didn't understand how cool it is or how grateful [he] should be to have someone care enough to ask for your signature. … Once I realized that, I never turned down an autograph request again."

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Those Miami Hurricanes days really produced some gems.

Though he was making it big on the field, The Rock said at the time, his goal was to work for the CIA.

For a real aw-worthy moment, here's The Rock's first Christmas.

"5 months later, I hit puberty," he joked.

And who could forget the iconic fanny-pack-turtle-neck look that almost broke the internet?

Three years after first posting this 1996 throwback in 2014, The Rock revealed the surprising story of where he was when he took this photo. "I was one year removed from sleeping on a used mattress I took from a garbage dumpster," he wrote. "Couldn't afford to buy a bed so we do what we gotta do to get by."

Then, he recreated the photo to show how far he came. "21 years later I'm taking the same photo backstage hosting #SaturdayNightLive for the fifth time," he wrote in 2017. "If you're going thru your own tough times 'used mattress' stage, do your best to have faith things'll get better and always be willing to outwork your competition because you never know where life is gonna take you."

His last piece of advice? "Oh and tuck the thumb in the fanny pack. Always tuck the thumb."

Jaimie Etkin Jaimie is the Editor-in-Chief of Best Life. Read moreFiled Under • Read This Next
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