In an exclusive cover story in the February issue of IN New York magazine, a 23-year-old diva explains how Stefani Joanne Germanotta became Lady Gaga.

With all her recent accolades and rise to pop superstardom, the young musical sensation admits she wasn’t always so popular. “I was a bit insecure in high school…I used to get made fun of for being too provocative or too eccentric…I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak.”

The Manhattan native, who got her name from a hit song by Queen, has come into her own over the past year. Gaga says she was born to perform. “I was always an entertainer…I was a ham as a little girl and I’m a ham today.” But the fame hasn’t gone to her head. “I’m a songwriter, performance artist, daughter and sister, but I’m also an Italian girl from New York.”

For Bob Cannon’s complete article, titled “The World’s Gone Gaga”, visit innewyork.com or pick up a complimentary copy of IN New York beginning February 1—found in-room and at concierge desks of the city’s finest hotels and residential buildings, on New York Water Taxi boats and Amtrak trains and at leading NYC retailers and information centers, including the Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s Visitors Centers, the NYC & Co. Visitor Center, the Times Square Alliance Information Center and the Visitor Information window in Grand Central Terminal.