Megan Fox on the Cover of GQ

At the age of 16 Megan Fox persuaded her mother to move out to Hollywood. Mom relocated with her, and they lived together and hustled for work (including a rich-bitch reprise opposite Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) until Fox turned 18 and Mom went home. Her first year living alone in L.A. was a reckless one. That’s when she started getting her tattoos (she now has seven) and exploring all the city’s weird, dark, and dangerous little corners. “I was just careless,” she says. “I would get myself into situations that were very bizarre—situations any logical person would not have gotten themselves into."

“Well, that year my boyfriend broke up with me, and I decided—oh man; sorry, Mommy!—that I was in love with this girl that worked at the Body Shop [a strip club on Sunset Boulevard]. I decided that I was going to get her to love me back, and I went out of my way to create a relationship with this girl, a stripper named Nikita. I was there all the time—I would go there by myself. I bought her things—perfume, body spray, girlie stuff. I turned into a weird middle-aged married man. I felt like I had this need to save Nikita. I’d get lap dances so I could get to know her, and I’d give her what I thought were great little sound bites of inspiration—like You can do it, you’re better than this! I didn’t want her to be there.”