Reese Witherspoon, just a little girl from Louisiana, had wished and hoped for everything to come her way and when she hit her late twenties, suddenly everything went too fast, she was already a well-known figure all over the world by then. Originally called Laura Jean, Reese was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 22, 1976, but she lived in Wiesbaden, Germany for four years after her father, John Witherspoon, was sent there to serve in the army, not as a soldier, but as a specialist in nose, ear and throat. Her mother, Betty, also served as a doctor of pediatric nursing in the medical profession, and later taught her expertise at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. Acting was obviously not an option, having very academic parents, but little Reese gained an interest in it out of nowhere. Sparked by the offer for the first time to be the model for an ad, she was drawn to the profession and began to become fond of acting.
She wanted to give it a try too, accompanying a friend to do an audition for a film. The 15-year-old girl amazed the casting directors with some lines and was immediately enrolled for the screening test in L.A. She was unexpectedly placed as the main character of “The Man in the Moon” (1991) from expecting a small role, where she became a young girl struggling with first syndromes of love. And the fact that she was still studying at Harpeth Hall High School in the following years, Nashville did not stop her from taking several more jobs, including “Wildflower” (1991) and “Desperate Choices: To Save My Child” (1992) as well as “A Far Off Place” (1993) and “Jack the Bear” large screens (1993). At the 1994 Young Artist Awards, she won the category of Best Youth Actress Co-Starring in a Motion Picture Drama for the latter, and so the stories had just started.