Jane Wiedlin - Early Life

Early Life

Jane Wiedlin was born in Oconomowoc, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Her father, an oral surgeon, was born in Chicago, Illinois and her mother was from Oconomowoc; they met at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Wiedlin spent her early childhood growing up in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is one of five children, with a sister and three brothers.

When Jane was six, her father took a job with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at a VA Hospital in Los Angeles, California and her family followed in tow. Soon after arriving in California, Wiedlin's mother cut Jane's waist-long hair to her signature pixie cut hairstyle, due to Wiedlin's becoming an active swimmer now that she lived in a warmer climate. Wiedlin loved watching Star Trek with her family when it first aired on television and is a lifelong fan to this day.

As a child, Jane liked to listen to 1960s pop music, especially songs by The Beatles and The Monkees. By the time she was a teenager, Wiedlin was a fan of Sparks. Years later, she would record "Cool Places" with them, as well as turn down a marriage proposal from Russell Mael, the band's co-founder. Jane Wiedlin stated, "I remember my childhood as extremely idyllic." Wiedlin also mentioned her teenage adolescence with angst and hope by saying, "I would definitely be a less-depressed teenager. I thought life was completely pointless when I was in high school, but just a few short years later I was having the adventure of a lifetime in a successful rock band!" Jane Wiedlin attended William Howard Taft High School in Los Angeles from 1972 until 1976.