Early Career
She tried to follow in her mother's career as a Las Vegas showgirl, but most shows rejected her for not having the then-typical height of 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm). She was hired at Disneyland Resort, but left after two months stating concerns over the schedule and salary schedule.
Her boyfriend Jack encouraged her to apply for jobs as a dancer, and in 1991, though underage, she began dancing in Las Vegas strip clubs using a fake identification. After she was rejected from the Crazy Horse Too strip club because of her orthodontia, she removed her braces with pliers and was accepted. After six months, she was earning US$2,000 per night, before graduating from Bonanza High School.
Her first stage name as a dancer was "Jennasis", which she later used as the name of a business that she incorporated ("Jennasis Killing Co."). She chose the name "Jenna Jameson" to use as a model after scrolling through the phone book for a last name that matched her first name, before finally deciding on Jameson after the whiskey, which she is known to drink.
Besides dancing, starting later in 1991, she posed for nude photographs for photographer Suze Randall in Los Angeles, with the intention of getting into Penthouse. After her photos had appeared in several men's magazines under various names, she then stopped working for Randall, feeling Randall was "a shark" who had been taking advantage of her.
While in high school, she began taking drugs—cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine—accompanied by her brother (who was addicted to heroin) and at times her father. Her addiction worsened during her four years with her boyfriend. She eventually stopped eating properly and became too thin to model; Jack left her in 1994. She weighed 76 pounds (less than 35 kilograms) when a friend put her in a wheelchair and sent her to her father, who was then living in Redding, California, in order to detox; her father did not recognize her when she got off the plane.
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