Howie Dorough

Howie's first brush with entertaining occured when he was just a baby. He loved singing and playing the guitar on his Grandmother's bed. But his real venture into performing came at the age of seven, when he follwed the footsteps of his then-18-year-old- sister, Polly Ana. "She got me into my first play, The Wizard of Oz," 22-year-old Howie told us. "I was a little munchkin and I just remember having pants that were like two sizes too big. I remember dancing around and my pants falling down all the time and everybody just loving it. I was the little comedian of the show."

Kevin Richardson

Like his cousin Brian, 23-year-old Kevin's introduction to music was through the church. "I first started singing in church and I just always listened to the radion and sang in the shower," Kevin confessed to us. " But the first real singing I did was at talent shows at school. And of course, I was in the school's choir and speech and drama and musical theater. And I also played football. It wasn't common to be a jock and to sing."

Nick Carter

Even before 15-year-old Nick was potty-trained, he felt totally at home performing for a crowd. And since his dad, Robert, owned The Yankee Rebel lounge in Jamestown, New York, he got his chance at an early age. "When I was two years old, I would go out [on the dance floor] when my dad was playing music and dance in my diaper," Nick told us. "I was loving music ever since I was that young." As Nick got older (and out of his diaper) his interest in performing heightened. In fourth grade he starred in his school's production of Phantom of the Opera, took singing lessons and got into acting.

A.J McLean

Like Howie, 18-year-old A.J. performed in community theater plays when he was a kid. "I did about 30-35 plays between ages six to twelve," A.J. told us. "The first play I did was Snow White. I played Dopey. And because Dopey didn't talk, I had to learn sign language. I've also done The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, West Side Story, South Pacific, just any play you can imagine."

Brian Littrel

From the time Brian was around three years old he was singing in church. "I grew up in a big Baptist church and you had to sing," the 20-year-old told us. "I never had any vocal training but I had the same choir teacher from seventh to eleventh grade and he kind of fine-tuned me. I guess you could say I was like his little project."