It is possible but unconfirmed — with the exception of one account — that such a group was created by her college classmates. Given that the Facebook group no longer exists, we are unable to independently confirm this.
Lady Gaga studied at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2004 and 2005 before dropping out. According to many on the internet, she became a target of Facebook bullying by her classmates during that period of time. According to a tweet from March 28, 2023, Lady Gaga's classmates made a Facebook page called "Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous." Stefani Germanotta is Lady Gaga's real name.
There are, as of this writing, numerous Facebook groups and pages with that name, but they were all created recently; the original page appears to have been long since deleted. Facebook was created in 2004 and grew in popularity across college campuses in subsequent years, opening up to everyone by 2006.
We should also note that Facebook Groups that allowed more than one person to interact through a Facebook page by sharing updates, posts, etc, were first introduced in October 2010, years after Germanotta left college. However, according to CNET, college students were able to avail themselves of groups in some form in its early days before Facebook became more widely available. Screenshots of early profiles on "The Facebook" (the name it was once known by) also show the option of "My Groups."
It is possible that a group of some kind was created by students at New York University, where Gaga went to college. In January 2016, a journalist named Lauren Bohn shared her encounter with the Facebook group "Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous" while still a freshman at NYU.
Bohn, who is a fellow in New America's International Security program and the GroundTruth Project's inaugural Middle East correspondent, described seeing the group posting pictures and making fun of a young Germanotta:
When I was a freshman at NYU and Facebook was only a year old and people created/joined groups like "I have dimples" and "Fake ID, please!," I remember coming across a Facebook group that broke my heart. It's name, something like: "Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous."
The page housed pictures of a pretty Norah Jones-esque young 18-year-old NYU student who sang and played piano at local bars.
The group was peppered with comments, sharp as porcupine needles, vilifying the aspiring musician for being an "attention-whore." Scores asked: "Who does she think she is?" I also remember one dude posting a flyer for one of her upcoming gigs at a local village bar. He had clearly stomped on the flyer, an outline of his muddy sole [soul] struggling to eclipse her name.
I couldn't shake the raw feeling of filth while scrolling down that Facebook page, but I pretty much — and quickly — forgot about that group and that girl with the intense raven eyes.
She later read a New York magazine profile of Germanotta and realized Lady Gaga was the same girl who was the subject of vitriol in the Facebook page:
HOLY S---, I screamed to an empty car (Those who hang with me will know that I actually shrieked). LADY GAGA IS STEFANI GERMANOTTA? STEFANI IS LADY GAGA?
I was overcome with a dizzying emotional cocktail of stage-mom-at-a-beauty-pageant and nerd-revenge triumph. But also shame. Shame that I never wrote on that group, shame that I never defended the girl with the intense raven eyes — the girl whose brave flyers were stomped on, probably somewhere near my dorm.
After reflecting on the ridicule that Lady Gaga faced at another point in her career, she wrote, "Stefani, thank you. Thank you for always thinking you're a superstar, for using your cracks to let the light come out more brightly."
Back in 2019 Buzzfeed wrote about the Facebook group that had made fun of the singer while she was in college.
We have looked for direct evidence of such a group or page, and it appears that it was deleted, since all the similarly named groups that now exist were created in the last few years, or have issued statements saying they are run by Lady Gaga fans and are impersonating the one that allegedly made fun of her in college.
While it is probable, based on multiple reports, that such a page existed during her college years, it has long since been deleted and we are unable to independently confirm it.
