Emma Stone wasn’t like most kids growing up in Arizona. At 7, she had her first of hundreds of panic attacks. By 8, she was in therapy. At 11, she made a presentation lobbying her parents to homeschool her so she could be in more productions at Phoenix’s Valley Youth Theatre. And at 15, she’s said, she made “a PowerPoint [convincing them to let me] move to LA…to try to be an actor professionally.” They supported her after watching Emma sacrifice her youth for her passion and turn her once crippling anxiety — which had formerly left their ambitious daughter feeling “very isolated and without a lot of friends,” a source exclusively tells Life & Style — into what the two-time Oscar winner, 35, now calls her “superpower.”

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“Emma has overcome a lot of personal obstacles to get to where she is today in Hollywood,” confirms the source. “But Emma says her priority these days is really her family.”

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After dating co-stars like Teddy Geiger, 35, Kieran Culkin, 41, Andrew Garfield, 40, she embraced a far quieter romance with former Saturday Night Live segment director Dave McCary, 38. She even chose to keep their 2020 wedding and the 2021 birth of daughter Louise a secret. “Her life revolves around them,” the source tells Life & Style of the “still down-to-earth” star. “They’ve given her a strong foundation so she can do what she does without fear.”