Lovato was raised in Dallas, Texas. With Selena Gomez, she began her acting career on the children's television series Barney & Friends as Angela. She began playing piano at age seven and guitar at ten, when she also began dancing and acting classes. Lovato told Ellen DeGeneres that she was bullied so badly that she asked for homeschooling, and she received her high-school diploma through homeschooling in April 2009. She later became a spokesperson for the anti-bullying organization PACER and appeared on America's Next Top Model to speak out against bullying. In 2006 Lovato appeared on Prison Break, and on Just Jordan the following year.