Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California. The second child of two pastors, she has an older sister and younger brother. Her Evangelical mother, Mary Hudson, grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe". Her father was a West Coast scenester in the 1960s. Perry's uncle and aunt were director Frank Perry and screenwriter Eleanor Perry.
Baptized a Christian, Perry was incorporated to her parents' ministry, and she started singing in their church from the age of nine; she continued singing in the church until she was 17. She grew up listening to gospel music and was not allowed to listen to what her mother called secular music. Perry attended Christian schools and camps. As a child, Perry learned how to dance in a rec hall in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. She took her GED after her freshman year of high school and decided to leave school to pursue a career in music. Perry initially started singing "because I was at that point in my childhood where I was copycatting my sister and everything she did". Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, and Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed it to her parents, who suggested she should take voice lessons. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at age nine to 16. She enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short time.
In June 2008, a publicity photo emerged that showed Perry posing with a switchblade.Tabloid The Sun criticized the photo as an attempt to glamorize knives.[12] The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge".