Marilyn Monroe's Rare 1941 High School Photo Hits Auction Block

While ogling photographs of the beautiful, talented, always mesmerizing Marilyn Monroe sits high on our "things we love to do" list, we also enjoy a good shot of Monroe before the name and hair color changes. And apparently so does the rest of the world.

A rare high school photo of a brunette Norma Jeane Baker at age 15 will be sold by a private collector at auction by Bonhams, and the auctioneer expects the black and white image to sell for $9,000, according to Pacific Coast News. In a "Where's Marilyn" moment, the smiling teen is shown among fellow students at L.A.'s Ralph Waldo Emerson Junior High School in the summer of 1941.

What makes the photo extra special is the inscription on the back, written by Baker to her friend Georgie: "To 'Georgie'. A super, swell fellow, in fact really keen! (I really mean it Geo.) Norma Jeane Baker."

Lucy Carr, a specialist in entertainment memorabilia at Bonhams, told PCN, "Marilyn had a famously difficult childhood and the period this photograph captures, when she was living with family friend Ana Lower, was one of the few times of stability and relative happiness in her early life. Her childlike appearance in this photograph is quite different than the platinum blonde bombshell image she would become known for." The photo was taken a year before Baker married her neighbor's son, Jim Dougherty, to avoid foster care once her guardians moved.

The auction is set for May 4 in Los Angeles.