Former Miss World turned actress Priyanka Chopra, who has huge fans following all over the world, surprised many by admitting that she was bullied in high school and had low self-esteem.
Priyanka was in Delhi as the final speaker at the India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit where she addressed hundreds of students. During the event the actress recalled her journey from being a "gawky imperfect child" to Bollywood star.
She was just 13 when she attended her high school in Boston for three years where she faced racial issues. Some fellow students in the high school called her Priyanka "browny" and pointed fingers at her.
"I was a teenager who did not even know how to wear heels but I learnt. From Bareily I went to study in the US. I didn't know how to fit in. Also, I faced some racial issues. I was bullied for and some students called me browny, they also pointed fingers at me for being Indian, but I survived," Priyanka told the crowd.
The bullying resulted into a fight for which Priyanks was suspended from school for three days, PTI reported. But attending high school in America and facing racial issues was a big lesson for the actress as it taught her to become more confident in life.
Addressing the students, Priyanka encouraged them to be imperfect. She told the students that she is not perfect and it's ok to be flawed as "long as you are being yourself."
"My life was an epitome of imperfection. I'm not perfect like Aishwarya Rai, beautiful, stunning. I was a gawky kid, had low self-esteem, came from a modest middle-class background, had white marks on my legs, but only thing I knew was to work hard and learn. I didn't know how to act or win a beauty pageant," she said, adding "But I was damn hard working. Today, my legs sell 12 brands."
"Today I have the courage to do a commercial, mainstream film like "Barfi!", when half of India doesn't even know what autism is. But I have the courage to take that chance," PTI quoted her as saying.