Beverly Naya says she was bullied, called ugly while growing up

Popular Nollywood actress Beverly Naya has opened up about the things she faced growing up.

The actress shared this experience in a recent interview with popular media personality Chude.

She mentioned that she was bullied at a young age and that she was always getting attacked verbally and physically by her friends because of her looks.

The actress mentioned that she was always called ugly.

In her words, "In my formative years, I was always getting bullied for one thing or the other. No no matter what school I was in, I always felt like there was always going to be something that I was going to get attacked for. So, when I was younger, I was an ugly duckling. I wasn't cute. I don't care what my mom says. I was not a cute kid. I had crooked teeth and eczema. I just didn't look good as far as I was concerned. And as far as people around me were concerned."

Naya also mentioned that she was called several names because of her physical features and gave an insight on how she was able to overcome it.

"I used to get called 'snakeskin, buck teeth, light bulb head, football legs'. Just different kinds of stuff and then I just blossomed. My skin cleared, I got braces, and I just kind of blossomed. And I started to kind of feel beautiful for the first time in my life around 16. I think I probably was owning it a bit too much for some people in my school. I got bullied for that and it really broke me.

She added, "I was like 'look, I can't win'. When I was younger, I was getting bullied for being ugly and unattractive. And now I finally feel like I'm beautiful and I'm trying to own it, that's now the problem. I'm now getting bullied for that. So, I got ganged up on and ended up with a black eye, and a chipped tooth, on the same day."

Naya is a British-born Nigerian actress. She won Most Promising Talent at the 2010 Best of Nollywood Awards.