Beverly Naya, an actress in Nollywood, has spoken about being bullied as a young girl for not meeting social expectations for beauty.
In an interview with media personality Chude Jidenowo, the thespian claimed that bullying had a significant impact on her as a young student.
She claimed that she was mocked by her peers because of the skin issues she had as a child and because she also had crooked teeth.
When Naya was little, she was teased for being both gorgeous and the “ugly duckling,” which had a significant negative impact on her mental health.
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.
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.
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.”
