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.
Naya said,
“My formative years, I was always getting bullied for one thing or the other and so 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, 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, I just kind of blossomed. And I started to kind of feel beautiful for the first time in my life around 16 and 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, because 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.”