Priyanka Chopra uses to use "skin-lightening cream".
Priyanka Chopra
The 35-year-old actress has admitted she used to feel "very conscious" of her aesthetic and her skin colour when she was younger, and after seeing a number of advertisements for lotions that can alter the shade of one's skin within one week she decided to sample it herself.
Speaking about her beauty battles to Vogue India magazine, the brunette beauty said: "I had a lot of self-esteem issues. I was very conscious of the colour of my skin. I was very conscious of being, like, a super-gawky, skinny teenager.
"A lot of girls with a darker skin hear things like, 'Oh, poor thing, she's dark'. In India they advertise skin-lightening creams: 'Your skin's going to get lighter in a week.' I used it [when I was very young].
"[In] India, because there you're prettier if you're fairer ... I'm, like, dusky."
And the 'Quantico' star even starred in a campaign to promote the product in her younger years.
She said: "Then when I was an actor, around my early 20s, I did a commercial for a skin-lightening cream."
However, Priyanka soon had an epiphany and realised she didn't want to change her appearance, and realised she was "proud" of the way she looked.
She explained: "I was playing that girl with insecurities. And when I saw it, I was like, 'Oh s**t. What did I do?' I started talking about being proud of the way I looked. I actually like my skin tone."
And the 'Baywatch' star has revealed her family encouraged her to embrace her uniqueness because they were "really progressive" and challenged many traditional values.
She explained: "My parents were really progressive. My dad was a surgeon in the Indian Army. My mom is a double MD; she's an ENT/ob-gyn. Go figure. Way to set your kids up for failure, you know?"
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