"Detrimental To Sense Of Self-Worth": Priyanka Chopra On Facing Racial Bullying As A Teenager In America

"I wasn't even aware of the fact that this was something I should feel embarrassed about," said Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra was bullied at her high schools in America when she was just 16, the actress revealed in a recent interview to Oprah Winfrey on her talk show Super Soul. The 38-year-old actress, who opened up about several aspects of her life - be it her struggle in Bollywood or her relationship with her husband Nick Jonas, revealed that she faced racial bullying when she moved from India to the US to attend high school. Priyanka was 13 when she flew to America to live with her aunt. She spent her teenage years at American high schools, where she was targeted by fellow students for being a brown person. Talking to Oprah Winfrey about how the bullying affected her in her teenage years, Priyanka Chopra said: "I think high school is hard anywhere, right? And to be coming of age, to understand your body as a woman and at the same time, to be devalued for something I can't change or you know, I wasn't even aware of the fact that this was something I should feel embarrassed about. But I guess when I was made to feel like, did my clothes smelled funny when I walked by hallway or did people smell curry or little things like that at 16 are so detrimental to a sense of self-worth, your sense of self. It's just about being mean, trying to hurt someone." The actress added that when she was 16, she called her mom Madhu Chopra and asked her mother to take her back to India. "In retrospect now, I think that they probably didn't know what they were really doing, it was just trying to hurt somebody. But at that time, at 16, I remember I was like, 'I don't wanna live in this country.' I called my mom, she came over and we went back home," Priyanka told Oprah Winfrey. Priyanka Chopra is a prominent personality in India, as well in the US. She has worked in several international projects like Quantico, Baywatch, A Kid Like Jake and Isn't It Romantic.