Priyanka Chopra Was Bullied in School for Her Skin Color

Priyanka Chopra says she was a victim of bullying when she was younger due to her skin color.

The 36-year-old Isn’t It Romantic actress opened up about her experience in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

“I was treated differently because I’m brown,” she said. “I had, you know, really racist behavior when I was in high school in 10th grade. I was called ‘Brownie,’ ‘Curry,’ ‘Go back on the elephant you came on,’ and that really affected me when I was a kid and affected my self-esteem.”

“I’m not going to allow anyone to feel like that anymore,” she continued. “But it took that innate sense of self, which was, I think, created in me through my parents. It took my upbringing and my environment to create that.”

“The way we treat people differently comes from cultural, subliminal messaging that has happened over eons,” she added. “The more we can talk about it and open other people’s eyes and say, ‘It doesn’t have to be that way,’ and give them more examples, I guess society will change.”

“I do want to create a world for my future kids where they don’t have to think about diversity, where they’re not talking about it because it’s normal,” she shared.

Watch her interview below.