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Priyanka Chopra is speaking out about her horrific experiences with racist bullies while she was growing up in America. The Indian-born actress was bullied so badly during her school days that she was forced to flee the United States and return to India to finish her education.
The 38-year-old, who is married to Jonas Brothers star Nick Jonas, will detail the terrible time she went through in her new memoir Unfinished, which is due for release on February 9. Priyanka writes about how she was the victim of racist bullying at the age of 15 while she was at an American high school.
She told People: "I took it very personally. Deep inside, it starts gnawing at you. I went into a shell. I was like, 'Don't look at me. I just want to be invisible'. My confidence was stripped. I've always considered myself a confident person, but I was very unsure of where I stood, of who I was."
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Priyanka says that other teenage girls would tell her to "go back to your country" or to "go back on the elephant you came on" while throwing disgusting racial slurs at her.
She writes about how she tried to ignore the bullies and sought refuge in a group of her close friends as well as reaching out to a guidance counsellor for help. But in the end, she left to protect herself.
"Now, at the other side of 35, I can say that it probably comes from a place of them being insecure. But at that time, I took it very personally," she said.
Priyanka said she "broke up with America" and after a phone call with her parents, decided to go back home.
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She went on to be crowned Miss World before carving out a successful Bollywood career and later starring in a string of Hollywood movies.
The star hopes that her memoir will help encourage others who have been bullied or who may be suffering from low self-esteem and sadness following similar experiences to the one she went through.
