Nadine Lustre may be one of the most popular celebrities around, but the star shared that she used to be insecure about her morena skin growing up.
The actress got real about her experiences growing up with darker skin in a video by company One Down, reacting to hot takes—namely on the view that “darker skin is not beautiful."
“I do not agree with this,” Nadine said. “I think when I was about 13, people would say that I was too dark."
LOOK: Nadine Lustre Opens Up About Being "Too Dark-Skinned" and How She Finally Embraced Her Morena Skin
The actress said that her tan complexion was a source of her insecurity, which heightened when she began auditioning for commercials and roles as some would only cast girls who were mestiza or fair-skinned.
This led her to go through the skin-whitening phase that many morena girls know all too well. “I really went through, like, the whole thing where you do [glutathione]. You use like, whitening soap, you scrub calamansi on your body, or lemon,” she recounted.
Nadine added that she eventually learned to get over her insecurity and embrace her features. “As I grew up, I learned to just love the skin that I’m in, and to just appreciate the beauty that I have,” she said.
The actress also shared that when she traveled to France, she kept getting compliments on her skin color. “They would always say that, ‘Damn, I wish I could get your tan.’ People just like what they don’t have,” she reflected.
Nadine has always been outspoken about her struggles breaking out in the industry, mainly because of her skin tone. During an episode of Bea Alonzo’s lie detector segment on YouTube, she shared that she would get discriminated against several times while auditioning.
She recounted queuing in line for hours, only to be turned away the last minute. “Pauuwiin nila yung mga feeling nila hindi pasok. Mapapauwi ako kasi sasabihin nila ‘mestiza po hinahanap namin,’” she told Bea.
With her island-girl lifestyle in Siargao with beau Cristophe Bariou, she doesn’t mind getting darker now.
"Hindi na ako ganon katakot na umitim. Morena naman talaga ako, pero yung ‘pag nasa Siargao ako, hindi na ako yung nag-co-cover o yung nagpapayong,” she said.
You go, Nadine!
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