For those who might have had an ugly first time encounter with Nollywood actress, Beverly Naya, you don’t have to blame her because as her growing up affected her.

The actress happens to be the only child of her parents and during her teenage days, she had no one to accept her the way she is and that pushed her into her own world trying to please everyone which was not possible.

In her words, “I've come a long way from the little girl who was bullied for having really bad eczema, crooked teeth, a 'lightbulb head' and 'football legs'. I never thought I was beautiful as a child and once I hit my early teens, I found myself overcompensating for my lack of self esteem. I wanted to please in every way to the detriment of my own happiness...this carried on into my early twenties when after two years of living in Nigeria, I nearly completely lost myself trying to fit in and be understood/liked. I guess growing up as an only child has partly attributed to my reserved nature.

“I'm an introvert when you first meet me but an extrovert when comfortable, most times socially awkward on first encounters (first few encounters in some cases lol) but my heart is always in the right place...I'm not perfect. I think I only truly found myself last year, I stopped trying to make people like me, stopped trying to force people to see the real me...the funny me, the happy and bubbly me, the caring me. I realised that only those who are genuinely supposed to be in my life would always be the ones who get to see this.

“I only realised last year that you can't force people to like you, neither can you dumb down/change who you are to be accepted. I'm not perfect but God thinks I am and He knows it's been an emotional battle to get my mind to where it is today, but I am so incredibly grateful and proud of myself for the woman I am becoming...I say becoming because I don't believe any of us are there yet, I don't think we ever stop growing into our purpose, but the journey (if you allow it to happen without manipulating it) truly is beautiful.”