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Priyanka Chopra Opens Up About Enduring Terrible Racism After She Moved to the U.S. from India
Priyanka Chopra
MIKE RUIZ/LOVE ARTISTS
BY BRITTANY KING
@brrriitttnnii05/23/2016 AT 12:20 PM EDT
Priyanka Chopra may radiate confidence, but what fans may not know is that was once a gawky kid with low self-esteem.
"[I was] head of the class, teacher's pet, always knew the answers, always in honors classes," the actress recalls in the June issue of emmy magazine. "My parents never treated me like a child. They made me make my own decisions, told me to think about the pros and cons."
"I grew up having my own opinions and knowing what that meant," theQuantico star adds. "But I was always really conscious of the way I looked, and high school is hard for anyone."
Chopra was visiting relatives in Iowa, when she decided to tell her parents she wanted to attend high school there instead of going back to India.
"I attracted a lot of attention," Chopra remembered. "Nobody looked like me in my school. I was skinny with crazy, frizzy hair. It was like Mean Girls."
Her relatives then moved to Newton, Massachusetts, where the actress endured terrible racism from a former classmate. 
Through it all, Chopra insists that no matter how successful she is or becomes, she remains self-aware and stays grounded on her journey in Hollywood.
"Success is not a destination," she says. "Success is a journey. You have to be consistently successful to be called a success."
At 33 years old, Chopra insists that not everything in her life is as easy as she makes it look.
"Oh, no - I'm a mess," she admits. "My life is so scheduled, I can tell you what I'm doing six months later and where I'll be. There's no time for me to say, 'I'm in a bad mood today,' or, 'I have a tummy ache.' "
She quips, "That's the price you pay for world domination."
"[I was] head of the class, teacher's pet, always knew the answers, always in honors classes," the actress recalls in the June issue of emmy magazine. "My parents never treated me like a child. They made me make my own decisions, told me to think about the pros and cons."
"I grew up having my own opinions and knowing what that meant," theQuantico star adds. "But I was always really conscious of the way I looked, and high school is hard for anyone."
Priyanka Chopra in emmy magazine
MIKE RUIZ / LOVE ARTISTS
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"I attracted a lot of attention," Chopra remembered. "Nobody looked like me in my school. I was skinny with crazy, frizzy hair. It was like Mean Girls."
Priyanka Chopra in emmy magazine
MIKE RUIZ / LOVE ARTISTS
"There was one girl who was just super evil. She kept calling me Brownie, and saying, 'Go back to your country, you smell like curry' - and I didn't, by the way," Chopra recounts. "She was so mean to me."
Priyanka Chopra in emmy magazine
MIKE RUIZ / LOVE ARTISTS
"Success is not a destination," she says. "Success is a journey. You have to be consistently successful to be called a success."
Priyanka Chopra on the cover of emmy magazine
MIKE RUIZ / LOVE ARTISTS
"Oh, no - I'm a mess," she admits. "My life is so scheduled, I can tell you what I'm doing six months later and where I'll be. There's no time for me to say, 'I'm in a bad mood today,' or, 'I have a tummy ache.' "
She quips, "That's the price you pay for world domination."
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