Ileana D'Cruz talks about being body-shamed at 12

'I remember those days like it was yesterday. It's weird because it's a very deeply ingrained scar,' says the actor

Ileana D'Cruz recently detailed her own experiences with body-shaming, saying it “takes a lot of inner strength” to convince oneself that “what they (people) are saying doesn't matter.”

The Barfi actor revealed that she has been body-shamed since she was a child. In fact, she was advised to go under the knife on several occasions. "I remember those days like it was yesterday. It’s a very deeply-ingrained scar. I went through body-shaming right from the time I was 12. I had just hit puberty and growing up, you are hit with these weird comments. 'Oh My God, why is your butt so big?' And I was like, 'What do you mean’?” DNA India quoted D’Cruz as saying. “You think you are fine and then suddenly, you have random people saying things about you and you start to believe what they are saying. It takes a lot of inner strength to tell yourself that what they are saying doesn’t matter.”

The Mubarakan starlet believes what one feels about themselves is most important. “It’s something I have to tell myself every single day because I go through it every day. I have at least 10 messages on my Instagram right now about body-shaming. There's always going to be somebody saying something about you and it's harsh. I would like people to be more kind, more sensitive.”

D’Cruz urged her fans to remember it’s all mind over matter. “The only thing that’s in your control is you and how you think about yourself. The hell with the world; the hell with what they think. Only your opinion matters. You are someone who is going to live with your body.”

She added, “There are days when I am like, 'I don’t like this. Is my stomach too bloated?’ But now, I think, 'No, it’s fine, there's a uterus in there so it's fine. It's alright. It's not going to be flat…”

Meanwhile, in another interview with Bollywood Hungama, D’Cruz spoke about dealing with body dysmorphia back in 2017. "There’s a lot of reasons why people develop body dysmorphia but for me it was the peer pressure. During my teenage years, I was criticised a lot for how I looked and I was made to believe that my body was very different. It was always like, ‘Why are your legs like that?’ or ‘Why are your hips like that?’ and I used to be like ‘I don’t know, it’s just the way I am’!” she recalled. “It had somehow caused a little bit of a complex which stayed with me. I didn’t realise it was dysmorphia till I spoke to my therapist and she addressed the issue.”

The actor would tell the therapist “I’ll be happy when I hit this number on the scale,” etc. But instead, the therapist told her this is dysmorphia and she might not be pleased with herself even after losing the extra weight.

D’Cruz has been very vocal about body-shaming and trying to overcome it. She often speaks about body positivity on her social media posts. Recently, during an AskMe session on Instagram, when a user asked her if she had gone under the knife, the star replied saying she had not. On the work front, she was last seen in The Big Bull and now awaiting the release of Unfair & Lovely alongside Randeep Hooda.