Jenna Ortega accepted herself as she is after facing a lot, as she just shared.
The actress is speaking out about defying norms of beauty and how she wants to encourage young girls to follow in her footsteps.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar on Wednesday, the Scream VI actress reminisced about the stress of auditioning while still striving for academic excellence in her earlier years.
“As a child actor, there are two jobs that you can get: you’re either the younger version of someone or you’re playing somebody’s daughter — and there were just not many leading Hispanic actors who I could be that for,” Ortega explained of being born to parents of Mexican and Puerto Rican background.
“So a lot of the jobs that I was going for growing up would never work out, because I didn’t look [a certain] way. That was really hard, to hear that something you couldn’t change was what was preventing you [from succeeding],” she added.
She stated earlier in the interview that she had dealt with some people who “maybe didn’t always have my best interests” in mind. She also mentioned that “as a kid, I was always being told what I should and shouldn’t do, which way I should go, what would be best for me.”
According to Ortega, the encounters and events had a detrimental effect on her self-worth and confidence. However, she eventually grew to love herself once more and understood the good impact she might have on other people.
“I thought, ‘I don’t want other young girls to look up at the screen and feel like they have to change their appearance to be deemed beautiful or worthy,'” the Wednesday alum said.