See Also: Eva Longoria (Gabrielle Solis) People Guide

She may be the new face of L'Oreal, but it hasn't always been smooth sailing for Eva Longoria (Gabrielle Solis) when it comes to her appearance.

"Gabrielle was born beautiful. As for me, it was entirely different," she told Night&Day, the Daily Mail magazine. "I couldn't have had it any worse. I'm the youngest of four girls. My three sisters were born beautiful. They have long, fair hair and light skin—the sort of girls people stare at in the street. Then I came along. I was really scrawny with my black hair, dark skin and bony features. My dad called me prieta fea, which means 'ugly, dark one'."

Rather than seeing this as a disadvantage, Longoria said it made her more confident. "I thought, if my sisters could be the prettiest, then I'd just have the biggest personality. When I was 16 my features sort of fell into place, and then boys started looking at me too. By then I'd developed this really competitive streak and I saw a beauty pageant advertised. I didn't tell anyone in my family because I knew they'd all laugh, but I entered it and I won."

Longoria said that overcoming people's preconceptions helped her become a better person. "I'm glad I wasn't pretty until I was a teenager, because it made me really appreciate how being pretty works for you. I wasn't successful as an actress until I was 30, and I'm glad about that, too. All this would have completely gone to my head if it had happened ten years ago. I just wouldn't have known how to handle it."

The full interview was in the Sunday May 29 2005 edition of Night&Day.

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