Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel and More Stars Who Didn't Feel Pretty in High School

Pitch Perfect 2 actress isn't the only celeb who claims to have gone through an ugly duckling phase pre-fame

By Rebecca Macatee Nov 10, 2014 8:13 PMTags
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Anna Kendrick recently made a comment insinuating she wasn't exactly the bella of the ball back in her schoolgirl days.

As the Pitch Perfect 2 star told Marie Claire's December issue, the "most common thing I get is, 'Am I the only one who doesn't think that Anna Kendrick is pretty?"

"And you're like, 'No, you're not the only one,'" she responded. "Arguably, all the boys in my high school agree with you."

Their loss! Still, Ms. Kendrick isn't the first stunning star who claims to have had an ugly duckling era in the past. In 2014's Little Black Book, the late Brittany Murphy's character touches on this recurring theme, grumbling, "Why do supermodels say how ugly they were when they were young? Is it because they want us to know they suffered? Do they think that it makes them more deserving? That we'll forgive them their bounty? Note to supermodels: None of us believe you."

To be fair though, who wouldn't pick photoshop over pimples, given the choice? In any case, here are 5 more stars who, like Anna, claim they didn't feel pretty in high school.

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1. Zooey Deschanel: In an interview with Marie Claire, the now 34-year-old actress recalled her less than glamorous tween years with a certain fondness. "A lot of people I knew who didn't struggle, who maybe came from a lot of money or were really pretty—those people actually have a harder time as adults in a way," she said. "They don't even understand what it's like to not be pretty...I'm not saying it's good, I don't think people should be mean to each other, [but] I think it made me stronger."

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2. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: This 27-year-old model-actress claimed to Glamour U.K. she was a "bit of an Ugly Betty" at age 15, saying she would go to castings "in trainers, with braids, a ton of make-up, plucked eyebrows...I had braces."

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3. Lady Gaga: In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mother Monstar said in high school she was "teased for being ugly, having a big nose [and] being annoying...I used to do these really big Evita brows. I used to self-tan, and I had this really intense tan in school, and people would say, Why the f--k are you so orange, why do you do your hair that way, are you a dyke? Why do you have to look like that for school?' I used to be called a slut, be called this, be called that. I didn't even want to go to school sometimes."

4. Zac Efron: Back in 2009, the  now 27-year-old High School Musical star told Now magazine, "wasn't a heartthrob at school; I was a geek...There were guys who were 6 foot 1 inch in with beards and big muscles and I was a gawky 17-year-old, a skinny, awkward kid. I was a late bloomer."

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5. Sandra Bullock: "Junior high was not a good time, I'd just come back from living in Europe and I was very, er, Germanic so you could say, " Sandra, now 50, told Yahoo's "The Heat" last year. "I came back in the middle of puberty and I was not well liked…. I call it ass-kicking, they now call it bullying."