Adwoa Aboah felt "very unattractive" when she was younger.
Adwoa Aboah
The 25-year-old model has graced the runway for prestigious fashion brands including Calvin Klein, Fendi and Alexander Wang, but she has admitted when she was at school she didn't feel as beautiful as her peers because she looked "a lot different" to her classmates, and she would base her "worth" on whether anyone in her class wanted to date her.
Speaking to ES Magazine, the catwalk icon said: "I looked a lot different to all the other girls. Everyone was blonde and blue-eyed. It was: 'This is how you dress. This is how you do your hair, and you put loads of foundation on and wear high heels.' And I was like, 'F**k, I don't even know how to be this person.'
"I felt very unattractive at that school. I based my worth on how many boys fancied me."
Although the fashion muse used to receive complements from friends of her family, she dismissed the positive remarks because people of her age did not complement her and she didn't have blonde hair like her pals.
She explained: "And even though back in London my parents' friends were like: 'Oh your daughter's so beautiful, would she like to model?' that didn't matter. It was the kids, and the boys, and the fact that I didn't have blonde hair. That's all that mattered to me."
Meanwhile, the Gurls Talk founder - who set up the online platform to encourage people to open up about mental health, their sexuality and addiction - has been asked to speak at school assemblies about her journey.
She said: " We get a lot of girls writing in and asking if I'll come and speak at their school and that's where I want Gurls Talk to be. When we get to a place where we've done our groundwork, I'd love it to be part of the academic curriculum."