Actress Bubbles Paraiso knew early on in her career that she did not meet the usual standards of beauty because of her skin color. But this did not dampen her spirits, and eventually, she learned to be confident about her color.

Paraiso recalled what it was like to have the shade of her skin while she was starting in show business, as per her Instagram account yesterday, Nov. 28.

“When I was 17, my agent told me I was ‘too dark’ and I might not get casted in any commercials because I was morena and [TVCs] usually casted mestizas. She told me that I needed to bleach my skin and maybe try to achieve my brother’s natural complexion – which is [ten times] lighter than mine,” she said. She admitted to feeling ugly and thinking she was not enough.

“But one thing I didn’t feel like doing was changing myself just to fit into another person’s idea of beauty,” she said. “Days later, I got the call for the lead part of an ad – and the biggest reason why I got the job was because of my color. They loved my perpetual tan. I was exactly what they were looking for.”

In her teens and early twenties, Paraiso was beset with body issues as she was made to feel she was not thin enough, not tall enough, or not pretty enough. But these “didn’t sway” her.

Paraiso gave fans this advice: “Never let anyone make you believe that you’re not already beautiful the way that you are.”