Gabbi Garcia opens up about past 'ugly duckling' phase: 'Hindi ba ako maganda for showbiz?'

Gabbi Garcia might be stunning in her beauty now, but according to the actress, she also went through an awkward phase.

"I really had that ugly duckling phase," she said in an interview on Updated with Nelson Canlas.

"Pero parang siguro kasi I was just really carefree when I was a kid. Malakas 'yung self-esteem ko when I was a kid... So parang I was like really comfortable with myself," she added.

Despite this, Gabbi said "it wasn't easy."

"When I was in gradeschool I wasn't that comfortable," she said. "But when I was in highschool medyo parang umokay okay na ako."

Gabbi also said that there was a stage where she was insecure about being pretty enough for the showbiz industry.

"Parang bakit ganu'n, lahat ng kasabayan ko mag-VTR dati, lahat sila artista na. Hindi ba ako maganda for showbiz? Ganu'n," she said.

"May ganu'ng phase ako, promise, kasi if you would look at my photos when I was a kid, like we're talking about grade school ah, not highschool. When I was in gradeschool, ang chinita ko na ang morena ko na parang lagi akong pale... Tapos hindi ako payat, hindi rin ako mataba parang somewhere in the middle na hindi ko maintindihan. And basta it was really one of my 'yung pinaka insecure akong stage was in gradeschool."

Now that Gabbi is an adult, she said she has learned to fully embrace herself, especially her morena skin.

This is despite the fact that there is a notion that ladies have to be "mestisa" to be considered beautiful.

"It's nice to be able to represent all the other Filipina girls who look like me na morena, di ba?" she said. "I would always travel for different brands tapos may mga representative 'yan, kunyare 'pag Asia or minsan sa US din, per country may representative and it's nice to represent the Filipina beauty, di ba? Parang pati ako na-inspire parang see it's possible, di ba?"

She said that she had nothing against girls who would like fairer skin, but she also wants to inspire all the girls who feel like it's society dictating what's beautiful.

"Feeling ko rin kasi ang lakas ng influence din ng parang we have this colonial mentality growing up na parang kailangan mahaluan ng foreigner blood ganyan, para maging maganda," she said.

The full "Updated with Nelson Canlas" podcast episode with Gabbi and on- and off-screen partner Khalil Ramos is up on Spotify. —JCB, GMA News