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Priyanka Chopra Used to Internalize 'Unrealistic Beauty Standards': 'Everything Had to Be Perfect'

priyanka chopra
priyanka chopra

Rich Fury/Getty Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is finally free of the pressure she used to put on herself to conform to "unrealistic beauty standards" — and "it's been a revelation," she said.

The Quantico star, 39, opened up about how her self-image has changed since she was a child.

"In the past, I always felt pressure to look a certain way," she told The Telegraph in a new interview. "I have been raised with unrealistic beauty standards my whole life — we all have. Growing up, I believed everything had to be perfect, skinny or sample size, and airbrushed."

Chopra Jonas, who is Indian, said, "It has taken me time to come to terms with my natural skin and natural hair texture."

But these days, she said, her perspective has changed.

"I'm now comfortable in my own skin and I can work with brands that are about individuality and expressing yourself," she said. "… I used to always have my hair blow-dried or have professional make-up before an interview, but these days I do my own. It's been a revelation."

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Chopra Jonas also talked about her body image and making a point not to punish herself if she isn't able to fit a workout into her busy days, or if her meals aren't perfectly balanced.

"I try to eat healthily and work out, but honestly my hours are so crazy," she said. "I travel a lot to different time zones, so I prefer to give my body what it needs, when it needs it, in order to function at my best. I don't deny my body anything, even at 1 a.m. when I have the night-time munchies."

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Chopra Jonas also said that her husband, pop star Nick Jonas, has helped her become more serene.

"My husband Nick has definitely helped me get in touch with a new, calmer side of myself," she said. "I'm very ambitious, a go-getter, a hustler. I used to have torrential energy. But Nick is the sunshine that calms my storm."

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"We balance each other that way," she continued. "Whenever I'm feeling torrential, I now think about patience and how he [Nick] comes at every situation with a sense of resolution. It's much more peaceful, rather than feeling agitated."