Liza Soberano gets real about having 'a lot' of insecurities and getting bullied in her younger years
Liza Soberano recalled how she got bullied in her younger years as she detailed her insecurities, including her weight and her skin.
In celebrity doctor Vicki Belo’s latest vlog, the 25-year-old actress revealed that her "top insecurity" is her body size.
“I think that’s no secret all throughout my showbiz career. I would always get criticized for my weight fluctuating back and forth,” she said.
Liza clarified that she doesn't see herself as someone who is "overweight" in general. “I'm very actually health conscious like I eat good, I make sure that I exercise, I make sure to just live a healthy lifestyle, so I don’t think I’m unhealthy.”
Despite this, she said she still got constantly compared to other artists her age. The local star explained that the body expectations in the showbiz industry are “unattainable” and noted that she is built differently because she's half-American.
“[T]he demands being in showbiz physically is like unattainable because I always get compared to girls that are smaller than me, and because I’m a halfie (half Filipino, half American), I always am a little bit on the bigger side,” she shared.
“I've always [tended] to cover myself up with bigger-sized clothing, or by dressing in the same silhouettes over and over again because that became my comfort zone,” she said.
With her fluctuating weight and the unsolicited comments about her body, Liza said it eventually took a toll on her mental health.
“[T]he rumors about me being pregnant just because I would gain a little bit of weight, it would really affect my mental health,” she revealed.
Aside from her weight, the Forevermore star shared she is also insecure about her skin. She even got bullied because of it in her younger years, "especially on my legs, [because] I had really bad skin growing up."
Liza explained that it was an “allergic reaction” prompted by the changing environment when she moved to the Philippines from the United States.
“All of a sudden, I had these rashes coming up on my legs,” she said.
“I’ve got kind of bullied in school for that, people would call me “hayop” instead of saying ‘Hi, Hope’ because they would say I had galis like a dog,” she recalled, adding that she would wear high socks when playing volleyball at the time just to hide her rash scars.
“Coming into showbiz, I remember people would always point out my knees and how it would be all scarred up and very dark,” she recalled, saying that she kept being compared to her fellow celebrities who have flawless skin. “[T]hat also triggered my insecurity in myself,” she added.
Liza also recalled dealing with alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss, back in 2020. It also prompted her insecurity about her hair.
“As I got older, my hair started thinning a bit. I got alopecia actually around 2020 due to stress,” she revealed. “I guess just the nature of the industry that we are in, we’re constantly getting our hair and makeup done, constantly under a lot of pressure. So stress also causes hair fall, and the lack of sleep.”
The Bagani actress is currently busy with her career not just in the Philippines, but in the international scene as a whole. She has an upcoming comedy-horror film Lisa Frankenstein alongside Hollywood actors Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton. Just recently, she graced the cover of a Singaporean magazine, which described her as “one of the Philippines’ most captivating young actors.”