Nicola RobertsGirls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts has revealed that she’s finally learned to embrace her pale skin.

She told the News of the World recently: “For years I felt like the ugly one in Girls Aloud,” she admits. “I walked around looking unhappy and completely miserable because that’s how I felt for such a long time.”

“There I was - tall, skinny, with red hair and the whitest skin you’ve ever seen – standing next to four of the most gorgeous girls in Britain. They all look perfect with lovely hair and amazing tanned bodies. I was the ugly one, the odd one out.”

“While standing and smiling for photo shoots, all I’d be thinking about was that people would be looking at me thinking: ‘What’s she doing with them?’”

“It was weird. I joined this band because my life was all about singing. Then Girls Aloud became successful, and suddenly it wasn’t just about being able to sing any more. It turned into a beauty contest.”

“People on radio and television started making nasty comments about me and I felt awful. Turning from a teenager into a woman is hard enough without dealing with snide comments. I was in this amazing band, I had this great life, and I was letting the fact that people slagged me off for being ginger and miserable ruin that.”

“My way of dealing with it was to go home to Runcorn in Cheshire as often as I could to go out with my mates and get slaughtered. It was the only thing I could do to block everything out.”

“I was [also] a total tanorexic. In fact I was an everything-orexic. I couldn’t do anything in moderation. I’d go to the gym non-stop, I’d spend non-stop. I’d go into a shop for 10 minutes and blow £200 on beauty products, hair bobbles, new underwear – anything to give me that sensation of having something brand new that might make me feel I was worth something, even for a few seconds.”

“My pale skin was the thing that got to me the most. My bathroom shelves were crammed with every product on the market, and I was completely obsessed with covering up my skin. Even if we were working until 10pm, I’d come home, dive into the shower, exfoliate and cover myself with St Tropez, ready to get up at 6am the next day to start work again.”

But the turning point came earlier this year when she started working on a range of make-up for women with similar colouring as part of the new reality series The Passions Of … Girls Aloud.

She explained: “I used to avoid [looking into mirrors]. I used to look into them thinking: ‘I’m ugly’. Then it became: ‘Am I that ugly?’, and now I look and think: ‘I’m starting to look pretty!’”

“I don’t know if it’s my face that’s changed or that my confidence has grown.

“I realised I’d been completely focused on thinking beauty was all about a certain image.”

“The great thing about women is that we’re all different, and I’m different. I’ve still got bright red hair, a skinny body and blue legs, but I like the fact I’m different. I like me.”

“I might not always be smiling, but I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”