Olivia Culpo gets honest as she detailed her insecurities growing up, even saying she felt "really ugly" when she was young.

During her appearance at "Emergency Contact" podcast alongside her sister Aurora, the 28-year-old model revealed that she was called an "ugly duckling" growing up.

"I was chubby, hairy...Honestly growing up I felt really ugly which is a terrible thing to say," she mentioned.

From Ugly Duckling To Miss Universe 2012

Before gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated, the Rhode Island native shared that she was "overweight" and looked different compared to her siblings.

"My siblings, my parents. They are so beautiful. I was overweight. I was really different looking. My older sister looked like the Barbie doll."

In addition, Culpo went to recall that she was often bullied because of her weight and admitted that there was a point where she lost all her confidence.

"I had to look myself in the mirror and say, 'Okay, you're different,' because I was different. I don't look like anybody in my family," Culpo detailed.

Interestingly, the former beauty queen explained how her father helped her deal with her issues and taught her to live a healthy lifestyle, starting off by exercising.

"Our dad is amazing, but our dad is like, Type A and has run over a dozen marathons," she mentioned, adding: "When I was 10 years old, yeah, I was put on those diets and I kind of realized, when you put in the work you get the results. It kind of all started from there."

Despite her battles with her body image, Culpo does not regret the "hard times" that she experienced.

Instead of moping and living in self-pity, she used this as her motivation to work hard and fight her demons.

"It's just so weird the way that your life develops and I'm so grateful for the hard times that happened," the model explained. "I said, 'You know what Olivia? You have to work hard.' I could have kind of gone I guess in two directions. I either could have just been okay with being made fun of and different...or you can just kind of work hard."

During the latter part of the interview, her sister chimed in and recalled how the former Miss Universe dealt with her insecurities and worked for self-improvement.

"She knew that she was overweight, so I think that she developed a skill for situating herself in situations where she would get the most attention," Aurora shared.

Moreover, Aurora joked about her sister getting hot and landing on the covers of Sports Illustrated,

Olivia Culpo's claim to fame is being crowned as Miss USA in 2012 after winning the Miss Rhode Island USA competition.

In the same year, she also competed in the highly anticipated pageant, the 61st annual Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas and managed to bag the coveted title.

The then 20-year-old beauty queen is said to be the eighth American to win the prestigious crown.

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