"What makes you different or weird, that's your strength"

Meryl Streep: "I Thought I was Too Ugly To Act" IT'S not what you would expect to hear from one of the most celebrated Hollywood actresses of our time, but Meryl Streep has revealed that she used to feel that she wasn't good looking enough to be an actress.

"I thought I was too ugly to be an actress - glasses weren't fabulous then," the Oscar-winning actress told the audience at Indiana University, where she was to collect her honorary doctorate.

"I think I was probably like every other girl who puts on a princess dress and expects everyone to pay full and total attention. And most of us grow out of that. I was always in plays, but I thought it was vain to be an actress."

But it is clear that 38 years in the industry (she graduated from Yale School of Drama in 1975) has taught her to see things in a new light.

"For young men, and women, too, what makes you different or weird, that's your strength," she said, reports US Weekly.

"Everyone tries to look a cookie-cutter kind of way and actually the people who look different are the ones who get picked up.

For young women, I would say, don't worry so much about your weight. Girls spend way too much time thinking about that, and there are better things." So what did Streep used to worry about? "I used to hate my nose. Now I don't. It's okay."