AceShowbiz - Perrie Edwards loathed her appearance when she was younger and even asked for an "acid peel" to remove her freckles. The 29-year-old Little Mix star has been struggling with insecurities about the way she looks for years and her worries were intensified because she was targeted by bullies who made her life hell - and Perrie admits she wanted to go to drastic measures to change herself.

"When I was younger, I was a little bit insecure, I hated my freckles, I was always quite poorly and anaemic so I had dark circles under my eyes, I was really malnourished and skinny, and I had a big scar on my stomach from surgeries," she told Grazia magazine.

"I just hated everything. People used to bully me, and I think it was something that I internalised. Everyone was criticising me, and that made me criticise myself. I asked my mum if I could have an acid peel to get rid of my freckles."

However, Perrie eventually learned to love her looks and she's convinced confidence is something that comes with getting older. She added, "I think confidence and self-empowerment comes with age, you learn not to care about what other people think."

Perrie previously opened up about being bullied over her freckles in a 2018 interview on UK TV show "Lorraine", admitting it took her a long time to embrace her natural beauty. She said, "As I've got older they [freckles] would come out in the sun, but when I was younger they were there all the time, and I remember getting called 'freckle face' and everyone would criticise them."

"Everyone has their own insecurities, and I think that's why us as a band wanna be able to teach our fans that being yourself is enough. Embrace your insecurities because that's what makes you different and unique."