Gabourey Sidibe always seems very confident on the red carpet, but the root of her confidence comes from her childhood. The actress gave an emotional speech on Thursday night at the Ms. Foundation for Women Gala in New York and told a story about an incident that happened when she was in fifth grade. She baked cookies for her class, and no one would have one.

"I had zero friends from the fourth grade to the sixth grade. Who the hell was I baking cookies for? I really got so excited to bake that I had forgotten that everyone hated my guts," she continued. "Why didn't they like me? I was fat, yes. I had darker skin and weird hair, yes. But the truth is, this isn't a story about bullying, or color, or weight. They hated me because … I was an a******."

The realization made Gabourey understand a lot about the struggles of growing up. Even today, the "Precious" star admits that it's not always comfortable for her to appear at events when she knows that she will face criticism because of her weight.

"It's not easy. It's hard to get dressed up for award shows and red carpets when I know I will be made fun of because of my weight. There's always a big chance if I wear purple, I will be compared to Barney. If I wear white, a frozen turkey. And if I wear red, that pitcher of Kool-Aid that says, "Oh, yeaahh!" Twitter will blow up with nasty comments about how the recent earthquake was caused by me running to a hot dog cart or something."

Gabourey also opened up about how all her past childhood experiences have made her a better actress today with a lot of confidence.

"I live my life because I dare. I dare to show up when everyone else might hide their faces and hide their bodies in shame. … My mother and my father love me. … I'm grateful to them and to my fifth-grade class because if they hadn't made me cry, I wouldn't be able to cry on cue now," the actress explained. "If I hadn't been told I was garbage, I wouldn't have learned how to show people I'm talented. And if everyone had always laughed at my jokes, I wouldn't have figured out how to be so funny. If they hadn't told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty."

Well, we love how fierce Gabourey is and that she has the ability to be honest about her feelings. Check out this video to see more of her childhood story and why she thinks no one liked her, and tune in to "The Insider With Yahoo" for the latest in entertainment news.





