America Ferrera struggled to fit in when she was growing up in Los Angeles’ Valley community because white friends thought she was too dark and Latinos poked fun at her for being too pale, the “Ugly Betty” actress tells W Magazine.

The actress admits she was blissfully unaware of the color divide until she was left heartbroken when a school crush told her he preferred white girls.

“I had the hugest crush on a boy, and my best friend had a crush on him too. One day he said to me, ‘I like your best friend more because she’s paler and she has freckles.’ And it was right then that I began to feel like, ‘Oh wow, I’m different.’”

But when Ferrera tried to befriend her fellow Latinos, she felt just as isolated: “I grew up in the Valley. All my friends were white Jewish kids. So the Latino kids thought I was this white girl.”