Singer, actress and television presenter Nandi Madida says there was a time in her life she hated the color of her skin and how her hair looked. Nandi felt this way during her early years in primary school when she wanted to look like a white person.

“I was the biggest coconut in primary school. I wanted to be white like a friend of mine called Cassie. She was blonde and blue eyed and I wished to be like her,” Nandi told Anele Mdoda on Real Talk with Anele recently.

Nandi says she tried relaxers and everything to look like Cassie for a while and just to fit in, until she just began to accept herself.

“It was my sister and my mom who inspired me to love who I am and the skin I am in,” she explained.

Nandi says after she fell in love with herself she never looked back and has been loving herself more ever since