A top model has revealed her struggles with depression, addiction and self-hatred in a powerful new video.
Adwoa Aboah, from London - who has starred on the cover of Italian Vogue along with campaigns for H&M and Calvin Klein - shared her experience while shedding her clothes as part of StyleLikeU's video series, The What's Underneath Project.
In the clip, the 23-year-old explains that, as a child and as a teen, she wanted "to be like someone else", noting that all the girls she saw around her were "blonde, white, blue-eyed, [and] sexy".
Aboah, who counts Cara Delevingne as a best pal, describes how she fell into drug addiction as a young teen - explaining that it began with insecurities about her looks and trying to fit in with the people around her.
"I think I was born slightly sad," she explains in the clip. "I really remember thinking that I couldn't be bothered to feel any emotions anymore."
Speaking of her more recent success as a model, she adds: "I definitely don't think it made me feel any better about myself being in a magazine.
"I think if you don't like being in your skin it doesn't matter how many times people say you are beautiful or how many jobs you get or whatever it is.
"I just didn't want to be Adwoa and that self hatred is something that I work on on a daily basis."
Since attending rehab and counselling, Aboah says she finally feels able to take full advantage of the "many opportunities that have come my way".
She has set up a female-focused online forum called Gurls Talk, as well as a new charity venture she is in the process of establishing.
"It is just about opening up a space within schools where we as women and girls can talk about whatever we want," she explains in the clip.
"I realized I just can't be anyone else. I might not love myself all of the time, but I am pretty alright."