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Allison Williams' message to mean girls and bullies: 'The dorks win in the end'

Actress Allison Williams opened about learning to love her eyebrows and her struggle with mean girls.
/ Source: TODAY

Allison Williams is a classic beauty, but she's not afraid to take on less than flattering roles like her characters in HBO's "Girls" and movies like "Get Out" and "The Perfection." The 2017 TODAY Style Hero shares how she learned to love her full eyebrows and what she'd say to mean girls now.

I love my eyebrows, though I didn't when I was younger. I thought they were giant. I basically thought I looked like, you know, a Peter Gallagher — just big thick eyebrows. There was something dysmorphic about it. I think everyone I knew had really thin delicate ones and so did what every teenage girl does, which is overpluck them once.

When they were gone, I realized how much I missed them. When they grew back, I started appreciating them.

The first time someone told me — way after my awkward phase — that I looked Brooke Shields, I was like "OK, they are never leaving my face. I'm obsessed with them if they make look like Brooke Shields."

So, now I finally love my eyebrows, but they are siblings, not twins. They’re very different. But I mean, show me the person whose eyebrows are perfectly symmetrical and I’ll show you microblading.

My awkward stage was a weird nightmare of eighth grade. It just was rough: I had braces, I kept growing up and not out, I was pale year-round — just sick looking.

My family was clearly like “What is happening?” As soon as I got my braces off, in my mind I looked completely different and to everyone else I just didn’t have braces anymore. Big step, are you kidding? I was in a slo-mo montage as far as I was concerned.

I used to get teased for literally everything. One of the things I got teased for the most was going up to groups of cool kids and asking, "What were you guys just talking about?" In one particularly mean gesture, they invented a girl named Allison that they went to summer camp with — she was not real — but I bought it.

So, they would be talking about me and I'd walk up and say, "What are you guys talking about?" and they'd say, "We're talking about Allison from summer camp" and I'd be like, "Ugh, she's the worst. You guys are always talking about her." I basically joined in on talking smack about myself — and that's why I am an actor.

To mean girls I say, spoiler alert: the dorks win in the end. Those of us who were nerds and bullied and dorky and awkward looking and may have had legs that took up 75% of our bodies, we win in the end because we have the drive to do it. And then, we get to go home for reunions and feel great about ourselves.

If I could talk to my younger self, I would tell her to keep being such a little weirdo, keep playing make-believe and keep thinking that worms on rainy days are pets and friends.

You can dial back the bossiness slightly, but it's going to be really important when you get older. So don't get rid of it entirely. Just worry less, even though I know you'll still worry.

As told to TODAY's Emily Sher. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This article was originally published on Aug. 24, 2017 on TODAY.