Pamela Anderson has graced the cover of Playboy a record 11 times, but the '90s pinup girl says she's always been insecure about her looks. "I don't know if I ever really felt beautiful," the 45-year-old Baywatch babe tells Buzzfeed. "I always feel like I don't -- I don't, really."
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The actress and activist -- who lists Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe as her style and beauty icons -- says people have been trying to downplay her looks since her career began. Baywatch producers, for instance, asked the buxom blonde to stop wearing false eyelashes on camera. "I said, 'I have my look. This is what I'm comfortable in.' Sometimes my eyelashes would roll up onto the beach and that's all that would be left of me. But I was determined to be glamorous. Oh, I loved it, I loved it!"
"I thought, 'If you're going to be on TV, and if you're gonna be out and glamorous, the natural look can stay at home. If we're gonna do this, let's have fun with it!'" she added. "I actually just did a shoot, and they took all the makeup off and put me in a ponytail, and I said, 'Well, OK, we'll try that."
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The former Dancing With the Stars competitor says she's softening her look now that she's in the midst of her forties. "I don't know if it's because I'm so hot, but they definitely try to tone down my sex appeal," she tells Buzzfeed. "I think it's time, though -- you know, you grow up and you change your look. I feel different from how I did in my Playboy days. Now, I think I'm in charge of toning down my look or not."
This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Pamela Anderson Says She Never "Felt Beautiful," Is Toning Down Her Look