Kristen Bell was popular and nerdy at high school

Kristen Bell says she was a cross between “popular and nerdy” during her high-school days. The actress — who can soon be starring in new movie You Again as a PR pro who heads home for her older brother’s wedding only to discover that he’s marrying her high-school arch-nemesis — says she tried her best not to get in anyone’s way when she was younger.

“I think I was somewhere in between popular and nerdy,” Bell told Parade magazine. “I went to a very small school where the consequences of bullying were a lot more dramatic than they were at a big school. You couldn’t just walk down the hall and shove a nameless face because we all knew each other’s families. There wasn’t a stereotypical bully.

“But in high school, I was just very insecure because I was always so concerned that everybody liked me so I was just very sweet, a little meeker than I am now, but I was really just so hopeful that I wouldn’t fight with anybody.”

“I have no desire to put on this face of perfection,” she added. “I’m constantly striving to better myself, but that’s also maybe out of intense insecurities. Feeling like I went right from high school to Hollywood, it’s essentially the same dynamic. But I can admit, I don’t always have the best style. I trip a lot, I go to therapy because I make mistakes, I just try to be as real and as well-rounded as possible because there’s nothing really that interesting about perfection. It’s been done so many times before.”

Bell then discussed recently turning 30.

“I love 30 more than I’ve ever loved anything,” she said. “I feel like I was born on my 30th birthday. It’s finally the time where I’ve fully accepted and loved myself, which I’m realizing more and more each day — it is so important to love yourself. Because if you don’t love yourself than nothing really matters.

“For a long time, I went through life kind of beating myself up and trying to be a perfectionist and do everything right and I just thought, ‘What’s the point?’ I have faults, that’s fine. I can still strive to be better, but I’m not going to be as rough on myself as I used to and it’s just kind of alleviating all of this stress and kind of taken a weight off my shoulders and I think now I’m just happy.”