Nicola Roberts 'hated' being fair

The Girls Aloud singer wanted to be tanned like her bandmates - so that people would find her attractive.

"I used to think the only way to look beautiful was to be brown - I thought that by being brown like them (the rest of Girls Aloud) I would look more attractive," she told Heat.

"I was constantly striving to please people and be something I wasn't.

The stunning redhead, who has made a BBC documentary, The Truth About Tanning, couldn't stand looking at herself without a tan, and would spend hours applying fake tan. "I hated it with a passion - I felt like I stood out for all the wrong reasons," she said.

"Everyone said, 'You look so much better', but when I saw it played back, all I thought was, 'I look ugly'. I would get in at midnight but instead of going to bed straight away I'd be in the shower applying fake tan.

"I'd be crying because I was so tired, but I'd be saying to myself 'No pain, no gain'. I honestly thought that by having a tan the next day I would look better and people would like me more."

Nicola's perception of her skin colour changed when she got into fashion.

"I stopped being so narrow-minded about what was 'beautiful' - I would look at people like Lily Cole and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and think, 'They're not your average beautiful girl, but they look nice. Maybe I'm a bit like that, a bit quirky'," she added.

:: The Truth About Tanning will be shown on BBC3 on February 4.