America Ferrera looks anything but ugly in this month's W Magazine. While she may not look like an Ugly Betty, apparently she's very much like her TV counterpart at heart. In the interview, America talks about growing up as an outsider, dealing with media attention, and her rise to stardom. Here are highlights:

  • On growing up in a predominately white community:"As early as second grade I remember feeling really different and isolated," she says. "I had the hugest crush on a boy, and my best friend had a crush on him too. One day he said to me, 'I like your best friend more because she's paler and she has freckles.' And it was right then that I began to feel like, Oh wow, I'm different."
  • On her decision to join the cast of Ugly Betty:
    "Honestly I never saw myself doing TV," says Ferrera, "but Salma was so convincing. Salma is the kind of person who could sell you, like, a used stereo. She promised me that it would be done in the right way, and I just trusted her."
  • On being in the limelight:
    In February one weekly gossip rag ran with a story that Ferrera and Williams were engaged, giving rise to BETTY TO WED headlines all over the Internet. "It's totally not true!" she insists of the rumor. "And his mom called me and my sisters were calling me, and I was like, 'Are you kidding? Did you not think I would tell you first?' And then I put out a statement that it wasn't true, and that became a whole news story. So now it's news when something doesn't happen? Like, news flash: California did not get hit by a hurricane today."