Elissa Sursara from bullied to beautiful

ELISSA SURSARA, FROM BULLIED TO BEAUTIFUL

Why the actress says "No one should stand for a Bully."

She's a long way from the beautiful beaches of her native Bahia, Brazil, but 20-year-old actress and activist Elissa Sursara looks right at home in her parent's multi-million dollar water-front Gold Coast property - and who could blame her? Protected by the slurry of gates and security cars in her families luxury ocean side estate, the blue-eyed actress can breathe a sigh of relief when hidden from the world of entertainment, gossip and script-reading. But if you think even for once second that the actress holds her head a little too high, you may want to think again. After one hell of a lifetime, Sursara admits "I've finally, finally gotten comfortable."

For this modern bombshell, the life of glam hasn't always been so ever present. Recalling occasions where she was ridiculed, threatened and beaten by former friends in a publicized 'school bashing' attack, Sursara reveals why she believes she was became a target and why "no one should stand for a bully."

Dressed in a pair of tight dark denim pants and a lose fitted Grey t-shirt, the self-proclaimed "fashion nobody" evokes the most natural of beauty. In minimal make-up and 'just back from the beach' hair, the 5 foot 3 actress offers coffees and soft-drinks, her bronzed skin glistening through the windows of her ocean-side view. The brown brunette fumbles with her Blackberry before reclining into the creme colored couch that could seat both us (and our third cousins!) before looking toward a family portrait hung on the wall. "Family," she says, "They're everything you've got."

In a time where A-list celebrities are crowded by their hair, make-up and personal entourage, there is something refreshing about the beautiful simplicity offered by the starlet, who slowly rises to creep closer. And so we begin.

Starting in the industry at the age of four when picked from thousands of young hopefuls to front a baby wear campaign in South America, Sursara quickly became the answer to a Brazilian Olsen Twin, finding herself in prime-demand for kiddie-commercials, voice over and television programs and as the host of a popular Brazilian children's program in the few years following her tenth birthday. Offered recording contracts and film deals whilst still in her pre-teens, Sursara thanks her parents for "pulling me away from that world. They wanted me to be educated before anything else." With a string of men counting down the every second until her 18th birthday, Sursara, who shies from her "Sex Symbol" status has perfected the art of becoming thick skinned, admitting that, "I can't let people see that vulnerable side of me. In this business, it'll destroy you."

But it's the life lessons Elissa has encountered in her short 20 years on earth that have brought her to her trademark maturity. With a lack of motivation to be a party girl - the actress shyly admits she'd rather "be in her pj's all day long" - it's Elissa's swagger of family orientation, wisdom beyond her years and painful experiences that she accounts for her strong persona today.

Horrifically beaten and left in unconscious in a class room after a group study session when she was sixteen years old, the now adult Elissa looks back with a glimmer of sadness. "What's more sad about that, is that for a moment there, those people won. They succeeded in making me feel like I needed to change things in order to co-exist with them. I wasn't allowed to talk to certain boys, certain girls. The greatest part was that I eventually realized it was a cowardly act from them, violence isn't brave, it's more pathetic than you'll ever know."

After a long hospital stay nursing broken bones and some internal bleeding, Sursara recalls returning "bigger and better", with a new found confidence initiated through her family and best friends. Listing her abnormal schedule whilst filming and re-locating from Brazil to Australia and so forth, Sursara believes the key to spotting a bully is in their own insecurities. "No bullies are confident, we can start right there. Confident people don't find the need to scheme and destroy others, they don't feel like they have to. Bullies are weak, the weakest kind of people."

Comforted back to health and returning to entertainment, Sursara, who spends her time on screen and defending animal rights with pal Isabel Lucas and dodging romantic connections to a slew of Hollywood big names reaches out to anyone affected by bullies.

"Tell someone," says the star. "Letting them win is just that. Show them you're stronger, you're not putting up with it and whatever you do, don't change who you are."