I was never an ambitious girl, or even a self-confident one. I never went in for beauty pageants or wore a stitch of make-up until I went to Los Angeles.

In this reflection, Anderson contrasts a self-described shy, unambitious adolescence with the performative, image-driven culture she encountered after moving into the entertainment industry. The mention of not wearing makeup until Los Angeles underscores how place and profession can reshape identity: what was once unnecessary (or even alien) becomes expected as part of fitting into a new social economy of visibility. The quote also works as a quiet rebuttal to assumptions that her later public persona was the product of lifelong calculation; instead, she frames it as an adaptation to circumstance, suggesting vulnerability beneath celebrity and the pressures that can manufacture “confidence” and glamour.