The 32-year-old `New Girl` actress attended Santa Monica performing arts school Crossroads - which also counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson amongst its alumni - but had a hard time because she was a "chubby" 12-year-old that attracted unwanted attention from bullies.

Talking about the incident, Zooey said: "I was ridiculed. I really don`t know why she spat at me. I just talked to her. I guess I wasn`t allowed to talk to her. I remember I couldn`t believe it."

As a result, she decided to transform herself over the next 12 months by losing 30lbs and becoming less "stubborn".

She said: "All of a sudden everybody treated me differently."

But once school was done, she made no effort to keep in touch with her tormentors.

She told Marie Claire magazine: "I don`t even know where they are now."

Even now, the newly-single star - who ended her two-year-marriage to Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbard last November - picks up bad vibes from some.

She explained: "People do think I`m weird, I don`t know why."
sections: Celebrities