GIRLS hate me.

That's what MediaCorp actress Dawn Yeoh admitted in a phone interview with The New Paper last week.

Television viewers complained she was 'too cutesy' after her role as rookie cop Xia Yi Jing in the Channel 8 dramedy, Crime Busters X2.

And the 22-year-old doesn't understand why the public just cannot 'let me be me'.

She recounted how her female classmates would shun her during her secondary school days.

Said the actress: 'Girls always start out hating me. Because of this 'cute' thing.

'They always ask 'Why must everything you own be pink?' and 'Why must you buy Hello Kitty?'

'After we spent time together, they see that this is just me, then they are okay with it. They see it's not just an act.

'Now they even follow me and collect Hello Kitty stuff as well!'

While she admitted that she may have overemphasised the cutesy and comical part of her role in the show, she felt that it's still what she knows best.

Revealing that she has always been 'sweet and cute since kindergarten', she said she actually prefers to be known as a 'fun-loving and easy-going person'.

'I didn't purposely set out to create this cute image. That's just me and I'm not going to change.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 30, 2008.