Nollywood actress, Beverly Naya, has revealed that she considered giving up acting after dealing with cyberbullying.
Speaking with popular media personality, Chude Jideonwo, Naya opened up about how her mental health was affected by the barrage of negativity she faced in her career, and how “singled out” she felt.
She said, “There was this particular blog that literally kept coming for me and always had the most negative things to say about everything that I was in and it felt like a personal attack.”
The actress stressed that the consistent attacks made her consider quitting. “I felt like I was being attacked again, like, ‘Why am I always being singled out?’ So it really got to me and it damaged my self-esteem and made me doubt myself and I didn’t want to continue in this industry.”
Tearing up, she emotionally recounted a singular post that was made about her which was etched into her memory.
Narrating how the words broke her down she said, “There was a particular post that I can never forget, they said ‘Nollywood can we stop trying to make Beverly Naya happen.’ When I saw it, I was crushed and I cried my eyes out because of that. I was angry because I felt like I worked hard. At the time I wasn’t perfect, I’m still not perfect but I was willing and I was pushing myself and I really felt like I did my best and I was trashed and singled out and irrelevant. I was borderline depressed during that period.”
Beverly Naya has appeared in notable Nollywood movies like Forgetting June, The Wedding Party, When Love Happens, and Across the Rising Sun, amongst many others. She also won an AMVCA for Best Documentary for her film, Skin.
