Meet : Bollywood Superstar, Activist, and Junk Foodie Priyanka Chopra

Photo: Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra can’t easily be summed up in a sentence. The former Miss World (she won the title in 2000) is a Bollywood star, recording artist, model (in December 2013 she became the first Indian GUESS girl), humanitarian (she’s a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador), and activist (she promotes the education of girls in India through her namesake charity, The Priyanka Chopra Foundation). All that in one person? Sounds like Chopra, or PC as her friends call her, would have to be superhuman to pull it all off. Only she isn’t. Like us, she struggles to get enough sleep, worries too much, and can’t resist her junk food cravings.

How do we know? Because she told us. And every month on ELLE.com, in a new column, “Pret-a-Priyanka,” Chopra will open up about her life, struggles, and her guilty pleasures. But first, an introduction from PC herself.

It’s day 22/episode 10 of the ‘Priyanka Only Needs 3 Hours of Sleep a Day to Still Be Fabulous’ show. I think it’s going really well, but the people around me don’t agree. Strange, right?

It’s not a deliberate attempt to get no sleep, but more a spillover of my intense desire to do everything that excites and inspires me (which is currently many, many things). Life is sometimes about making compromises, and in this case sleep seems to be mine!

Just before I left LA last week, I got the call giving me the official thumbs up to contribute my thoughts to ELLE.com and it sent me into a momentary panic attack. I think the fear came from the fact that we don’t know each other yet. I worried that my ramblings might make me sound like an extra from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Those who know me understand my idiosyncrasies, but we are strangers!

So…I thought that before I dive in and share my thoughts, emotions, and theories of relativity, I’d break the ice with a quick introduction of myself and let you in on a few secrets about me. Hopefully you will write back and do the same, and if I’m lucky enough we’ll be on our way to a fabulous friendship.

Photo: Instagram

Here, seven things that will help you get to know me. There’s no better place to start than this moment right now:

1. If I had it my way, my home would be a Winnebago…or even an Aerobago (yes, I just made that up)! Since I spend my time between Mumbai and the US, and also given the needs of my chosen profession, I am literally airborne most of the time. I absolutely love it though, and the thought of a long long flight (like the almost 20 hour flight from Mumbai to LA) makes me happy. Jet lag and I are friends.

Photo: Instagram

2. I am a little bit of this and a little bit of that—I grew up in India… went to middle school and high school in Queens, NY and Boston. Went back to India to become an aeronautical engineer, and in 2000, I won Miss World instead. I fell in love with Tupac and tacos and everything in between. Now I am a strange mix of both cultures.

3. I can eat anyone under the table, literally! Buffalo wings, pepperoni pizza, a double double cheeseburger (“animal style”), steak steak steak and more steak! God gave me a good metabolism and I feel it is my duty to feed it!

Photo: Instagram

4. I am a confident, ambitious woman of today. Woman being the operative word. I am a sucker for romance and all things girly. Shoes are my kryptonite. I don’t like stereotypes… and hate being put in a box.

Photo: Instagram

5. I’m daddy’s little girl and mama’s baby—I love my family and always want them around me. I have a huge one, both in India and the U.S., so anywhere I go, they’re not far behind!

6. I absolutely love, adore, and crave the spa! My team has been known to take alternate routes to avoid spas at all costs. It's that bad. Show me one and…

7. I like to read…and write—my room and library are currently overflowing. It’s a childhood habit that was fueled by parents who loved to read, too. Somewhere in my teens I started to write…poems, essays, and stories. I still do, but it’s all locked up… I’m too scared to share it with the world.

This might be a good start.

Your turn!