Leighton Meester used to skip school to smoke marijuana.

The 'Gossip Girl' star hated her teenage years so much, she would avoid going to class and on occasions she experimented with "pot" ñ a term commonly used to describe the illegal drug ñ with friends.

She said: "It's funny that I'm now getting to live through what school should have been ñ glamorous and full of parties. But I didn't do any of that stuff. I hated school.

"I'd do anything but be in school, so I'd skip class. I wasn't dating around, but we'd smoke pot."

The 23-year-old singer-and-actress found school a struggle because her peers gave her a hard time for working part-time as an actress while she studied.

Two unkind classmates even told her she looked "kind of fat" and was a "dork".

She recalled: "School is not fun for most people, but the people who do have fun are usually making fun of other people, which sucks. By no means did I have a conventional upbringing, but I was brought up with love. I don't believe it matters what kind of place you come from.

"I didn't tell people I was an actress. Then one day, I went into school and someone was holding a magazine and they were, like, 'Is this you?' It was just a small photo spread ñ I was 14 ñ and I said, 'Yeah, it's me,' and they were, like, 'Man, you are such a dork.'

"One of them said, 'You're bigger on TV.' I said, 'What do you mean?' And they said, 'Well, you look kind of fat'. Kids are so mean! What's wrong with them?"