America Ferrera voted U.G.L.Y. celebrity of the year

America Ferrera is the U.G.L.Y. celebrity of the Year 2007. This most prestigious honor was bestowed upon her by the board of Hey U.G.L.Y., the teen self-esteem building nonprofit organization.

America's portrayal of Ugly Betty on the show by the same name, cinched the vote. America is not only turning out to be a great role model, teens actually tune in to watch her and are inspired by her. Additionally, she is human, and is complete with experiences that move her forward in her life and career as well. She can freely let her hair down and that makes her real and an individual teens can relate to. In fact, someone we can all relate to.

America was selected from hundreds of celebrities whose self-esteem building statements are displayed on the Celebrity Quotes page of Hey U.G.L.Y.'s website, HeyUGLY.org. Teens report to Hey U.G.L.Y. that they feel better knowing that celebrities like America, Adam Brody, Ciara, Halle Berry, Ryan Cabrera and so many more, struggle with some of the same self-esteem issues they do."

Low self-esteem is a critical issue facing teens today. It has been proven that low self-esteem affects learning and can lead to such problems as delinquency, unhealthy relationships, eating disorders,substance abuse and suicide. According to most estimates, about 30 percent of today's teenagers are dropping out of high school and every school day 160,000 students miss school because of bullying.

By having the name, Ugly Betty, America is helping to turn that negative word into a positive. Turning negatives into positives is the impetus behind Hey U.G.L.Y. The nonprofit organization choose the name "ugly" because it is a word that teens use to describe others, and most significantly, themselves. When they label themselves ugly or call a fellow student ugly they are unleashing a powerful force of negative energy. When teens learn how ugly was converted to Unique Gifted Lovable You, they start calling each other, and themselves, U.G.L.Y. with a whole new perspective. The negativity is gone and in its stead is empowerment. Recognizing the value of teaching the concept of turning negatives into positives, Hey U.G.L.Y. developed acronym contests, asking teens to take words like Geek, Dork, or Stupid and turn them into positives. One of their contest winners converted "Geek" into Gifted Enchanted Educated Kid and a teen in Texas converted "Loser" into love Others Show Everyone Respect.

Hey U.G.L.Y. Inc., NFP, founded in 2002, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower teens with self-esteem building tools, to help them counter challenges such as eating disorders, bullying, violence, substance abuse and suicide. U.G.L.Y is an acronym that stands for: Unique Gifted Lovable You. The organization helps teens through their website (www.heyugly.org); eM-POWERment Day Presentations at schools (eMPOWERmentDay.org); marketing initiatives; and Hey U.G.L.Y.'s self-esteem and diversity- building curriculum called "eM-POWER." eM-POWER is a character development and emotional learning curriculum that incorporates mandated learning standards in areas such as math, English, music, art, history and social studies. Developed for junior high and high school aged students, the curriculum is free to schools and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club, and Boys and Girls Scouts of America.