Hailee Steinfeld: 'Home schooling helped me escape the bullies'

Actress/singer Hailee Steinfeld was thrilled when her parents offered her home schooling as her acting career took off, because it would keep her away from school bullies.

The True Grit star insists she wasn't home schooled as a direct result of the torment she experienced - but it came at a good time for her.

"It's something that everybody goes through, regardless of who they are and where they're from... and obviously when you're in it you feel that you're the only person that's ever felt any of those feelings before," she told Access Hollywood Live.

"Coincidentally and conveniently, my (acting) schedule was picking up around same time, so it was kinda like, 'Well, this seems like the best option'."

Hailee was so stunned by some of the hatred she experienced, she thought she was living in a movie.

Revealing some tormentors would spew threats over the phone as she made her way to school in the morning, Steinfeld said, "It was a lot. I remember feeling like, 'I thought this stuff was only supposed to happen in the movies', where you would get a call at the same exact time every single morning, same kids; you didn't know who they were.

"But I wasn't the only person they were calling; I never wanted to make it seem like they were out to get me."

But the young star insists it wasn't just school bullies that made her life hell - she didn't feel like she fitted in: "I had a lot of social issues in school; I didn't necessarily find my groove quick enough...," she added, "and I was confused a lot of the time and I started home schooling and that's really when I started to thrive."