"Scandal" star Kerry Washington insists to Marie Claire magazine she "didn't grow up thinking I was pretty."

Washington appears on the April cover of the magazine where she also tells special interviewer Lena Dunham she felt "there was always a prettier girl than me."

For Washington, the end result was her learning to focus on other qualities and talents she's always had. "I learned to be smart and tried to be funny and develop the inside of me, because I felt like that's what I had," she added.

Now the proud mother of a young daughter, "The Django Unchained" star also told the mag she wants to make certain daughter Isabelle is always "heard." She later added: "I just want [Isabelle] to know that she's heard. Really heard, because I feel like that is what we all really want.

Known for her private nature and keeping her personal life largely under wraps, Washington insists her attitude comes as a hard knock lesson she learned from once being too open about her affairs.

"Earlier in my career, I was much more super-sharey," she said. "There were moments when I wanted to process things that were happening to me more privately, and I didn't have the space to do it, because once you let people in, they're in and you don't get to say, 'Oh, I want this for myself.'"

Washington, 38, is married to former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha, with the two having exchanged their vows in an Idaho-held ceremony in June of 2013.

Dunham is scheduled to appear in the March 19 episode of "Scandal."