Christina Hendricks, known for her hourglass figure and flame-red hair, has been voted as the sexiest woman in the world.

The actress, who rose to fame as Mad Men’s Joan Holloway, has received much praise from critics, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood who called her the “embodiment of beauty”.

Even Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone has hailed her as a role model for figure-conscious females.

Christina, 36, has always been known for her curves, and she drew gasps of amazement when she sashayed down the red carpet at the Baftas and Elle Style Awards in gowns that showed off her enviable figure.

However, behind the confident and sultry exterior lies a past filled with unhappiness and bullying.

Christina revealed that she had an unhappy school experience and was bullied like crazy.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Christina moved to a small town in Idaho with her parents and older brother when she was still young.

She began dying her hair red aged 10, then in her early teens, the family moved to Fairfax, Virginia.

It was here where Christina’s troubles started.

She says: “The girls there had purses and I still had my backpack from Idaho.

Moving as a teenager is never easy.

So I tried to set myself apart and it ended up with multi-coloured hair.

It was how I was expressing myself.

I was a goth kid.

I dyed my hair about 42 different colours, shaved it at the back and wore black make-up.

Kids can be pretty judgmental about people who are different.”

Despite the taunts from classmates, Christina refused to conform and break down.

She stood firm and this is probably why she was unhappy.

Her mother was mortified and kept telling her that she looked horrible and ugly.

Strangers would look at her with a look of shock on their face, which made her feel even more awkward and ugly.

However, when Christina was 19, she entered a contest to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine.

Wearing a wig, she posed for pictures in a cemetery.

Even though she didn’t win the competition, those photographs proved to be a revelation.

“When I got the pictures back my mum and I started crying because I had no idea I could be pretty,” she recalls.

“I’d always felt awkward.

It was the first time I really felt pretty.

It just sort of changed my perspective of myself.”

Christina left school and at the age of 19, moved to New York where she began modelling professionally.

At 5ft 8in tall and weighing 11st, Christina is a UK size 14 and those famous curves reportedly measure 38DD-32-38.

When she started modelling, she was just over eight stones.

She says: “I’d done ballet for years and was tiny then, a size 4 (UK size 8), so I didn’t have any problems about conforming to a certain body type.

As you get older your body changes.

I’ve tried to embrace how I look at every stage.”

Christina was put under pressure to slim as she became more curvy.

“When I was working in Italy, I was having cappuccinos every day.

I’d take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, ‘Oh, I look like a woman.’

I felt beautiful and I never tried to lose it ‘cos I loved it.

I was 20lb lighter than I am now, but modelling agencies used to tell me to lose 10, 15, 20lb.

I’d be like ‘That’s bone – I can’t.

That’s not going anywhere!'”

Christina credits the 1960s fashions in Mad Men for making Joan such an icon – all those pencil skirts, nipped-in waists, and conical bras.

As the show went global, she was amazed at the reaction to her figure.

This year, experts claimed a rise in demand for b–b jobs in the UK was because women want to look like Christina.

She says: “I hope I’m not encouraging that.

If there’s anything to be learned from me it’s that I’m learning to celebrate what I was born with, even though it’s sometimes been inconvenient.

Having larger breasts has made it harder to shop, but I’ve learned to love it…

But now I feel like everyone talks about my bust in public.”

Despite being hailed as an icon of femininity, Christina is still the same person who was bullied in high school.

She remembers the bullies who made her schooldays hell and feels satisfied when she thinks about how far she has come.

“My school days were pretty unhappy.

I had the worst high school experience ever.

I went to a very mean school and was bullied like crazy.

I was a bit of a goth with purple hair and I was also part of the drama group, so my friends and I were all weird theatre people and everyone just hated us.

There was a long corridor with lockers on either side and kids would sit on top of them and spit on you.

It was like something out of Lord of the Flies.”

Christina met actor Geoffrey Arend, star of TV series Body of Proof, soon after starting on Mad Men.

They wed in October 2009 and this year, he flew from LA to London where Christina is filming for a month, just to be with her on Valentine’s Day.

It wasn’t love at first sight for the couple.

Christina explains: “We were both coming out of other relationships and weren’t in that mindset.

Then my friends invited him to dinner and he was late.

They asked if I wanted to save the seat next to me for Geoffrey and I went: “No, no, it’s not like that.”

Of course, as soon as I said it didn’t matter, it suddenly did matter.

I think my brain had to catch up with my heart.”

Despite all the attention and adoration she has received, Christina remains grounded.

She knows what it’s like to feel ugly and awkward and is grateful for everything she has achieved in her life.