Jennifer Lopez thought people just hated her

Los Angeles: Jennifer Lopez says there was a time when she would get affected by all the negativity surrounding her and assumed that people just hated her.

The pop star, 45, who is currently promoting her memoir 'True Love', said she is still working on being herself, reported E! News.

"I would describe the woman I am today as a work in progress, a 'WIP'!. And this was the beginning of what I think is going to be a life-long journey of being content and happy with myself."I have to know how great I am, you know. All of us need to know how great we are," Lopez said.

"That we're worth it...All of the things I'm involved with have the same message and it's that you must love yourself first, that the love that you're looking for is inside you. That sounds like a weird thing sometimes but it's so real... You always have to be the most important. That's what love is," she said.

Despite her fans all over the world, Lopez says she would often focus on negativity. "We have a tendency to focus on the negative and I let that work on my self-esteem. I was always thinking that people didn't like me, they just hated me...It's such a ridiculous notion, we tend to do this to ourselves," she said.