Dingle Belle; EXCLUSIVE WHY I'M SO HAPPY WITH HOW DONNA'S GROWN UP ..SAYS EMMERDALE BEAUTY VERITY RUSHWORTH.(News)

Byline: By ANTONIA HOYLE

SEXY soap babe Verity Rushworth was a gawky 12-year-old with braces on her teeth when she first arrived in Emmerdale.

Today, nine years on, she's a curvy pin-up and this week millions of viewers will see her most explosive storyline yet.

Verity - who plays Donna Windsor Dingle - has come a long way since 1998 when she was thrust into living rooms around Britain.

She giggles: "When I see pictures of me from back then on the internet with braces and a bob, I just want to get them off. It's so embarrassing."

Back then, she had to face bullying from jealous classmates at school. It was, she admits, tough juggling her two very different lives.

But now, the pretty 21-year-old can look back on nearly a decade of life playing Donna, who went on to marry Marlon Dingle, in the ITV soap.

"There is a part of me that regrets growing up so publicly," she says.

"I had no control over the way I looked. All the girls at school were dying their hair, getting piercings and putting make-up on, but I couldn't do anything like that."

Not only that, her overnight success made her the victim of sniping.

"I got a bit bullied at first," she says. "Some of the girls would say, 'Ooh, you think you're it now, don't you?' or 'Am I bovvered?'

"Why do girls have to be like that? It did upset me at first, but they soon got bored. I didn't change or go on about my job, so they got bored."

Highlights of her time on Emmerdale so far include coping with the murder of her dad, Vic, when he was killed by Billy Hopwood as he burgled the post office on Christmas Day in 1998.

And tomorrow night an explosive storyline sees Verity take centre stage again. Desperate to save Dingle cousin Lilith's kids from a childhood in care, Donna and dippy Marlon (played by Mark Charnock) hatch an escape plan.

To smuggle them out of social services' clutches, they sneak them from the Woolpack and away to a B&B.

"The older I get, the more meaty and juicy my storylines become," says Verity with relish, whose bubbly personality she admits is nothing like her alter-ego's bolshy one.

For her 21st birthday in August, she had a big party at the Park Plaza in Leeds with 350 people.

Verity muses: "I'm looking forward to my 20s. It hardly feels like two minutes since I was under 16 and not allowed to go out without a chaperone.

"All the children in the cast have to have one. It was such a drag. I'd be sat in the corner, too shy to talk, watching the older girls like Sheree Murphy, Lisa Riley and Adele Silva going out."

Although she can now go out whenever she wants, she doesn't go overboard. "I'm a real lightweight," she laughs. "Three vodka lime-andlemonades and I'm tipsy, dancing around doing cartwheels. I'm a cheap date!"

VERITY adds, more seriously, when asked if she's ever been tempted to go off the rails: "My mum would kill me if I did drugs. I think it's all to do with the way you've been brought up.

"I was so into my drama, and too busy going to classes to hang out on the street or get into trouble."

With her blossoming confidence comes a hunky new boyfriend in the form of Leeds Rhinos rugby league player Lee Smith. Both from Leeds, they met just over a year ago and are even spending Christmas morning together.

"It's not serious, I don't take anything too seriously," she chuckles. "He's 20, so I've got myself a toyboy! Luckily, he's really laid-back and not phased by my job. He has to sign autographs too, so he knows what it's like. Do I love him? Ooh, I can't answer that!"

She doesn't miss having to fend off advances from other men either. "Lads come up to me in bars ask me if I'm Donna," she says. "They say their mates bet them a fiver that they can't get my mobile. I give them a false number so they win the bet and I don't hear from them again."

She's doubly recognisable when she's out with her mates and co-stars, Sammy Winward, who plays Katie Sugden, and Adele Silva, who plays Kelly Windsor.

"No one says anything nasty," she says. "I think it's because we're young girls. If we were big bruisers we'd get more hassle. I was out with Adele in London this weekend actually.

"She's as daft as me - we were doing cha cha chas and rumbas and spinning around the dance floor." But Verity insists there's no competition between the girls.

"We're all so different looks-wise and in personality," she says. "Sammy is gorgeous, blonde and blue-eyed and I'm more the ditzy tomboy." She says ex-Emmerdale member Patsy Kensit - who played superbitch Sadie King - was "the life and soul of the cast" and is also great friends with the girls from Corrie.

She says: "I'm on Soapstar Superstar with Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby) and Tupele Dorgu (Kelly Crabtree) in 2007.

"We have a laugh together." If she leaves the soap Verity would like to get into theatre. "I'd love to put my musical and theatre training to use on a West End show," she says.

"It would be so different and give me a buzz. I'd love to go to Hollywood and do films too, but the chances of that," she smiles,

With less than a week to Christmas, she's busy buying presents for friends and family.

"I've got Adele's. I can't say what it is, but it's pink," she says. "I've bought Sammy and Lucy (Pargeter's) babies some cute stuff too." And what about Lee?

"We've agreed on a low budget because we've been on some lovely holidays this year, and I've just bought a house and am skint.

"I'll probably get him some soot and a tangerine!"

My mum would kill me if I did drugs - it's how you're brought up

antonia.hoyle@mirror.co.uk

Emmerdale is on ITV1 Sunday to Friday at 7pm.

CAPTION(S):

STOCKING THRILLER: Verity now Picture by: DAN GOLDSMITH /SCOPEFEATURES.COM' DRAMA: Verity as Donna, left, in kidnap episode tomorrow' NOSE STORY: As Donna Windsor, right, with piercing' BIG DAY: Dawn, Donna and Kelly at Donna's wedding