Kim Kardashian's childhood best friend claims the reality star has long been obsessed with her weight... and that she wanted a nose job since she was 13

Kim Kardashian is one of the most photographed women in the planet... and a lot of the pictures are taken by herself.

But despite her apparent wealth of self-confidence, it hasn't always been that way: in fact, the reality TV star has been plagued with insecurities about her body and looks since a very young age.

Speaking to Heat magazine, Kim's childhood best friend Nikki Lund explained just how far back her negative feelings go.

                            

'At 13, we started to become more aware of ourselves. We began wearing make-up and started dieting,' the fashion designer said, speaking of her days growing up with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.

She added that curvy Kim was always aware of her weight and that the pair would try a whole range of Hollywood diets.

She explained: 'It was mostly the Atkins and the South Beach Diet. We did the Cabbage Soup Diet and we'd be there boiling great big vats of cabbage. We were like, "Yes, we're going to be thin."'

These strict eating regimes at a young age in their early teens led to Nikki - now 32 -  developing an eating disorder, something that luckily passed Kim by.

                         

And it wasn't just weight that bothered Kim from her early teens according to her old pal.

'Kim was always saying her nose wasn't perfect. I thought she was nuts. Every girl has something they don't like,' Nikki added to the magazine.

Kim has always maintained that she hasn't undergone surgery on her face or her nose, using clever make-up trickery with contouring to streamline her features, but has used Botox before.

Nikki - who has a fashion line with Bon Jovi rocker Richie Sambora, with whom she's also in a relationship - also said that Kim has always been fine about her curvy derriere, and it's all down to shapely singer Jennifer Lopez, who she respected from a a young age.

The blonde beauty recently shared a sizeable collection of photos of herself with Kim back in their early and mid-teens.

The sweet vintage snaps showed the two of them having a whale of a time posing for pictures, with both of them sporting youthful chubby cheeks and ill-advised mid-90s make-up and fashion choices. 

They looked the epitome of teenage happiness and innocence, but it seems they were both in the grips of worries over their looks, much like other girls their age. 

Kim's relationship with her body has long been documented since she rose to fame in the mid-noughties, thanks to the sex tape in which she appeared with former flame Ray J. 

                                  

A fan of wearing figure-hugging dresses and, recently, incredibly sheer and low-cut garments, Kim appears on the surface to be somebody completely at ease with their figure.

She also barely goes a day without sharing at least one flattering picture of herself: she loves a selfie, and is the undisputed queen of self-taken snaps. 

But she has been open over the years about her struggles with her weight and her looks, and has recently changed her image rather drastically, apparently in accordance with the wishes of husband Kanye West.

Kim reached a low point after giving birth to their daughter North West in summer 2013. She was openly upset over criticism about her pregnancy body, and revealed how hard she had to work to get the weight off.

'For me, having people criticise what I wore and looked like when I was pregnant - that was hard,' she admitted in an interview just months after welcoming her daughter into the world.

                       

It made me feel insecure, so I have tried to avoid the limelight more,' she told Vogue.co.uk, at the same time she embarked on the tough Atkins diet regime once again to shed the pounds. 

The star - who is a fan of waist-training with corsets to alter the shape of her figure - also claimed recently in another interview: 'I'm not completely happy with my body.'

This month saw her cutting a stark figure through the French capital while at Paris Fashion Week, flaunting her buxom figure in an array of plunging outfits, or get-ups with sheer details across her ample chest.

However, despite this apparent spate of confidence in outfits chosen by her husband, the star has previously admitted to feeling slightly down about her curves, and wishes for a slimmer, leaner and straighter figure like her sister Kendall Jenner.

She previously said in an interview with LOVE magazine: 'You always want what you can't have.

'I'd love to swap bodies with Kendall for just a week, just to look from that little bit higher up and fit into everything perfectly.'