Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez has recalled her tough upbringing in her new book `True Love: Unabridged`, where she writes how she grew up surrounded by people "scraping and clawing, trying to get by".

The 45-year-old, whose name figures among the wealthiest stars now, says she was raised in the once impoverished New York city borough of the Bronx, which she says has "inspired" her success, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Some of the excerpts of her book appear in Latina magazine where she writes: "Our neighbours were so diverse; Puerto Rican, African-American, Italian and everyone was scraping and clawing, trying to get by.

"My mum worked two jobs and my dad worked at Guardian Life Insurance. My sisters and I shared a bed and every morning we were bundled off to Catholic school. That's why my parents worked those long hours so they could give us a good education and raise us right".

The "On The Floor" singer has admitted that the values she was taught by her parents remain with her till today.

"There was that Bronx mentality of taking everything as it comes, it was about pressing forward today knowing that the break was gonna come. I was relentless, always reaching forward," she said.

"There was a certain hustle I grew up with, a hustle that I learned from watching my parents. They showed me that you put your head down and work, you work for a living and then when you're making a living you carry on.

"That continues to be my mentality now, you don't stop working just because you have money in the bank - you do what you do and you keep on doing it," she added.