Can we start treating unattractive people like humans??
I was an ugly child, but neurotypical, relatively quiet, and I had some friends too. I was otherwise a normal kid, not someone kids would pick on for their personality. At some point once we started puberty I had a tomboy phase like a lot of girls do, during which I started experiencing bullying that ranged from physical violence to snarky insults. Girls stared and sneered and boys hit or insulted me. I was addressed as whore despite never even speaking to a guy. It never changed when I moved schools and not even my own mother had anything good to say about my looks despite us being on good terms
I started believing I wasn’t a girl or a human at all which led to depression, multiple attempts, and horrible social anxiety. I looked down everytime someone passed by because I genuinely felt sorry they had to look at me and I was no older than 14. Then once I outgrew the hating pink and girly stuff phase and started putting considerable effort (hours of makeup, sleeping in uncomfortable curlers and wasting all my money on lash extensions) at ~16 people treated me like I was a person. No one hit on me or approached me but they finally stopped the obvious bullying.
Sadly the damage had already been done and I’ll never forget the years of bullying that still makes me believe that everyone complimenting me now is full of bullshit and I should cut them off for lying. I’ll never feel normal or confident in my scarred body and I deeply hate the people around me. I know I’m not the only one with a similar experience and our society is deeply messed up for making us believe that something as unchangeable as our natural looks define if we’re worth our lives. Please stop doing that. I’ll say there’s more to people than their looks, but from my own experience that’s just not what anyone actually thinks, not even grown adults.