Serious stuff, why this isn't all about clothes

I’ve never really thought of myself as pretty; wearing glasses since the age of five can do that to a girl. Not feeling pretty shapes who you are and how you see yourself. It creates a framework you fit yourself into that colours the way you see yourself and others for a long time.

The world around us treats us a certain way because of how we look, and people who are judged to be attractive, especially in our teens and twenties, often have a head start on the rest of us whose genes are not so forgiving.*

I have loud hair, strong opinions, and dress the way I dress specifically to interrupt this behaviour. A person who attempts to judge me, to fit me into their framework, only by my lack of prettiness is confronted by my confident attitude and clothes, forcing them to reassess their assumptions, making them deal with me as a person, not just a stereotype.

We all look at the world through a framework that is built from our upbringing and our childhood. It gives us boxes that we put people into to allow us to classify them.

All I’m saying is that every so often we should look at the world without the framework and see what there is to be seen. Just because that person is too fat/too skinny/unfashionable/trendy/wears glasses/too tall/too short doesn't mean they aren't successful/happy/confident and beautiful, all the way through.

It isn’t just other people we fit into our frameworks to judge by pre-defined associations, we do it to ourselves as well. Take a moment today and look at the world and yourself without the frameworks and see what you see.

* Not to say naturally attractive people don't have issues/problems/other crap to deal with. Only shallow people judge on looks alone, be they pretty or otherwise.