I have a couple of friends who I thought were super unfortunate-looking I first met them. I remember literally thinking for each of them, "oh, poor thing."

And now that I know them I think both are beautiful. Not "I feel bad for you so I'm going to pretend you don't have that face" or "I'm going to substitute how much I like your personality for how much I don't like your face", but "Your face is different than any face I have seen before and you work it and you're stunning."

One friend has a super round face, half of it is mouth, her teeth are too big and stick out a little, her eyes are gigantic and droop down at the corners. She is permanently laughing and smiling, her chipmunk cheeks are always rosy, and it's like her mouth and eyes need to be that big because otherwise they couldn't contain all that sparkle. She is beautiful. Not pity beautiful, but "I wish I was you because you are radiant and you are beautiful."

The other has the narrowist face I've ever seen. Her lips are sort of puffy, her nose is half the width of her face, her teeth are tiny, her cheek bones are too strong, her eyes are too big to fit correctly on such a skinny face. She is tall and lanky and thin. She has a kind of melancholy but ironic air about her that I've never seen in anyone else. She's the most creative person I've ever met. She can put together an outfit that is different than anything you've ever seen before, and it looks perfect, and two weeks later everyone you know is wearing the same thing but they all just look dumb. She could pull off literally anything. None of it would work without her artist's face, her big, sad brown eyes with just a hint of "the whole world is a joke that only i understand" spark. She is beautiful. Like "I quit posting pictures of us together because I am just generically cute and you are uniquely beautiful and that makes me feel bad."

And look, they aren't models and never will be. Maybe the majority of the population would look at a picture and go "ugh". But if they meet them in person, I think more people would agree with me than not.

I'm also not saying everyone IS beautiful. But I really think everyone can be if instead of feeling sorry for themselves and shrinking into their skin they just accept who and what they are and radiate confidence. Two of the most beautiful people I've ever met got screwed on the genetic lottery but they just own it, and it makes them beautiful.