I read
’s essay, “Can Hot Women Get a Break, Please?” and immediately sympathized with her beautiful sister. Note I didn’t say empathized. I can understand how it must be insulting to constantly be underestimated and judged for being beautiful. Yet I can’t say I’ve experienced it.
I have never fit into a conventional standard of beauty. My eyes are too small, my nose too flat and wide, my lips too small, and my hair too limp (although there was a period in the 90s when heroin chic was in and flat limp hair was a thing). My body is also pretty average — not skinny but also not curvy. My best feature is my smile.