We’ve all had days where we’ve gotten down on ourselves for how we look. Whether we’ve put on weight, our hair is thinning, or we just don’t like the face looking back at us in the mirror, intrusive thoughts can make us feel ashamed of our appearance. While most of us keep these thoughts to ourselves or share them with a trusted friend, one man aired his feelings to the world–and had his life changed in the process.
Being Ugly: My Experience
It began with a simple YouTube video on January 25th, 2018. A user named Never Give Up posted a 24 minute video entitled Being Ugly: My Experience in which he shared his negative feelings about his appearance with the rest of the world. In the video, the man mentions feeling alone and depressed because of the way he’s been treated poorly throughout his life.
“I feel really alone,” says the speaker. “Every video I come across is with a really attractive or ‘normal’ person. They have no idea how it really is.”
The pressures of social media to play pretend and show the world your best self are certainly undeniable. Even when confessing to his shame around his appearance, the man admits that his current appearance is meant to show himself in the best possible light. He talks about the different things he finds unattractive about himself, and how he uses his hair to hide his perceived flaws. He even talks about his difficulty making friends, finding acceptance, and experiencing love.
Then something unexpected happened.
User @Juli.Romina.M posted a comment that was different from the others. “I actually think you’re kinda cute tbh. I mean it.”
A Budding Attraction
The comment was just the beginning of what turned out to be a love story for the ages. The woman eventually reached out to the man from the video through Discord, sharing how she was going through her own hard times at college with her ex-boyfriend. They bonded over their shared struggles, soon developing a connection that began blossoming into love.
They dated long distance for a while, then she flew out to Sweden to meet him for the first time. Two weeks turned into three months turned into a year, and soon they decided that they were truly meant for each other. The happy couple married, cementing their union and showing that love truly does show up in the unlikeliest of places. While they don’t yet know which country they’ll call home, they have each other to weather the storm with. In a world where hope can be hard to find, their story is a beautiful example of what can happen when you put yourself out there.
