A WOMAN who used to be “ugly” has admitted people assume she’s dumb now that she’s had a glow up.
Gia admitted that while she was treated like she “was invisible” when she was unattractive – and was made fun of and even asked out as a joke – she was “still taken seriously”.
“People automatically assumed that due to my lack of appearance I had something else going for me,” she said in a video on her TikTok page.
“Which was true, I was smart… but I didn’t get any less smart as I got prettier.”
So, in “pursuit of better treatment”, she began working on her hygiene and other external factors in a bid to get closer to the “conventional beauty standard” and “bring light” to who she was internally.
But she found that as she did so, there was “no winning”, as it “just attracts the wrong people”.
“People would take my opinion and consider it, but it suddenly meant less because of the mouth it came out of,” she continued.
“As a woman, no matter how lovely or intelligent you may be, if you are attractive in any way, your appearance becomes your most valuable attribute.
“It’s like getting plastic surgery in pursuit of finding love – the people it attracts to are just there for the wrong reasons.”
Gia concluded her video by urging other young women to realise that “your appearance is the least interesting part about you.”
“If you think working on what you look like will win you genuine respect or care from other people, you’re wasting your time,” she said.
Sharing the video on TikTok, she captioned it: “It’s such a shame to see young girls CONVINCED that fixing your appearance will win you respect.
“When you’re deemed conventionally attractive, your perceived value becomes exclusively external no matter WHO you are.
“And even if it results in better treatment, it’s still dehumanising.”
People in the comments section were quick to weigh in, with one writing: “Right now I’m going through a ‘glow up’ and the comments that ‘now I look better’ hit so bad cause before I thought my insecurities were in my head.”
“This was literally me,” another added.
“Before I glowed up when I was like 12-13 I would sit and cry in the mirror and pray that I’d wake up pretty.
WE'VE all heard of a glow-up, but what is a glow-down?
A glow-down, similar to the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ trend, is rooted in the idea of ‘less is more’.
It promotes enhancing natural beauty rather than covering it up.
With a glow-down, out are the hair extensions, fake nails and eyelash extensions.
To achieve a glow-down, women begin to ditch the fake beauty trends and opt for a natural, skincare-first approach.
“Even now I’m still so insecure due to the way people treated me.”
“As someone who has lost 100 pounds this is so true.. and it’s so hard to get rid of the mindset,” another added.
“People don’t speak about this enough & how it impacts you to go from one extreme treatment to another,” a third said.
“When I became ‘conventional’ it opened me up to EVEN more hate, fake niceness & disdain for my intellect. Can’t win!” someone else agreed.