#305 Make a Profile on BeautifulPeople.com
I was having lunch with Nate and we got on the subject of looks. He said he had heard of a site that was like a “Facebook for beautiful people.” After a quick google search, we found, appropriately named enough, BeautifulPeople.com.
It’s a dating website where you have to put up a photo and apply to for entry. Your profile is up for 48 hours during which time, users can vote by giving you 1-4 stars. If you have more than a 2 star average at the end of the voting period, you’re in.
As I’ve said before, I grew up in an all Italian and Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey. It was suburbia but still a tough place for a Chinese kid. I’ve never not known what it was like to look different. It’s just a part of who I am. I questioned my looks a lot growing up. It’s hard not to when kids are picking fights with you based on your looks alone.
Even when I moved to more diverse areas, my confidence in my looks was still low. It didn’t help I was built like a flag pole.
Over the years, I feel like I’ve grown into my body and my looks. It’s to the point where I feel pretty confident in what I look like. I know some people will think I’m attractive, some won’t. But I do and I guess that’s the important part.
But I’m only human. If someone thinks you’re attractive, then that feels good.
And likewise, if someone says I should live under a bridge, it hurts a little. I don’t dwell on it. Not that anybody’s said those exact words to me. It was more like I should live somewhere with lots of shadows to conceal my ugly face.
So I decided to make a profile on the site. But for what purpose?
I mean, “ideally” I would be rejected. Because the whole point is to test the confidence I have in myself. But I didn’t want to just put a horrible picture of myself up. That would be too easy to chalk it up to the picture. And not that I have any, but I didn’t want to go the other way and put up a heavily photoshopped headshot either. I wanted to put up a regular, candid photo of myself. I went with a photo that was taken when I was out at a party a few months ago:
It’s a photo I think is pretty representative of myself. It’s not the best photo of me. It’s not the worst.
Photo chosen, I put up my profile. As I write this, 11 hours after I put it up and 37 hours remaining in my voting period I have these results:
Which is what I was “hoping” for. Of course, the shallow part of me wanted to be considered a beautiful person. And for a moment, I did feel a pang of rejection. But most of me doesn’t care. I really don’t. Which is a good feeling.
Even if my profile does get accepted, I’d never use the site. Why should I let other people decide who is beautiful for me? And why does it matter so much? Exclusivity is a dangerous road to travel down.
Still, I did get a “wink” from a 25 year old girl from Brazil… just saying.
