What Happened to All the Ugly Kids?

I've got three teenagers, and they each have plenty of friends that I see on a regular basis. I also attend a great many school and community events such as dance recitals, concerts, athletic competitions, and awards ceremonies. At these events I have the chance to mingle with plenty of youths, including a large percentage of the student body at each school.

Other than during a pandemic, this pattern of activity in my life has been true for more than a decade, spanning from grade school, through middle school and high school. What always strikes me, at nearly every event that I attend, is that every last one of the kids I see is good looking. They have nice skin, straight white teeth, and attractive features. Sometimes, they even have good manners.

When I was growing up, we had some good looking kids in my school and my neighborhood, but they were the lucky few. Most were more or less unremarkable in appearance. But make no mistake, as imaginary readers from my hometown can attest, we had a hearty portion of kids who were, in the juvenile parlance of our time, ugly.

Interestingly, when saddled with unappealing physical features, I think many kids instinctively compensated for their superficial disadvantages and learned to make solid first impressions based on attractive elements of their character. I suspect that such aspects of personality would have become more or less permanent and likely have continued to serve the "ugly kids" well into adulthood.

In the end, I think most of us would prefer to be good looking if such a bestowment was both objective and choosable. But for sure, developing attractive features of character when physical good looks are not genetically transmitted, is a pretty good, if not better compensatory prize.

So, what happened to all the ugly kids? I'm not sure, but I bet a good portion of them grew up and benefitted greatly from the enduring aspects of a laudable character. After all, a polished surface will undoubtedly weather with age, but a foundation of internal beauty can last a lifetime.