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" Earlier this week I got an email that hit me like a sledgehammer in my Single-ish little heart, and made me truly stop and think. Here&amp;#x27;s what it said: I am ugly. This is a fact. I am 18, overweight, and have acne. I want to lose weight, but it&amp;#x27;s more than laziness holding me back. I&amp;#x27;m afraid. What if I still don&amp;#x27;t like me? What if some guy does ask me out, or worse, what if no one cares? - LS We hear all the time the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it&amp;amp;#8217;s absolutely true, but reading this email made me want to elucidate this point further. Here&amp;amp;#8217;s my top 3 of the many reasons you are way hotter than you think: 1. &amp;amp;#8220;Ugly&amp;amp;#8221; and &amp;amp;#8220;hot&amp;amp;#8221; are not about how closely you approximate Blake Lively&amp;amp;#8217;s aesthetic. They are states of mind. Your aesthetic appeal has much less to do with your makeup, hair, nail polish and skin quality than the things that come out of your mouth and the thoughts in your brain. Successful women are hot. Smart women are hot. Independent women are hot. There is no aphrodisiac like confidence. It&amp;amp;#8217;s not something that can be taught or learned, but knowing that can be the first step to gaining it. 2. Skinnier isn&amp;amp;#8217;t prettier. When scientists study pure human aesthetics (taking personality out of the mix), there are 2 main currents that unite women&amp;amp;#8217;s appeal to men: youth and health. When a guy says he loves a woman&amp;amp;#8217;s full lips, it&amp;amp;#8217;s because that fullness represents health&amp;amp;#8212;the same goes for the rest of your body. Sure, slimness is attractive in modern western culture, but only as long as it belies a healthy approach to diet and exercise as opposed to the opposite. 3. Other people have no idea what hot is. Do not be concerned with what other people think looks good. Know that you have your own style, your own look, and what looks and feels good to you is what&amp;amp;#8217;s ultimately going to be the most appealing. LS&amp;amp;#8217;s note touched me because she&amp;amp;#8217;s 18, and as a teenager I thought I was incredibly unattractive. But in reality, I just didn&amp;#x27;t have any confidence--that&amp;#x27;s why girls didn&amp;#x27;t want to date me--not because my nose was big or the fact that I couldn&amp;#x27;t bench a lot of weight. We all spend too much time in our teenage years being scared, or intimidated, and it prevents us from doing what we really want. She was worried about &amp;amp;#8220;what if I still don&amp;amp;#8217;t like me?&amp;amp;#8221; The only &amp;quot;what if&amp;quot; she really needs to worry about is the &amp;quot;what if I never do anything to change how I feel?&amp;quot; It&amp;#x27;s all up to her. What&amp;#x27;s made you feel less than attractive? How did you get over it? Any words of wisdom for LS? More on looking great at glamour.com 45 Spring Looks for Under $100 1 Minute Beauty Tricks 5 Pretty Hairstyles for Every Type More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter! Add us to your iGoogle homepage. Photo: Thinkstock "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/single-ish/2010/04/3-reasons-youre-way-hotter-tha>