A question that shouldn’t be depressing, yet sometimes it is: “If you could say one thing to your younger self, what would it be?”
Maybe you’d tell them to spend more time with family, or to make more art. Maybe you’d throw them a financial lifeline (“Invest in some guy named Steve Jobs, trust me!”). Maybe you’d just remind them to floss their damn teeth.
But one common answer I’ve heard from people when discussing this question, especially from women, is some version of: “I wish I could tell her that even though she thinks she’s hideous, she’s actually beautiful.”
I’ve wished that too. My younger self was convinced she was unloveably ugly, and she acted accordingly: shy, skittish, and self-critical. And when I look back at her now, I sometimes wonder: If she had felt beautiful, and had acted like she felt beautiful, would people have seen more beauty in her? I think so.