I Thought My Glasses Made Me Unattractive

Itis, unfortunately, not an uncommon Hollywood trope. Pay attention, and you’ll notice it in many films and television shows.

The girl with the glasses is unattractive.

She is described as “frumpy”. She’s called every name from “geek” to “loser”, and it hardly matters whether she is book smart or not. It hardly matters if this is a modern Cinderella or any manner of other contrived boy fixes girl formula.

Glasses are either a sign that you are demonstrably more intelligent than the average village girl or you are a total charity case, worthy only of a makeover and no honest personal consideration beyond just how much prettier you would look without those frames in your face.

And from the moment I got my first pair of glasses in fifth grade, I believed it.

My eyesight is objectively terrible. I’ve gone through eight prescriptions in nearly twenty years. Some jerk tries to play keepaway with the lenses I wear now, I’m calling an Uber simply for the sake of the lives I’ll save by not chancing the road with zero depth perception.

I’d have to squint at the GPS eighteen inches from my face, let’s put it that way.

But aside from the fact that I truly do need real help for my eyes to do their job, I’m not in fifth grade anymore. If I want to resurrect the gold rimmed and purple speckled tragedies of my youth, I will. If I want a pair for day to day and a pair for nights out, I’ll get them. How ridiculous to think that I’m a loser for my medically necessary accessory? How silly to allow a few too many 90’s Rom-Com scenes to control my self perception for so long?

The girl with the glasses isn’t frumpy. She’s myopic.

(And have you seen photos of Kate Beckinsale wearing glasses? Or Rachel Weisz? Be still my beating heart…)

Yes, I’m the girl with the glasses, and I’ve (finally) grown beyond thinking that’s a bad thing.