This starts before a kid can rationally think about it, and usually just continues. The price for not pleasing society, and especially men, or at least what men supposedly like, is very high, starting at an early age. When I was 11, I was in 6th grade. Before this, I was a strange, but happy child with an active imagination. Of course, the other kids didn't see that. I was walking by a table of the 'cool' boys in the cafeteria. In tones of disgust and horror, one boy said to the group: "Would you go out with April Simpson or Shannon Weary?"
They all gasped in horror. April Simpson was a fat, pimply girl with crooked teeth and a funny smell. I was unfashionable, skinny and still wear glasses. So, they picked me, because at least I didn't smell bad. It is 7 years later. I still cringe in horror when I think about this. Is there any wonder why the other girls wore more makeup than anyone else in the free world, practiced cheers that showed off their butts and wore expensive clothes? Even at that early age, they could do things that seemed sophisticated and adult, especially to my still video game playing eyes.
. They'd have boy girl parties, with popular music and soda pop and dancing. A cute girl could always bum a cigarette off of a future football team captain. They'd get into uproarious mischief, shared at their privileged lunch table. All the time at school, pretty girls had more fun. At school dances , guys would come up to them, and dance close to them. Us ugly ones stood on the wall, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Feelings of self doubt would well up, everyone else seemed to have such a good time. The most the rest of us would get was a poor boy being teased that he liked you over his loud protests about how he didn't like such an ugly girl. Not as much fun as pop and cigerrettes,huh?
Is there any wonder the others buried themselves in Seventeen, being desperately glad they weren't us? So if you wonder why girls don't want to be themselves, maybe it's because they don't want the call to change from "Hey, baby! Wanna party?" to 'Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me" It's silly, yes. We should all be independent, never thinking of how others think. However, humans aresocial beings. And ugly girls want to have fun too.