The Painting Was Better

“I’ve never been beautiful or madly sexy, and I got through school assuming no one liked me - that I lacked whatever it takes to be fashionable. I had an inability to conjure a decent haircut, was a bit clever and not very sporty - all of these things coalesce, don’t they, into textbook low self-esteem for girls. But once away from school…my confidence, and also my vision of myself as a person who might be attractive - not to everyone, but to enough people - gathered momentum. By the time I got to university I was willing to believe I had something, some spark of - whatever it is. And therefore it seemed to be true.” (p. 202)