30 “Ugly Ducklings” Share Their Incredible Transformations Into Beautiful Swans (New Pics)

Sometimes, these changes that bring about more confidence happen all by themselves. However, other times, these are results of hard-fought battles where people drastically change how they live because they want to be proud of themselves and to be held in high regard in society. Remember, just because everyone’s beautiful and unique doesn’t change the reality that human beings prefer people who are more attractive.

That’s why the halo effect is a thing: those who are attractive are also perceived to be more capable and, generally, have it easier in life when it comes to new opportunities. It’s an inherent bias that we all have. So it’s only natural that some people can only be confident about how they look once they’ve also impressed their social circle and their community with their changes.

And these changes do require a lot of effort. Not just when it comes to style but also when we think about fitness. We spoke about discipline, movement, and growing to love working out with motivational speaker, comedian, writer, and former US Paralympian, Josh Sundquist.

Sundquist told Bored Panda that the best fitness or workout routine is one that you enjoy enough to do every single day. Consistency is vital, so aim for something realistic (even if we all want results right here and now).

“The best fitness or workout routine is the one you enjoy enough to do every day. Personally, my favorite thing is going on long walks. So that's what works for me. But for someone else, it might be swimming or competitive sports or tai chi. Whatever gets you moving,” Josh, who lost his leg when he was a child, said. However, going all-out isn’t advisable either. We need to find the right balance between effort and rest.

“I'm a recovering overachiever. I mean, I went to the Paralympics. That doesn't happen without an (un)healthy amount of discipline and delayed gratification. But I don't think that discipline versus moderation is a binary choice. I think those are different gears. It's useful to be able to shift into a high-intensity gear when that serves your workout goals (or, like any kind of goal). But it might even more important to be capable of shifting down to a relaxed posture in everyday life when that sort of intensity isn't necessary. For me personally, the latter gear is more difficult. For someone else, it could be the opposite.”

As the 118k-member strong ‘Ugly Duckling’ community puts it, the online group is meant for “all you guys and gals out there who turned into butterflies.” In other words, it’s a subreddit that’s meant to celebrate positive, wholesome changes in people’s lives.

So don’t be fooled by the word ‘ugly’ in the subreddit’s name: nobody’s suggesting that any of these people are ‘ugly.’ It’s just that, like we mentioned up above, some folks have a hard time loving themselves as they are, so they make changes to their lifestyle, appearance, diet, and fitness to find their true selves.

What did you think of this list, dear Readers? Are you planning on joining the r/uglyduckling community to keep an eye out for their latest posts? Which do you think is more important for making us look fit, our genes or our environments and lifestyles or a combination of both? Have you had to deal with any awkwardness while growing up? Drop us a line or two with your thoughts and feelings in the comment section.