18 Female Characters That Movies Tried To Make Us Believe Were Not Pretty

Warner Bros. Pictures

20th Century Fox

Lionsgate

This one pisses me off so much. In what world is Mae Whitman the "designated ugly fat friend"??? I know Wesley says this doesn't always actually mean "ugly fat friend" but the fact that they frame Mae as this kind of character, when she really just looks like a normal teenage girl, is the kind of thing that makes teenage girls everywhere feel really, really shitty about themselves.

Paramount Pictures

Gretchen is established to be the "not pretty" one of the three by Regina. Now, Regina is maybe just being mean, but because she has no qualms calling Karen pretty, it seems like she actually believes Gretchen isn't. Except...Gretchen is gorgeous? She has brown curly hair compared to Regina and Karen's blonde straight hair, but other than that I honestly can't figure out why Regina would suggest she's ugly. It's bizarre.

20th Century Fox

I always find it funny when an actor plays the hot character in one movie, and then the awkward nerdy one in another. She's established as the "prettiest" one by Regina in Mean Girls, but here, Seyfried plays the nerdy Needy who plays second-fiddle to Jennifer. Except she looks exactly the same as she does in Mean Girls, save for glasses and somewhat frumpy clothing. They do her dirty with her prom dress, but overall...she's still the gorgeous Amanda Seyfried.

20th Century Fox

I always found this one so funny, especially because Kate's "makeover" to become hot literally just includes...straightening her hair. That is IT. There's a whole plot about how Kate is insecure because her mom is so hot, but like...she's Brittany Snow. Why was she cast as the "invisible" girl who's always overlooked or seen as a loser?

Universal Pictures

Like Amanda Seyfried earlier on this list, Molly Ringwald played a plain, overlooked character pretty close in time to when she played an It Girl, despite the fact that she looks basically the same in both roles – but this one's even worse because Sam looks completely identical to Claire from The Breakfast Club, the "princess." They even have the same hairdo. Ringwald is obviously gorgeous, as she is portrayed to be in The Breakfast Club, so it's ridiculous that she's supposed to be someone the romantic lead would never even look at in this film.

A24

Like Kate, Aimee is supposed to be kind of invisible and not get romantic attention (though this is partly in her head)...except she's played by Shailene Woodley. Woodley is also portrayed as someone who would be easy for Ben to get to have sex with him in The Secret Life of the American Teenager because she isn't as pretty or popular as Grace or Adrian. I don't know why multiple projects made Woodley's characters out to be plain, because Woodley is the opposite of plain.

Warner Bros. Pictures

They make the makeover scene look wildly intense, as if they basically have to re-engineer Gracie's entire body and face, and then she looks exactly the same after except she has straight hair and is wearing makeup. This only proves the point that Gracie was beautiful from the beginning — I mean, she's played by Sandra Bullock. Sure, she didn't have great table manners, but acting like Bullock is unthinkable as a beauty queen is completely unrealistic.

Miramax Films

This is the classic example, because all they do to make Jamie look "pretty" is basically take off her glasses...which kinda feels like it would give all young girls with glasses a complex. In what way could Rachel Leigh Cook ever be ugly because of glasses, and why are glasses even "ugly" to begin with? Dean really thought that this was the only girl in school that could NEVER become pretty and popular?

Sony Pictures Releasing

None of the Zetas were ugly, and a few of them were gorgeous — like Emma Stone. I'm sorry, there's just no way I am ever going to see Emma Stone as the weird ugly girl, even dressed the way she is above. She just ends up looking like a hot librarian.

Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures

This is another funny one where they don't even bother to change Stone's appearance in this flashback scene where she talks about boys calling her ugly. Her hair's just up. And in the rest of the movie, she's established as a misfit/the "loser" amongst the girls, even though appearance-wise, the only difference is that she has curly hair. She does get kind of a makeover moment where her hair is in a more traditional '60s style, but even before that, she stands out as completely gorgeous. I have a hard time believing boys at school called her ugly. 

Warner Bros. Pictures

Again, this may just be an example of a mean character being mean, but Sam is definitely established as the overlooked, non-popular girl when she's played by Hilary Duff. The fact that Austin can't recognize her is actually wild, considering she doesn't even change her appearance for the dance — she just dons a mask over her eyes and wears her hair up. She doesn't even have to do anything to look like a princess because Duff already does. 

Paramount Pictures

This is yet another example of Hollywood putting a beautiful woman in an outfit that isn't super femme, giving her curly hair, and not having her wear makeup, then saying that she's ugly or "tragic." Justice for curly-haired women everywhere!!! Curly hair is beautiful, and Brittany Murphy was absolutely stunning.

Warner Bros.

Hermione was supposed to be this buck-toothed, frizzy-haired girl, and then...they cast Emma Watson. They literally just gave up on trying to make her look like Hermione (with frizzy hair) by the third film. Although I will say, even in the books I suspect Hermione was a lot prettier than she's made out to be, considering all she does at the Yule Ball is smooth her hair and Harry doesn't even recognize her, she looks so pretty.

Warner Bros.

I know she's a minor character, but I still was shocked when I realized Scarlett Byrne was meant to play Pansy, especially after I saw her in The Vampire Diaries. Pansy is described as "pug-faced" a million times in the series, and then she's played by a literal Playboy Model.

STX Entertainment

I love this movie, but right from the start, they try to make us believe Nadine is ugly and that's just preposterous. Sure, they give her an awful haircut in the first few minutes, but she's still Hailee Steinfeld, and it makes no sense to keep suggesting she's not as pretty as Haley Lu Richardson. Also, Mr. Bruner keeps making comments about her horrible fashion, when she seems to dress like a completely normal high schooler to me. Her hair is even nicely curled and done-up the whole movie.

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

All they do is put makeup on Mia, take of her glasses, and straighten her hair!!! Again, CURLY HAIR IS NOT UGLY, and neither are glasses! She mainly looks better after because she's not making weird faces like in the before photos. It's always so funny to me when people react so wildly at school when she shows her new hair. And Anne Hathaway is obviously gorgeous no matter what her hair looks like.

Warner Bros. Pictures

We'll end on another example of a star who played the popular girl in one film (The Princess Diaries) and the nerdy wallflower in another. Jamie is gorgeous from the start of the film, and she basically looks exactly the same in the scene where she sings and everyone notices her (in a notable example, they actually curl her hair this time for the magic, "now she's pretty!" scene). I know this scene is about her singing talent too, but still. Landon (and their other classmates) really didn't realize she was beautiful before??? Young girls shouldn't feel like they have to do their makeup or fancy hair to look beautiful.