How would YOU tell the Ugly Duckling story?

[MillieDynamite]

The font of it all rather derailed the thread. It would seem, in his creative bing, Bagan ignored the simplest solution. How the font appears seems less important than putting forth your ideas in a manner that is not only written well but easy to read. I'm not saying he needs to conform to the group. Bagan certainly has the right to post pretty text, and we have the right not to attempt to read such a small but pretty typeface.

 

[AllenWoody]

Start with the "Plain Girl" female character wearing glasses, and at some point have a Dramatic Reveal where she takes them off and all of a sudden she's a "Hottie."

That's how Hollywood does it and it's a time honored tradition.

Don’t forget taking off the frumpy sweater to reveal a dynamite body.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Don’t forget taking off the frumpy sweater to reveal a dynamite body.

Has to undo her ponytail, too.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

For those who hate my font, sorry to hear that. I will try to remember to bump it up a size to try to compensate for whatever is happening on your ends. I'm simply not willing to give up my beloved serifs, however. I was (arguably) irrationally delighted when I realized we had the option to change the font, and seeing them in the mass of blocky, angular text that dominates the site is like seeing a flower growing out of a sidewalk to me.
Incidentally, I tried earlier today using a browser extension to override the site's font override, and while that sort of worked, it broke all the widgets like the bell and envelope and all the controls on the text box. I presume that means those are somehow packaged in with the site's font, which I suppose is why they feel the need for a override. Getting well out of my wheelhouse there, though.
I also made a request to the site to consider letting us set text style preferences, although I have no idea how likely it is that it will be considered. I already have to select my preferred font for every comment, and embiggening the text will be another step I expect I will sometimes forget. Hopefully there will come a day when I can just set it at... 18 I guess... and it will always be there.

I've never seen your, or anybody elses font in anything but the sites Verdana- which is standard on many boards, at least the ones using this design. It looks like Arial Narrow there, though. Yall are lucky Beth's Cute ain't an option, lol.

 

[Djmac1031]

So I'll try to answer the original question a little more seriously than my initial silly reply. (And I apologize for any subsequent thread derailment as a result of that comment.)

I did in fact write my own version of The Ugly Duckling Story in my series The Jenna Arrangement.

Although it's not what I set out intentionally to do when I started.

It's only as the series progressed that I discovered it, really, as I explored the background of the main character, Jenna.

She was an awkward teen; shy, redheaded with freckles, flat chested, got picked on a lot. Lost her father at an early age, which made her more withdrawn.

Had bad experiences in her early dating life that really damaged her already fragile self esteem.

As the series has progessed she's become more outgoing, more adventurous, more confident,
more accepting of herself, her body, her sexuality, her kinks, etc.

It started with her answering a rather odd ad that eventually led to a growing relationship with the guy she met as well as exploring her sexuality with her best friend.

Although it's not really the Main Male Character somehow swooping in to convince the Fair Maiden she is indeed a swan as it is her journey of exploration through her relationship with him that leads to her own growing understanding and acceptance of herself.