It isn't often that I am thankful for having spent my teens and twenties (and thirties) as an overweight, almost deliberately unattractive woman, but this is one of those times. I never experienced the leering, the come-ons, the unwanted advances. I breezed through high school, never having to say no to any of the usual teen temptations; no one offered me booze, drugs, or sex. I did have boyfriends, once I matured enough to want such a thing. I was a late bloomer, and didn't start even wanting to have sex until my mid-20s. The men I dated were people I met through common interests who were able to look beyond the outer appearances. But I think that different experience left me with a much less jaded (or perhaps much more naive) view of people in general, and men in particular.