When did you know you were pretty, intelligent or talented?

[rollonxmas]

Just that really.

I knew I was smart when we started doing basic arithmetic at school. I flew through everything so quickly compared to everyone else.

Clever from very early on. It’s fairly obvious at school isn’t it.

I knew I wasn’t pretty from the age of about 8 or 9 I guess?

I am relatively talented in a few areas and I probably knew that from around late teens

🤣🤣🤣

Never pretty, didn't care.

Talented - when I started singing in public after starting singing lesson at 11 and people usually had pretty astonished reactions - I was a very small child, with a very large voice

Intelligent - dunno, I was aware at primary when people talked about who was the cleverest like kids do that I was considered one of the clever ones?

I felt smart when I was accepted into the high ranking police ‘garden parties’ (exh) I suddenly became a trophy wife because I was a scientist! We’re divorced now obvs and I’m very happy 😃

In the neonatal ward.

Unless you get dementia.

I felt alright about myself from A- level age up to mid 30s when I had kids.

Never got bigged up by my family, they were brutal really!

Now feel dumb as a box of rocks most days and fairly invisible tbh.

To be honest my mother always told me I was all three and I never doubted her . I was a quiet and shy child though, not overconfident at all.

Now I am a bit more realistic- I might be slightly above average in some areas but I am definitely below average in others! Doesn't bother me, takes all sorts!

Great question, OP.

Pretty ; never. Looking back at photos of me when I was younger, I looked OK and when I went to university I was never short of boyfriends but I certainly wasn’t pretty.

Talented ; never. I can’t sing or dance, and I can’t play any musical instruments. I’m the least creative person I know. I’m unathletic & uncoordinated. Etc etc.

Intelligent ; always. My grandmother taught me to read before I started school and I picked it up so quickly & naturally that the family had to hide the News of the World from me every Sunday, lest I read the salacious contents. I was always a straight A student and only had to start putting in a bit of effort at A Level. I was the first person in my family, and one of only a handful at my bog-standard 80s comp to go to university,

The minute I was born

Yes, but did you look pretty doing it?

I did. Totally gorgeous in fact.

“This hasn’t landed how I expected.”
”I am smart”

You sure about that?

When I did 11 plus and got a scholarship to a very good school. Which was strange as up until then teachers told me I was stupid. I have dyslexia.

Smart - knew I was above average in about year 6. Realised I was well above average in my early 20s. Don’t know why it didn’t really register until then.

Talented - When I started winning things. About age 15.

Pretty - from as early as I remember. It was constantly commented on. Sadly I actually got less beautiful as I reached my 20s and have just been normal since age 19 or so.

I started school in the Spring term. We had to paint a picture of something that happened at Easter. When I saw the other children’s easels - Easter eggs etc - I was confused as I’d painted the full-on crucifixion with nails and blood. At parents’ evening my mum was told I was “intense” 🤣

I was sent to see some "gifted child" psychiatrist in Harley Street by a school teacher when I was age 10. More for my theatrical performing skills than academia, I think.

The ensuing report said my potential was obviously way above my attainment that day because I just played the fool, saying very little to the woman!

I thought I was pretty until my mother told me I wasn’t. It hasn’t affected me my whole life though ….

I'm very average but I have a happy outlook on life x

😂😂😂

When I’d stopped being pretty, smart, etc. Hindsight ia a wonderful thing.

Not everyone realises early on that playing the fool is a quick route to popularity.

So when did you realise it?

You have had some harsh answers! For me it was when I did my first degree and realised I was more intelligent than my school teachers gave me credit for and I was in my thirties by then

From a very young age age I was told I was the clever one and my sister was the pretty one. She was traditionally beautiful but not stupid and no one encouraged her education. It was assumed I would succeed anyway and she’d marry well. Sadly after a string of awful men she didn’t, but I did. We lead very different lives. She a lovely person, still beautiful but stuck in a minimum wage job. I’ve just graduated with a masters and a have a great career which is funding my kids through Uni. She had the capacity to be brilliant but no one saw past how she looks.

I wish mumsnet still had the laugh reaction cos I did at this 😂

Realised I was pretty at around 16/17.
no particular talents but fairly intelligent.