Joe, when people say you’re good looking, please believe them. Do yourself that favor. I’m sure they wouldn’t say it if they didn’t mean it.

There is also good reason why you don’t like yourself in pictures…. lots of people don’t… because the image is flipped from what you see in the mirror. The mirror image of you is the one you see in your head. Pictures of you look different than the mirror version of you because everything is at opposite angles from what you’re used to seeing.  So it looks really weird and not anything like you’re used to, so it’s understandable that you wouldn’t like it. Does that make sense?

I also want to say it’s normal to feel insecure, too, especially when you’re younger and that it generally starts to get better as you get older. I think just about everyone is insecure about some part of their bodies and has the feelings that you do, where sometimes they feel like they look good and sometimes not so much. It can take effort to appreciate your features more often than not, but remember that your bad view about how you look is just an opinion, and those can be changed.

Maybe saying some self-affirmations in the mirror would help?  It might feel silly or awkward when you start doing them, but they’ve been shown to improve mood and mindset.  Have you ever watched any of Kerwin Rae’s videos? He has one where he teaches people to say “This is simple. This is easy. This is fun” when they’re doing a task/job they hate, and repeating that phrase changes their mindset about their job to where it’s more enjoyable. He explains the psychology behind that in the video, but it’s basically tricking your mind into seeing what you’re doing in a different way.  I think the same would go for your feelings about your appearance. If you look at yourself and say “dang, I look good today,” “I have a great, masculine nose,” or whatever you want to say… no matter whether you feel you do or not, but repeat it until you mean it and you can feel your mood lift, it’s quite possible that could improve your opinion of yourself.