Inger on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Beauty

Inger in TV and Movie Screen, August 1964.

When asked by fan magazine writer M.P. Todd what it felt like to be beautiful, Inger responded:

You sincerely meant that last compliment, didn't you? I could tell. So I'll give you a serious answer. Today I never think about how I look. Maybe it's because for too many years I thought of myself as ugly. You know the type. I had straight hair, teeth that went in all directions, and I was the shape of a string bean that had been left out in the sun too long. By the time I grew up to look like what I am now, I had already developed the feelings inside of a girl who does not consider herself pretty. I'll tell you a secret, if I am attractive today it is because my face—all of me on the outside—reflects an inner security I have never possessed before. 

What was it like as a girl being treated like a Hollywood beauty? Inger shared:

At first, the attention, the compliments are wonderful. Later, often too much later, the beauty discovers that people, especially males, flocked around her mainly because it gave their egos a boost to be seen with her. At first, innocently, the beauty trusts too much. She believes all the excess adjectives. She delights in all the conquests  she makes merely by existing. But then it begins to catch up with her. If, along the way, she hasn't taken the time to develop her mind, her personality, her character, then she usually winds up alone. She's confused. Unable to cope with the situation. She becomes bitter, miserable. She realizes all too late that she's been used like a pet—a toy—to be exhibited then put back on the shelf. 

Perhaps that's why I searched so long to try and find the right way for me to live my life. There was a period where I, too, received and reveled in the flowery adjectives and the phony attention that actually wasn't directed at the real me but at what my surface supposedly represented. When I finally understood—it was a painful period. I won't discuss it, except to tell you that that I finally hit upon a solution. Now I don't allow myself to rely or depend upon outside words of praise from others. This leads only to self-deception and pain, believe me. Today I have learned to rely only on myself to judge my own true worth. I see my weaknesses and I try to correct them. I see my strengths and I try to preserve them. 

Source: 

Todd, M.P. "A Brand-New Inger Stevens." TV and Movie Screen. August 1964.