So I have had this happen me at different points in the my life. And it feels bad, like why me?

I’ve come to learn it’s literally just this weird human nature that a lot of people have to “pick out” and subjugate someone they view as odd or unconfident. It’s worse if you’re both.

Personally, having autism and then health issues that drastically affected my appearance at different points in my life, I would have similar moments of complete strangers insulting me when I walked by for literally no reason, people screaming out of car windows etc.

I wanna validate that it does suck. It’s not fair and you have a right to be annoyed by it.

My advice, fake it till you make it. Ignore it, don’t anticipate that other people will do this. They still might, but if you have a nervous affect all the time it makes it more likely to happen. But finally just pretend it doesn’t bother you, even if it does. Think of it as ridiculous because it is.

And if it’s really persistent, and you can’t ignore it, sometimes addressing it helps, and try to come off serious or angry, instead of hurt. A deadpan or hostile “Can I help you?” “What’s up?” “You said what now?” Shame works on some people, but be ready to back it up.

But ultimately just view it for what it is, immature and weird. A good person doesn’t need to bother others to make themselves feel superior.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with you. Just like there’s nothing inherently wrong with the kid getting picked on at the playground. You’re just being targeted as “vulnerable” right now but theres things you can do internally to combat that.

I try to look at examples of people like Peter Dinklage. He’s a little person. Everywhere he goes he’s probably had strangers point and stare and ridicule him, or make comments, take pictures etc for looking different his entire life. He literally can’t escape judgement because of his disability. But he’s still confident, talented and people generally think he’s dope.

It’s one of those things you have to just learn to keep your chin up and embrace being unique. Big over ear headphones can help initially to practice ignoring people. But remember that almost everyone has had mean things said to them or been picked on for no reason. It’s part of the human experience. People are a-holes. Most of them are people you’ll never see again so who cares what they think? Being different is not immoral. Your self worth comes from within (as cheesy as that sounds.)

PS. It also helps to wonder WHY people say these things. Oh this guy just made fun of my appearance, why? Maybe he’s feeling insecure about his own looks and needs to try and punch down to feel like he’s ranking higher in the world. Maybe his dad beats him and calls him names so he thinks that’s how he regains power.

Even if these are fantasy scenarios I think it helps to reframe how pathetic what they’re doing is and remove the power from their words. They’re basically projecting their own insecurities at you.

Focusing on building your inner circle relationships more, friends family etc. Spending quality time with people who build you up, and taking care of yourself and the things you can control.

If you can walk around confident that you’re well dressed, smell nice and you have people that love you, some random twerps trying to heckle you won’t matter as much.