What Does It Feel Like to Be Beautiful?

Someone once asked me, half-joking, “Do beautiful people get turned on by their own reflection?” The question made me laugh—but it also made me think.

As a photographer who’s spent years working with strikingly attractive men, I’ve seen firsthand how beauty operates in the wild. Yes, there’s confidence. Yes, there’s an acute awareness of one’s own appeal. But narcissism? That’s rarer than you’d think. The truth is, despite the cultural caricature of the self-obsessed beauty, most of these individuals are far more layered than their appearance suggests.

Beauty is a paradox. It commands attention—sometimes admiration, sometimes resentment—but it doesn’t inoculate you against insecurity. If anything, it amplifies certain fears. I’ve watched models fret over a single pimple, agonize over the faintest hint of softening in their jawline, or confess their terror of aging out of relevance. Some of the most effortlessly photogenic people I’ve met are also the most hesitant in front of a lens, wary of how their image might be twisted, commodified, or reduced to a flat stereotype.

The camera doesn’t lie, but it doesn’t tell the whole truth, either.

What fascinates me isn’t the polished facade—it’s what seeps through when the performance cracks. When the shoulders drop, when the practiced smolder fades, when they stop trying to be beautiful and simply exist. That’s where the real person emerges. That’s where you find vulnerability, doubt, and the quiet hunger to be recognized as more than just a collection of pleasing angles.

So, what does it feel like to be beautiful?

Probably a lot like being anyone else—except with more unsolicited compliments, more scrutiny, and the exhausting demand to stay flawless. And sometimes, I imagine, it comes with the same longing we all have: to be valued not for how you look, but for who you are when the spotlight dims.

That said… let’s not overthink it. At the end of the day, yeah—they’re also just really f***ing beautiful. 🔥😂

[1991 – Ottavio, Dal Castello dei Sogni]