Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

As a 12-year-old, I often see people judging other people by their appearances. If they’re pretty, they’re dumb and popular, and if they have glasses, they’re nerds who do nothing but study. If they’re skinny, then they are really athletic, and if they’re overweight, they’re lazy and do nothing but eat. A lot of this has been influenced from media, but it’s mostly from peer pressure.

In the book Uglies, Tally really looks forward to being pretty and imagines that when she turns, everyone will like her and she’ll have many friends. She doesn’t stop and think about how her personality and train of thought will change, until she goes to the Smoke and sees the life there.

In middle school, I see people trying to change appearance to seem prettier because they think that that will allow them to get more friends and become popular. I think that isn’t good because we  shouldn’t focus on how we look. The outer-appearance shouldn’t matter as much as the inner-appearance should. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. Your personality and the way you treat other people is what’s really important.

In Uglies, technology tells us a lot about what each society values. For example, the Smokies rely on others trading them food or catching it, but they can’t make their own dehydrated food. They put their energy into having a library because they value knowledge and history.

Although this book is fictional, this problem is too real. In case of an emergency, most children wouldn’t be able to cook their own food and instead would look for a place to get pre cooked food. I can relate to this because my sister who is going to college can’t cook very well. In college she can’t go out and buy food everyday and would have to cook in her dorm.

For me, Uglies is a good reminder that we should focus on our inward appearance and that we shouldn’t rely on technology for everything. I really enjoyed this book and having the connections certainly helped me understand it better!