"I'm still figuring out why people would want to look at me. Maybe it's generic beauty, but it's weird to be valued for something I was born with"
About this Quote
The phrase "generic beauty" is the needle. It punctures the myth that beauty is uniquely earned or spiritually meaningful. "Generic" suggests template, mass-producible, an aesthetic default that fits an industry brief. Maran is acknowledging the machinery: casting directors, cameras, and audiences reward a narrow look and then call it destiny. By naming it as generic, she implies how interchangeable the role can be and how little it says about the person inside the frame.
Then she lands the moral unease: "valued for something I was born with". It's not false modesty; it's a critique of a system that confuses visibility with worth. In modeling, your body is both product and résumé, and the compliment is inseparable from commodification. Her "weird" is doing heavy lifting: it captures the alienation of being treated like a winning lottery ticket rather than a full human being.
Context matters too. Coming from a working model in a beauty-saturated era, this reads like an early crack in the "perfect life" narrative. She's not rejecting beauty so much as refusing to let it be mistaken for a personality, a credential, or a moral achievement.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Maran, Josie. (2026, January 15). I'm still figuring out why people would want to look at me. Maybe it's generic beauty, but it's weird to be valued for something I was born with. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-still-figuring-out-why-people-would-want-to-118112/
Chicago Style
Maran, Josie. "I'm still figuring out why people would want to look at me. Maybe it's generic beauty, but it's weird to be valued for something I was born with." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-still-figuring-out-why-people-would-want-to-118112/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm still figuring out why people would want to look at me. Maybe it's generic beauty, but it's weird to be valued for something I was born with." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-still-figuring-out-why-people-would-want-to-118112/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.










