First, before we start, let us look at the term “ugliness”. This is used to describe something that looks unpleasant, it is a descriptive word, but it becomes an unpleasant word when it is used to describe a living creature, it becomes an insult.
Now I knew for a while that I wanted to include a book about appearances involving people who are considered unattractive. This would create an opposite view of the Beauty Queen story where a girl was bullied for looking good and the other girls being jealous.
Many people are made fun of for how they look, but at first I could not figure out how I would make this person seem different from others. One thought was that the person would be someone who survived a house fire, but had burns over most of their body, but I found that to be unrelatable to most people. The inspiration for the Ace’s problem came from a surprising source.
I was getting my haircut and I was discussing with my hairdresser about the series and how it relates to bullying. She then described to me about how her son is made fun of since his ears stick out slightly more than most people. At first, I thought this was a strange thing to tease someone about, but then I remembered some of the other ridiculous reasons I’ve heard for people getting picked on and then I realized that it wasn’t as ridiculous as I first thought. And thus, Ace was born.
I would like to thank my hairdresser for the inspiration, and I hope that the kids in your son’s class can realize just how silly they are being and realize that they are hurting a sweet little boy.