I believe this.
When I was young, I had strabismus, or lazy eye. I had double vision and was cross eyed. This in turn led to me being a bit over weight as a child. It is hard to be athletic when you fall on your face just from trying to walk on a regular basis.
Anyway, after 5 surgical procedures, my eyes were pretty much 'fixed', although I still do not have binocular vision. My eyes alternate but otherwise look normal. I was better able to exercise, and by 10th grade was quite the little hottie (although I didn't fully realize it at the time!!!).
It infuriated me that the people who had been cruel to me for being chubby and cross eyed suddenly wanted to be friends with me.
But now I realize that there are not too many Ghandis out there... not too many people who understood that cruelty wasn't going to keep them from catching my disease.
The lovely thing is that I still have a couple of people in my life who were actually kind to me when I was at my most pathetic and awkward. To know such angels makes me have a lot more faith in humanity.