You are so right, like I started getting noticed and made friends only when I opened up (≧∀≦)
Life is really no fairytale....I used to read all this stories about mid-looking shy girls getting noticed by celebs/idols/popular handsome guys, I mean RARE cases exist...still if you are ordinary you will get noticed by ordinary people.
Life is not a fairytale we can't expect just sitting in our room to MAGICALLY find our soulmate, become rich etc.. we have to step outside of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
A really good story about a shy girl getting out of her comfort zone is Mobuko No Koi. She's an average girl who has social anxiety and the guy she likes is awkward but sweet. Since I'm caught up, it's really nice to see how much she's grown. I relate to her quite a bit. It's little changes at a time, not very gungho, but it's sweet.
I don't know if I agree, I don't think it's a fairy tale. I'm a shy person but I've never had to pretend to be social to make friends and I am not super hot or anything I'm pretty average but people have come up to me first to talk. Like what happened with Jayu, he started speaking to her first that's happened with me many times.
And at this point in my life I'm still introverted but I'm not as shy so I am able to go up to people who are alone and talk to them and befriend them. It's not wrong to fight for what you want but I definitely don't think you need to pretend to make friends.
Well, I was specifically talking about romantic partners, but even friendships are hard to start like that. I did have friends (all same sex) as a loner, but they never went deep into a meaningful stage. Desk mates, group project partners, etc. Also emulating extraversion for me wasn't being fake as I am a pretty bad at acting. It was to pay attention to the conversation hooks and social language of the people around me and introducing them to my tiny loner world.
I was a fan of shy girl getting noticed trope when younger, probably because I myself was a loner who was just minding her business waiting to be noticed. I never did get noticed. Not until I went to university and started emulating an extroverted personality like ML here. Many years later, I can't enjoy these stories anymore. It is a type of fairytale that has lost its illusion. Truth is unless you are in top 1% of appearance, no one will notice you as long as you curl up inside your shell. You gotta fight for it and challenge the world around you.