Responses
I laughed too hard
Yeah, I looked back at the first chapter when they mentioned she had lost weight and I went "...barely. Maybe ten pounds at most. A size twelve isn't fat."
Her aunt is fat, no contest, but she was the standard for a rich lady back in that time period anyway so her clothes matched and she looks pretty. Marie didn't look ugly in her clothes so her aunt wasn't dropping the ball in any realm (since she wanted to adopt her for quite some time but there were no grounds for her to do so.)
No one in here is physically ugly (not even Chiffon form.)
That mysterious Hollywood movie make over moment where you get an already pretty girl puts her in baggy clothes, glasses, frizzy or curly hair and some meat on her bones and tags her as ugly
Then skip to her losing the glasses wearing tailored clothes that match her body straighten her hair and if you can fit a sudden weight loss reveal, then she is suddenly the prettiest in town