Being considered ugly and weird growing up

Did anybody else grow up being “ugly”. (23 F) Throughout my childhood I was always embarrassed because people would make fun of the way I looked and always had something to say about me. Towards the end of high school I guess I started to look better after I stopped caring what people thought and now people stare at me all the time. I still think they stare because I’m ugly but multiple people have told me that I’m pretty but I don’t know if I’ll ever really believe that because people used to bully me about the way I looked. It’s sad because now that I’m somewhat attractive (I think) people now act way nicer to me and they don’t judge me because I’m apparently not “weird” anymore. I still find it hard to look in the mirror and say nice things to myself, and I feel like I look like a different person each day.