Stuck in battle league ELO hell

I have been lvl20 for weeks and i’m literally below the elo that even starts counting toward reaching lvl21 (im at like 1500😭). Genuinely have no idea how you are supposed to get out of this elo hell, I play every day and every time I get close to 1700 elo i lose 4 battles and am right back where I started. I’m so sick of everyone just playing meta and not playing pokemon they like or trying different teams!!! Is my only option to just play a meta team because i refuse lol