Helping a friend

Hi all,

Please let me know if anything in this post comes across as offensive or inappropriate to this subreddit as it is certainly not my intention.

For context, my close friend (F25) told me about this subreddit and that she spends a significant amount of time on here but does not post. She says this subreddit feels like a support network and it feels nice to be so understood by others. I had never considered her ugly at all because it doesn’t factor into our friendship, I love her, and I love spending time around her. To be frank, her appearance was not something I ever spent time thinking about in detail etc. Despite this, I will admit that she does get treated quite poorly in public. For example, if we go out men will ignore her or make rude comments, her mum has said some terrible things about her appearance, she’s never been in a relationship or had sex/been kissed as far as I am aware.

I would like to know, if anyone has advice, if there is any way I can support her, make her feel better, things I can do/say to help her be more confident? I really don’t want her to feel helpless or resign herself to insecurity. She has admittedly become more withdrawn over the past few months and I am worried about her but any time I try and check in on her she says she is too ugly to leave the house or spend time with others.

I have to admit that I really did not know she felt this way about herself and it is quite heartbreaking to me as we have been friends our entire lives and I thought she would have felt comfortable speaking to me about this. Despite this, I am glad that she has found some sense of community and a source for advice on here.

Again, please do let me know if anything in this post is offensive or inappropriate and I will take it down.