story
The Ugly Duckling
An outcast who turns out to belong to a different — and more impressive — species than the one mocking them.
Origin
Hans Christian Andersen, 1843. A duckling, conspicuously larger and odder than its siblings, is bullied by the other birds and slinks off alone through a hard winter. In spring, he sees his reflection in a pond: he is a swan. The story is widely read as Andersen's autobiography.
Modern usage
Standard shorthand for the late bloomer, the misfit who turns out to be a different category of thing — the awkward teen, the rejected startup, the failing student. 'An ugly-duckling phase' is a near-universal compliment delivered after the fact.
Tags
misfit
transformation
late-bloomer