The Little Duckling, As told by Christy Chilton

Originally published in August 2014

The Little Duckling

As Told by Christy Chilton

At the risk of sounding egotistical or vain, I am sometimes amused by the compliments I receive about my appearance because, somewhere inside, I still see my five-year-old self: a shy, sweet, nerdy little girl who collected baseball cards and Matchbox cars and dreamed of becoming She-Ra, Wonder Woman, Penny from Inspector Gadget—or perhaps all three.

I was the same little girl who chose to spend part of her summer vacation alone at camp, hunched over a cafeteria table, diligently copying every word and definition from the more than 800 pages of the Merriam-Webster Children’s Dictionary. I did it partly for fun and partly for all the knowledge I was certain I would acquire.

I did not have many friends. Come to think of it, I am not sure I had any at that particular camp.

I do remember another little girl joining me in the cafeteria one summer afternoon. She apparently did not have many friends there either and must have been terribly bored. We began talking, and at some point I reassured her with something I believed to be an indisputable fact: because we were the “nerdy” or “ugly ducklings” as young girls, we would inevitably grow into beautiful swans.

As I understood it, that was simply the way things worked.

Thank you, Hans Christian Andersen.

Excited by the possibility that my theory might be true, she asked whether I was certain. I can still remember the unwavering conviction I felt as I assured her that my fairy-tale logic was completely sound.

The following year, still feeling very much like that nerdy little duckling, I made my performance debut in front of hundreds of people onstage at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Naturally, I loved every minute of it.

I have continued to love the creative process—and nearly every project I have been fortunate enough to be part of—for more than twenty years.

I am not sure I will ever completely stop feeling like that shy, sweet, nerdy little duckling. I am also not sure I would ever want to.

One thing I know with certainty is that beauty comes from within and nowhere else. Eventually, the outer appearance becomes a reflection of what has been living inside us all along.

Funny how things turn out.