Ok, for starters. I have never, ever seen Adam look 'ugly'. Not on any picture or certainly even less so when I saw him in person. But I have seen thousands where he looks stunningly gorgeous. And others where he may look dorky or funny or otherwise different, but his face is certainly still very attractive to me.

So, anybody who says that ugly stuff is putting personal opinion about Adam, the person they think he is, before any reasonable look at his physical appearance. And for me such a comment belongs in the same territory as ' uh, he is gay, yuk' or similar crap. Haters will hate and the problem is that it is so hard to unhear what they are saying. That is why such hate is so hurtful, like the proverbial thorn in the flesh and you have to learn live with it and learn to not let that dictate your perception. That is true for us fans as well as probably for Adam himself. We need to stop listening to the crap too.

Adam's look is divisive, just like he is in person. His face has a lot of character and personality and is full of expression, there is a whole story written on it, and a rich story with many different chapters. Where I might see a perfect nose or perfect eyes, those that don't like it may see too much female look or too much makeup or whatever it is that disturbs them. But one thing is certain, you are going to remember having seen him, whether you liked him or not. It is also why Adam would have difficulty with fashion modelling or similar jobs, even though he does have the looks for it. People look at him, study him, instead of the clothes. Models need to look bland, and Adam does not know how to spell bland. On the other hand Adam would be great, when it is about creating awareness. He just cannot be ignored and in Asia the industry seems to have started figuring that one out.

I have also always noted that there is a difference between males and females in what we consider beautiful, besides the usual differences between any two people in general. It was noticeable during AI8, how many men thought that KA looked very attractive and how many women were asking - who? In opposite ways, more women reacted to Adam and called him gorgeous and attractive and guys did so to a lesser degree. Unfortunately for both KA and AL they seem to be more attractive to people from the gender they themselves happen to be not so interested in. Bummer.

The good news is that they are both so attractive that they can still have careers even in an industry that in general is very looks oriented and both have taken many wonderful pictures. After that it will always come down to interest and all the other factors.

I for myself remember all the way back to my teenage days, that I often personally found other people attractive than some of my classmates in school did. I always found that catalogs for male fashion had models that looked just average to me, even though those guys had clearly been chosen based on their looks. Back in the 70s, it was men who chose these models based on their preferences. The industry has since learned a lot and you find significantly more variety in catalogs today than you did in the 70s. Interestingly, I always found that for females they were able to pick beauty correctly, it was just in the men's fashion segment, they were off, imo.
It has also been statistically proven that women have a larger variety of opinions between them about what they find attractive in men; versus men, where there seems to be much more consensus.
Therefore, somebody as unusual looking as Adam may very well look very attractive to one person and not quite so attractive to somebody else. But ugly? I am sorry, that one I do not buy. That one has gone through a filter of prejudice, imo.

The other thing that has been researched and proven, is of course the extent to which love creates selective vision to an growing extent over time. And we all have a severe case of that, lol.

Adam probably for himself suffers from the opposite. He sees himself more critical and simultaneously any other person less critical and so he thinks he can't hold his own in comparison to others, when this is the furthest from the truth. And no matter how many times he hears that he is beautiful, he probably has a hard time drowning those ugly voices out. The fate of the melancholic temperament, in general. Overly self-critical and prone to depression. The only fix for that, is receiving lots of love and success and being told how beautiful you are. While Adam will never fully believe everything, he obviously has learned to accept much more of himself, seeing how much we fans not only love his singing, etc., but also find him so sexy and attractive and gorgeous and even beautiful.
Ten-thousands of us cannot be wrong, and clearly no matter which country, race, or gender, there are tons of us who find him attractive and love him to pieces. It looks like some of it is reaching him and changing his self-image and I am glad for that.

Btw: Thanks for that BonJovi tip. By the way, in my book, Jon Bon Jovi is darn good looking too, so while I am writing this, I am listening to one of the few people in music today that I also think of as great looking. His music is great too, at least when he does not drift too close into country territory. Personality wise he does not come anywhere near my appreciation of Adam though, not even close. But anyhow: That stream is great, I would love, if Adam could do that too. If he did, he also finally would not have to look into that sea of cameras anymore.