When people say that people look at me because I must be attractive, it doesn't make me feel better. I'm not saying I'm not attractive, but I don't exactly have a 'friendly' look either, and usually people are drawn to people who look friendly. I'm not saying I look unfriendly, but I try to give off a "I just want to blend into the background, please don't look at me" type of expression, by looking straight ahead and not making eye contact to passing people. My dress style gives off that impression too; I look trendy and presentable but kind of 'ordinary', like the majority of 20-somethings, and I don't wear extreme colours or eccentric clothes or look silly or geeky or dirty or anything like that. I'm just, you know, average, and I know how to look normal on the outside.
I avoid eye contact with strangers, but that doesn't mean I can't see them staring, because I can still feel it, like they're burning a hole in my face.
But avoiding eye contact with strangers comes with it's own problems, because this causes me to hurry past people who I know and it looks like I am being unsociable, when it's not that at all. It's worse when I see a person looking at me in my periphery and I can't see who they are, so I turn away thinking "what do they think they're gawking at??", only to hear them say my name...then I feel like "oh s**t I know this person!". I then feel embarrassed because it looked like I didn't want to speak, but that is not the reason at all. I just thought it was some stranger staring at me. Of course, people staring because they KNOW me is completely acceptable, but people who I DON'T know who stare for no reason just causes severe social anxiety for me.
I used to be rather obsessive about people staring at me, and it'd sometimes cause me to cry myself to sleep. But these days it doesn't worry me as much as it used to, although it does sometimes bother me.
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Female