Author Robert Hoge Writes About the Challenge of Having “Different Differences” in Ugly

Hoge’s parents were more devastated than you would be about your now ugly sculpture. They weren’t sure if they even wanted him. They left him at the hospital for five weeks before finally taking him home to join his normal, healthy siblings.
Hoge spends his childhood in and out of hospitals getting below-knee amputations on both legs. The doctors make him a nose from one of his removed toes.  He faces name-calling like “cripple” and “toe nose.” He desperately wants to play sports like the other kids. Spoiler alert: he does eventually find just the right one for him. He manages to navigate childhood on two artificial legs with blurry vision and a positive outlook.
Being different can be extremely challenging during the adolescent and teen years for anyone. Hoge, though, saw that everyone had differences, he “just had different differences.” When people openly acknowledged his differences—his face, nose, scars, bumps, legs—he began to feel comfortable talking about what made him uniquely him. His memoir is an uplifting story about finding your own way and accepting who you are, for better or worse.

Comparisons to R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, the fictional story of Auggie Pullman, a 10-year-old with a very different-looking face, seem inevitable. Both stories are empowering. Both honestly show us the kinds of (sometimes scary, sometimes heartbreaking) challenges the protagonists encounter along the way. While both main characters have deformities, the messages they send are quite different. Wonder tells a tale of a year of bullying and how Auggie overcame it with the support of friends and family. Ugly tells the story of a lifelong struggle to be normal and how Hoge had the courage to be himself, even when given the option to be more normal.
Although Hoge may be ugly, he’s not just ugly. Which is a great lesson for adults and kids alike to remember, especially during the tween years when middle schoolers fear being too different.