Desire and Willpower

So... something has occoured to me.

With the story of the ugly duckling... I never really liked that ideal of genetic pre-destination. compare that with modern day life... where the shunned or ugly or fat person through out their childhood becomes the superstar... the one your like "damn!" as they pass; the one everyone wants to become?

What if those people were ugly, looked at themself in the mirror and just decided that they weren't going to be like that anymore? What if the will power born in that moment was what changed them into the "swan" later in life?

I've used willpower to change specific things about myself. I havn't created an extra nipple... or remodeled my nose... but those are things that I like how they are. I've changed my size, my weight... my eye color. Things like that.

I'm just wondering, if with enough determination and enough time, that you can actually change who you are and how you look?

(actually... after all, I was a little scronney kid whe I was little... I've bulked up ... and grew alot since then)