The series "Don't Be Born Beautiful", first shown on the STS channel in 2005, according to ratings, is considered one of the most popular domestic TV shows of the decade. The plot of the Russian comedy melodrama is based on the story of the clever ugly woman Katya Pushkareva, played by the young actress of the Moscow Youth Theater Nelly Uvarova.
The Russian telenovela “Don't Be Born Beautiful” was conceived as a copy of the Colombian TV series “Ugly Betty”: the story of an ugly but smart girl who achieved love and recognition in her life was at one time adapted by scriptwriters from Germany and Israel, the USA and India. In our country, Betty turned into Katya, and the editorial staff of the fashion magazine, where the heroine, non-standard by model standards, comes to get a job, into the Zimeletto company. After graduating from the Faculty of Economics, the smartest and ugliest graduate of Moscow State University, Ekaterina Pushkareva, could not work in her specialty because of her shyness and decided to try her luck as a secretary. Her immediate supervisor was the director of Zimaletto, Andrei Zhdanov, a handsome man and a womanizer who constantly cheats on his fiancée, the sleek blonde Kira.
The main action of the series takes place in the company's office: Zhdanov's best friend, merry fellow Roma Malinovsky, who is always ready to accompany the chef in a restaurant or a nightclub, as well as Kira Voropaeva and her brother Alexander, a typical serial "villain", works here. A lot of comic situations in the telenovela are created by designer Milko, a Serb by nationality, mannered gay, who at first cannot stand Pushkareva due to the fact that her appearance (shapeless clothes, funny glasses, braces on her teeth) spoils the company's image. An important component of the team in which Katya works is the so-called "women's council", or a team of secretaries, led by Milko's assistant, an adult and sensible Olga Vyacheslavovna. It is the “women's council” - Masha, Amura, Svetlana, Shurochka, Tanya - that helps Katya adapt to the new team and instills confidence in her abilities. At home, the girl is supported by her parents: a strict father, a retired lieutenant colonel who does not allow her daughter to stay late at work, and her mother Elena.
Thanks to her high mental abilities and business intuition, the ugly Katya Pushkareva rather quickly becomes an indispensable assistant and adviser to Andrei Zhdanov, thereby causing envy and jealousy on the part of the boss's second secretary, the haughty beauty Vika. Katya has to deal with the intrigues of Alexander Voropaev, who dreams of overthrowing Zhdanov from the director's post, as well as with a difficult financial situation in production. Soon the company "Zimaletto" went bankrupt, and in its place came the opened Pushkareva and her friends "Nikamoda". At the same time, Pushkareva falls in love with Zhdanov, and he, on the advice of a friend, decides to sleep with her in order to keep a valuable employee near him. A lot of serial time and events pass before Andrei realizes that he fell in love with his ugly secretary. Katya is gradually transforming: thanks to her new friend Julianne, she becomes calm and confident after numerous revelations, including betrayal and quarrels of heroes, a return to the fashion catwalks of Zimaletto products and other events. The series ends with a happy ending: Katya and Zhdanov are getting married, and at the wedding the bride looks beautiful without glasses and baggy clothes. All members of the "women's council" find personal happiness, only the evil secretary Vika is unlucky: she is fired from the company. The Zhdanov couple has a daughter in the final: not a beauty, but certainly a clever one.
