History Main / ChangingYourselfForLove

** Shirogane reinvented himself as a confident academic in order to attract Kaguya after his stint as a DoggedNiceGuy proved unsuccessful. While this did help him catch her attention ([[ForgottenFirstMeeting to the point that she doesn't even remember that she met him before the change]]), [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan she ultimately fell in love with the kind person underneath his mask]]. Kaguya also displayed shades of this, though her change was a case of LoveRedeems. This also leads to a bit of drama during the Culture Festival arc, since both of them feared that the other only loved the persona that they had created.

* The 60's standard "Wishin' and Hopin'", first recorded by Dusty Springfield, exhorts the listener to stop moping around and start changing yourself to get your man:

* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic:'' In the ''Princess Diaries 2'' review, [[StalkerWithACrush Hyper Fangirl]] kidnaps the Critic and bribes him to stick around by showing her all the nerdy, masculine media she supposedly likes. However, near the end of the review when he's [[AlmostKiss supposedly given in to her,]] he learns she has the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movies. When she has a breakdown asking him to tell her which movies to like, he realizes she was just pretending to like most of these things to manipulate him to fall in love with her.

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/YoungRomance https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/young_romance_vol_1_191.png]]]]

** A variant in "Parasites Lost," in which Fry gets a beneficial parasitic infection that increases his intelligence and physique, as well as giving him the ability to play the holophonor perfectly, which allows him to express himself to Leela and successfully win her over. However, when Leela tells him, "I love what you've become," Fry realizes [[DefiedTrope he wants Leela to love the real him]], and threatens the parasites to leave his body, though he keeps playing the holophonor to win her over.

* In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Bell Cranel starts out as a HaremSeeker in search of the RescueRomance his grandpa always told him about. After he's rescued from certain death by the devastatingly beautiful and incredibly powerful adventurer Ais Wallenstein, Bell is instantly smitten with her and vows to become strong enough to stand beside her one day. His desire to catch up to her is so strong that he gets a unique MetaPowerUp that [[ExperienceBooster rapidly increases the rate at which his stats grow]] and [[BrokeTheRatingScale lets him break the usual stat caps]] so long as his feelings for her persist. Because of this, he completely drops his HaremSeeker ways and dreams of becoming a hero to earn her affection.

** Miko Iino later develops this mindset after she [[spoiler:finally accepts that she's in love with Ishigami]]. While she is aware of her previously abrasive personality when it came to her crush, she decided to try learning more about his interests and come to see things from his point of view, so she can learn how to be closer to him.

* In ''LightNovel/YouLikeMeNotMyDaughter'', Takkun fell in love with [[StacysMom Ayako]] [[PrecociousCrush when he was ten]], and resolved to better himself to become a person worthy of her love, and who could help her raise her daughter Miu. He spent the next decade studying hard, becoming fit, and tutoring Miu, only confessing once he was in college.

* In an episode of ''Series/HappyDays'', Richie tries acting like a greaser to impress his crush. When it doesn't work, he says to Ralph, "It worked for the Fonz!". Ralph replies, "''Everything'' works for [[BornLucky the Fonz]]!".

* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': In one episode, Cat meets a boy while she was wearing a blonde wig for a short film she was shooting. She lets him think she's a natural blonde as she worries that's the only reason he asked her out. However, eventually her wig is knocked off and the boy sees her actual hair. He admits he thinks she's beautiful but doesn't like that she lied to him and breaks it off with her.

* In ''LightNovel/YouLikeMeNotMyDaughter'', Takkun fell in love with [[StacysMom Ayako]] [[PrecociousCrush when he was ten]], and resolved to better himself to become a person worthy of her love, and who could help her raise her daughter Miu. He spent the next decade studying hard, becoming fit, and tutoring Miu, only confessing once he was in college.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': When she begins to fall for Fuutarou, [[MiddleChildSyndrome Miku]] asks him what type of girls he likes. She's left depressed when he mentions "[[GenkiGirl Always cheerful]]" and "[[SupremeChef Good at cooking]]", since she's [[ShrinkingViolet the complete opposite]] [[LethalChef of both accounts]]. She spends the rest of the series trying to be more assertive and learning to cook in order to appeal to him. However, this also benefits her in the long run since by meeting and falling in love with Fuutarou, it enables Miku's CharacterDevelopment that sticks like a glue [[spoiler: even after Fuutarou ends up choosing Yotsuba.]]
* ''Manga/MyFirstGirlfriendIsAGal'': Yui and Nene play this trope straight in regards to Junichi, as both tried to adopt personalities they thought he would like in a woman. The former at first acted as a mature, dignified young woman, although she only saw him as her personal lapdog who'd follow her orders without question, while the latter thought he would like a "little sister"-type. When Junichi starts dating Yukana, Nene gets herself a Gal makeover, while Yui [[GreenEyedEpiphany realizes that she's in love with him]], and after befriending Yukana she's unable to bring herself to break them up, instead deciding [[TookALevelInKindness to try and become a better person]] to earn Junichi's affection.

* ''Series/HannahMontana'': In one episode, Miley decides to try and turn her tomboyish best-friend Lily into a GirlyGirl to help Lily win over her crush (and because Lily's antics were annoying her), especially after seeing the AlphaBitch duo flirting with him. However, this only makes the boy less interested in her, to the point where he stands her up at the dance; it turns out, he liked her ''because'' she was a cool skater-chick.

* One two-parter from ''Series/SaluteYourShorts'' sees Budnick fall in love with Dina and force himself to become the classy, nice guy that he assumes she wants. This ends up backfiring, as well she is initially flattered by his attempts to change, she finds the "respectable" and "composed" Budnick boring, and tries to get him to dump her and go back to normal.
* ''Series/{{Suburgatory}}'': In one episode, Lisa develops a crush on a new boy at school. However, Tessa believes he's gay after she keeps catching him staring at the jocks. Lisa isn't phased and aggressively pursues him. She even starts dressing up as a boy in order to get his attention. In the end, [[spoiler: it's revealed he was actually an undercover narcotics officer who was posing as a teenager to catch a jock who was using steroids. He also had a wife.]]

* Music/AnaisMitchell: The subject of "Tailor" is a woman who has tailored herself to fit her lover's expectations and has an identity crisis when he leaves her.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}} 6Teen]]'': In "Lights Out", Starr, Jude's love interest, decides to go goth in pursuit of other interests. Jude tries to follow suit as well but both know that's not who he is and mutually break up over it. Which wouldn't be the first time [[RunningGag and won't be the last]].