Blending in is free. Standing out charges a small fee in stares every day. Pay it and keep your voice.

Distinctiveness has an ongoing cost, paid in small social friction rather than in one dramatic moment. Nobody warns you about the daily version, which is why plenty of people drift quietly back toward the middle without ever deciding to. The choice is rarely between paying and not paying. It is between this cost and the slower one of sounding like everybody else.

Work out which parts of how you make things are worth the friction. Keep those, let the rest be ordinary, and stop expecting the discomfort to disappear once you get used to it.