When I was younger, I hated my southern (USA) accent. I hated it because I was told that I sounded ignorant and because most people outside of Western movies didn't have thick southern accents and so it seemed like the people who said that the accent sounded uneducated or ignorant were correct. I began to cover it up to seem more "normal", and even got to a point where I would have to try to put the accent on if I wanted to have the southern sound. As I got older I realized that what people were saying was stupid and have felt stupid for wanting to change that part of me. Something worthy of note is that I will instinctively thicken my accent whenever comforting someone, getting angry, or talking to certain people. Upon further examination, so do most people who grew up in the South. I was curious as to why that was and decided to ask Google. The second that I began to search, I was met once again with "why do southern accents sound uneducated" and flat out "why do southern accents sound stupid". It's kind of sad for me to see people still do this to an accent that is so pretty and know that kids still will have to go through what I have.