One of the only things a romantic interest that ever told me that made me feel better about my body was just an unironic "You're beautiful".

Because, like, I'm a dude and was kind of desensitized to people platonically telling me I was handsome when I was clearly slumming it. But when this woman said I was beatiful I kind of believed it because she wasn't just talking about my face. It was more something she thought I was doing.

Basically I'll be riding that high the rest of my life, if you have male friends and they aren't insecure about gender then tell them they're beautiful. It feels different.