It seems petty to say this, but I am pretty sure that being small and young looking has worked against me in my career. Consciously or not, my managers have discriminated against me because of my looks.

I normally describe myself as petite, but the truth is that I am small. I’m a 5' 1" 110lb woman with a bubbly personality that can come over as ditzy if you don’t know me well. I’m also smart, hard-working, and a stickler for detail.

I used to work in a small ad agency in Texas: I sat in the same assistant position while others my age with the same, or less, experience were promoted. I always trusted that the manager had a reason to pass me over, and believed that my turn would come.

I kept my nose to the grindstone, I worked overtime… I was let go when the company downsized.

I got another job. Same story. The years ticked past until one day I looked around and saw that I was going nowhere with a string of so-so credits on my resume. For every job I applied to, there were 100 recent college graduates willing to work for less and put up with more. It was depressing. With no permanent job on the horizon, I started applying for short-term freelance contracts through an online job site.

I was a success from the start. On my very first job I was selected to be part of the “elite team” working on the most important clients. That assignment finished, and I immediately started another. The same thing happened: I found myself as the unofficial favorite, with the project supervisor telling me confidentially that she actually relied on me more than the person who had been hired as the team-leader.

I was stunned. Why the change? I had spent years of slogging away, unappreciated, in the corporate cubicle. What was different?

My work was the same, my personality was the same; but all of a sudden I was successful. Was it because I was being judged only on my work, not on my appearance?

Then it struck me that the change was that I was working anonymously. My supervisors, managers, and co-workers couldn’t see the everyday me, they only saw my chosen profile photo. I had taken pains to ensure that I looked professional and attractive in that photo: make-up and good lighting can do wonders, and height doesn’t show in a headshot.

Are there thousands of extremely skilled, competent workers stuck in low level jobs for the sole reason that they don’t look the way their bosses think a successful person should look?

I have thought of other scenarios that could explain my experience, but keep coming up with a blank. In my corporate life I worked for five different companies over a twenty year span, and at each one I quickly reached a ceiling where all advancement stopped. I was ready to accept that it was me, that I was just a mediocre worker, until I became faceless and found out that I was really better at my job than I had ever known.

As more and more companies move to hiring off-site employees will the playing field will be leveled? Will we prove our worth solely through our performance, not through our appearance?

Thank goodness for the virtual labor pool. I now work from my house on a permanent contract, with a view over the water and quite often a cat on my lap. I get to pick my son up from school each day, and exercise at 10am. I never get distracted by water cooler chat, or office politics.

The success I have found has led me to look at other aspects of my life and wonder if there, too, I am being held back by false impressions. Five years ago I thought I had reached as high as I could go; now I feel empowered, as if I am coming into myself as I grow older.

In the past half-century we have moved past suits and ties, past power-dressing and panty-hose, way past typing-pools of women working for corner-office men. We learned that it wasn’t the sex, or the exterior dress that made the person. Maybe we’re ready to move past the next barrier, and stop discrimination based on any external appearance.

Virtual work allows us to judge based on how well a person does the job they’re hired to do, and nothing else. To me, it signifies a new freedom for workers everywhere: In a truly equal world, performance is all that should ever matter.