You become. {from the Velveteen Rabbit}

You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. ~The Skin Horse to the Velveteen Rabbit

quoted in Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian, p. 65