Portrait photography or "people" photography will be quite a difficult region for those who have just started using a point and shoot cameras. You may go on taking pictures of your friends, relatives and yourself and wont be able to share it to them because you find it ugly. Actually, i have undergone these in my life and has always thought it was my face which is causing the problem.
The first rule of portrait photography is to understand that no person looks ugly. If the photo of them look ugly, then its the photographers...