IMHO, this issue of self-esteem is one of the most fundamental, and important, issues affecting society today. Lack of self-esteem can be tied to criminal activity, divorce rates, suicide rates, and overall quality of life. Why do I say this? Let me put it this way: why would someone else appreciate you and love you when you don't appreciate and love yourself? The truth is that self esteem is all about the art of being confident.
Part of the reason for the current epidemic of low self-esteem is that we allowed and validated the thinking that loving yourself is bad. You may be thought of as conceited by others. Yet since so many of those "others" have their own self esteem issues, does it make sense to give their opinion that much weight?
There's also the issue of religion. The web is full of seemingly erudite writings that remind us that "love yourself" is not in the Bible, and is not a commandment. Apparently, these experts have found evidence in the Bible that God, a moody, demanding sort of guy God who needs to be appeased through praise, denies his own creation (us) by calling us bad, and commanding us to love him and others. But not ourselves. Although, Jesus did shed some light on the issue when he stated "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." So, Jesus apparently did recognize the importance of loving oneself, and transmitting that love to others.
I'm not going to get into a "religious" debate here. I come at it from a simple perspective: you can not truly love others until you love yourself first. Or even more simply, how can you truly give others that which you yourself don't have to give? My suggestion: get rid of the idea that God will punish you if you love His creation (you) the way you love his other creations (everybody else).
If you suffer from low self esteem, you can do certain things (at this "earthly" level) to raise it. One of the methods I would urge you to check into is called Peak Confidence. I'm not going to bore you with a sales pitch and all that. But frankly, I like the way this confidence building system approaches the issue of self-esteem, so check it for yourself, then decide and take action to raise your self-esteem.
