I also think that you have to feel loved before you can feel loveable.

I don't like the "love yourself first" thing either. It's self centered. People are made to have relationships with other people. We reach our potential with the love and support of our friends and family. You can't reach your potential first, or become whole first, and then seek out relationships. If we were complete, or "loved ourselves" first, we wouldn't need to love anyone else.

I do think it's true though that low self esteem can make you feel worthless and unacceptable. Those feelings can make it difficult to be open to relationships with other people. If you feel bad about yourself you tend to push people away.