My chair doesn't have much of character, and he doesn't really initiate anything. I've been advised I can ask more intelligent questions to connect with my advisor for more feedback if I read more articles, so I did. However, nothing has changed; my advisor has not much to offer or add to my questions or research ideas. Because I feel like I'm not getting any support or encouragement from my advisor, I'm starting to face impostor phenomena: I can't believe in myself; I feel stupid; I'm less confident. And being around my peers who are overly confident and/or elegant aren't really helping. Any advice would help to get me through. Thanks!

I don't know what exactly you mean, but it seems like you're having problems with your supervisor. If this is the case I can really relate to you...I had the most useless First supervisor and had to change the co-supervisor twice. It is really a tricky thing. Try to speak to someone in your department, or ask for a confidential conversation with whoever is the research director in your university and ask for advice.

As for others looking confident in most cases is a facade. During my PhD I met people that were always saying that everything was fine when in fact they were facing problems too...Don't let other people get to you, as everybody faces obstacles and has insecurities during their PhD. Hope it helps!