@jdubz exactly!
As someone who had to take on cheap jobs just to get a paycheck (by necessity, I started out freelancing on Elance, which has now become Upwork, right when the economy tanked in the US), I’ve been there!
One thing I’ll add is that I personally found it hard to break out, to find that confidence you spoke about and ask for a fair price. Especially since I had a good reputation on Elance and had a lot of offers coming my way — I DID start to charge more, but since your rates are posted front and center on your profile page and your job history (along with the price) is right below that, you have to raise them incrementally. It was VERY SLOW growth, something that I still feel the ripple effect from even 11 years later. Now, looking back, I wish I would have negotiated for higher pay right at the outset, but being naive and desperate for that one job to get started on, I didn’t.
But on the positive side, like @Will-Terry said, it gave me a lot of experience! And I got some of those bad illustrations he talked about out of my system.
So on the one hand, it stunted my professional progress. On the other, it gave me some valuable experience that will only help me moving forward.