the reason you might not feel photogenic.

tldr; it's not your fault. it's the mirror.

why don't we like how we look in photos?

we always think that we are our toughest judge. And while that might be true, there’s also an aspect of ourselves that votes that we are quite hot shit.

Yup, we kinda think that we are more attractive than we actually are in reality. Psychologists call this bias "self-enhancement", which means that we favor our own traits, abilities and view our physical appearance as more attractive than we actually are.

So when the camera captures you outside of the “self- enhancement” version.... it throws you off. It just doesn't sit right. The photo doesn't look like you. And that feels like rejection of our truth, our confidence, our understanding of ourself. *insert deep sigh*

but what about the mirrors, you say?

Mirrors reverse what it reflects. so we are actually seeing the opposite of our face.

and since that is the version that we are the most used to seeing (even though it isn't what the outside world sees) it's disorienting to see the "true" version of how we look. This is why a selfie on WhatsApp actually shows the mirrored version of ourself. Sneaky. right?

COOOLLL so what am I supposed to do about this?

1. Selfie vrs. Portrait - Notice how you prefer photos of others. When looking at photos of other people, most of us prefer photographs taken by someone else over selfies. Same is true for you - so even if you don’t like the photo, get someone else’s opinion. And trust that the way we see ourself isn’t the way others see us.

2. Exposure Effect - by looking at photos of yourself (not mirrors) we can retrain ourselves to liking that version of how we look.

3. Take Happy Photos - my favorite photos of myself are those in which I am damn happy, and research proves that there’s a connection between happiness and attractiveness. This might be because smiles are perceived as more appealing or maybe just that statistically, attractive people are happier.... so if we look happy, people find that attractive.

My point is .. happy = sexy. and in photo sessions with me, I'll make your happiness my mission.

SO if you think you're just destined to not like pictures of yourself, know that you're not alone. I hope these psychological reasons behind the phenomenon make you feel less alone in the matter. It takes a lot of courage and vulnerability to allow yourself to be seen by a camera.

And if you do like photos of yourself, or think of yourself as photogenic, then I vote that you've probably done enough work exposing yourself to photos of yourself or have allowed yourself to make peace with the fact that you're face might look different at times. Either way, keep it up and let's celebrate that!

If you want to chat more about feeling good in front of the camera or your thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear your take on this!