Smile Like You Mean It - Brady

I'm not particularly photogenic. I slouch. I get "sleepy eyes" when I smile. If my lips are dry they disappear into my gums. My hair tends to look flat, and my clothes get wrinkled the minute they come into contact with my body.

So, probably in high school, I started doing certain things to try and look cuter in pictures. Once or twice I actually looked up a list online of tricks models use.

I've made a resolution recently. I'm not going to be fake about photos anymore. In other words, I'm not going to arrange my body in a way that I think will make me look thinner or smile in a way that I think will make me look prettier. I'm also not going to insist someone not take a picture of me because I don't think I look good enough at that particular moment. I'm not going to ask people with digital cameras if I can see the screen right after they take a shot. I'm not going to "un-tag" myself from other peoples' Facebook photos because I don't like how I look in them. And I'm not going to put my hand in front of my face when someone just wants a picture of his daughter-in-law on Christmas morning! (Sorry Fred...)




Here are two pictures of me. The first is fake Brady, and the second is the real one:









I know they don't look super different, but in the first one I can tell I'm smiling wider than I do in real life and I'm working really, really hard to keep my eyes open. I'm also tilting my head down on purpose because I read that that pose is more flattering. The second one is just me.


To prove that I'm serious about this, here's the worst photo of me I could find in a quick search of our iPhoto library. Enjoy, and go Slicers. :)