Beauty Lies in the Lips

It has come to my attention that we women often find it so hard to smile in pictures (this observation is partly because I looked through my senior pictures and found I had far less happy looking Faiths than bored looking Faiths).We often give a smirk, an alluring lopsided look, or a positively bland smile that looks like we are 4 and still learning how to grin. One of the most unbearable ones is the "laughing smile".  I don't understand this.  For me the most memorable and beautiful smiles are ones where you know the person is absolutely loving the moment and you can tell she loves herself and isn't afraid of her teeth.  Why are we so self conscious!
 
Maybe I'm just a teeth person, but I honestly think that the most wonderful smiles are ones that are bursting at the seams.  I think when we smile authentically it shows we aren't afraid of ourselves.  Too often we look in the mirror or at pictures of ourselves and judge ourselves and tear our smiles apart. This one gives me weird smile lines. My eyes are too squinty when I grin. I hate my teeth, they are "crooked", too small, too big... Honestly girls. This is absurd.  The only smile that is unattractive is one that has no heart behind it. 

I want to use my Grandma Natalie as an example of an absolutely and exquisitely beautiful woman.  She was stylish and had gorgeous features.  But those things we've all seen a million times before in magazines and movies.  The thing that made Natalie stand out was her smile.  There's probably only a handful of pictures I have ever seen of her throughout her life where she wasn't grinning ear to ear.  There is just something so captivating about it.  She had confidence. Beauty beamed from her.  Even when she was ill she still found the energy to grin. 

All of this rambling goes to say, Ladies, just love yourself! Look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Wow. That's me. I'm beautiful. SO beautiful." I think we could all use a lot more confidences and grins in our lives. Grins are contagious and make you feel so much freer.