"Ugly" Betties

Take a beautiful actress and make her ugly for a role. What techniques or props do you use?

1. Glasses
2. Frizzy or very straight hair (whichever is least in style)
3. Shirts with collars, a couple of sizes too big
4. Braces on teeth
5. Flat shoes
6. Makeup that looks like no makeup, or bad makeup
7. Orders NOT to smile

Then a magical transformation occurs somewhere in the movie, and the girl is suddenly beautiful. She has:

1. Ditched the glasses (usually for contacts)
2. Gotten her hair straightened, curled, or otherwise made the opposite of what it was
3. Put on something low-cut, slinky and/or sparkly
4. Gotten her braces off
5. Put on heels
6. Had her makeup professionally done
7. Smiled

You know what? Number 7 is probably the biggest transforming element in the whole package.

I look back at my school pictures, all 13 years, and I am not really smiling in any of them. I look wistful, sad, angry, detached, anxious ... never actually happy. And generally not a person you'd want to be near.

Then I see other pictures in which I'm smiling (even when it's forced), and by golly, skinny as I am, I have a double chin, which is the first thing I notice. But there's another thing: The girl in those pictures is more attractive. Even with the glasses and the lapels and the frizzy hair.

OK, sermon is over for today. Not even sure what got me onto that train of thought. Unless it was seeing those webcam images on my new netbook ... (involuntary shiver) Yep, that was it.

I caught myself looking back at me from the screen, and I'll tell you, if I didn't know me, I wouldn't have approached me! So I played with it for a bit, making goofy faces for the camera.

Some people have a knack for looking good even when nobody is looking at them. Some don't. Nerds have a hard enough time looking even socially acceptable, much less good. I wish I had known decades ago what a difference a smile makes.

Even a goofy smile.