It’s a lie.
Everyone tells you you’re stuck with what God gave you.
You can change what you look like a bit with clothes and cosmetics, but you’re stuck with the face you were born with. Unless you want to splash out on cosmetic surgery.
Man, people are so wrong.
Have you ever browsed through pictures of your favorite celebrities when they were young? Go ahead. Do an internet search for awkward teen pics of Jennifer Aniston, Megan Fox or Angelina Jolie.
The faces of the most beautiful women in the world were not set in stone at birth. Their beauty is a work in progress. Yours is, too.
You can absolutely change what you look like—even what you’ve thought of as your most permanent features. It doesn’t take a scalpel or lasers or debt to do it.
The simplest way to change what you look like…
Is to wait.
Age is a master sculptor. The face you had at 5 is not the face you have at 15. And every 50-year-old on earth will tell you that the face they have now is definitely NOT the face they saw in the mirror ten years ago.
Time changes your looks. Even if you don’t want it to.
Your age isn’t the only factor affecting what you see in the mirror. How you live your life affects your appearance in astonishing ways.
Here are 5 surprising ways you can change your facial features without plastic surgery.
1. Speak a different language.
We spend about 70% of our day in some form of communication. The language we use shapes our gestures, our facial expressions, even how we hold our lips.
I first discovered this phenomenon after spending two years speaking Spanish in South America. When I returned home, none of my American friends could believe I didn’t have Latina blood. I’d been immersed for so long in a different culture that I’d unconsciously picked up the local gestures and mannerisms.
Language shapes appearance. Perhaps one reason French women look French, or German women look German, is not simply a common ethnic origin but also a result of a common language.
Your accent determines how you engage your face in the act of speaking. It’s said that the French speak like they’re kissing, while the British speak like they’ve got a hot potato in their mouths. Americans speak like they’re chewing gum. Not, perhaps, the sexiest of similes…
2. Learn how to act.
Actors rely on the malleability of the face to dissolve into their characters.
Becoming a new character isn’t just a matter of costume and makeup; it relies on complete facial control. The very best actors are shapeshifters, unrecognizable from one role to the next.
No wonder so many of the most beautiful women in the world are actresses. These are women who know how to perform beauty. They understand that being gorgeous is a role to play, and they play it to perfection.
3. Think differently.
A while back, I was given a slim, faded paperback from my former high school counselor. It was by a Japanese author, published in 1967, and titled Mind, Body & Destiny.
The author recounts how a noted beautician identified the link between what you think and what you look like:
Expressions of the mind change the movements of the facial muscles. If the face were immobile, like a doll’s, the features at birth would be decisive in determine whether a person is beautiful or homely. But a person’s face is alive. The face is the mirror that reflects a person’s humanity. The same face will become beautiful or ugly as the expression changes.
Think beautiful thoughts to become beautiful? Of course! How simple.
We know this truth from fairy tales. The good innocent heroine is always beautiful, while the mean cruel stepsister or witch is always ugly.
It’s almost as if worries, negativity, anger and resentment take material form as crease lines, thin lips, and sharp features.
Thinking positively is a lot harder than it sounds. But the rewards are worth it. You can spot a positive person from a mile away: their eyes light up, their face glows, and their mouth is always laughing.
I’m always interested to note the number of supermodels who attribute their beauty to simple things like looking after themselves and engaging in charitable works. It’s tempting to think these women are fudging the truth; surely it takes more than that to become a world-class beauty. But perhaps we underestimate the cosmetic power of happiness and personal fulfillment.
4. Breastfeed.
Losing baby fat is a lifelong challenge for many women.
Not only do we pack on pounds for childbirth, but many of us carry extra padding we’ve had since we were children.
Babies are born chubby for a reason: they’re growing rapidly and need the extra fat in their diet. Usually, as babies turn into toddlers who shoot into teenagers, the extra fat is burned up in the process of growing.
But for some women those chubby cheeks linger.
I was one. As a teen, I bemoaned my lack of cheekbones. It seemed a cruel joke of nature, making me look young at a time when all I wanted to do was look sexy.
Patience didn’t help. Losing weight didn’t help. Turning twenty didn’t help.
Over the years, I resigned myself. I was never going to look like Katherine Hepburn. I developed an adept hand with blusher.
But then something crazy happened:
I had a baby.
Friends had told me that breastfeeding unlocks fat deposits, but I didn’t believe them. After all, all the mothers I knew had put on weight. Some had fuller faces than before.
I breastfed my child and counted myself lucky that I returned to my pre-baby weight with ease. Then, one day, I looked in the mirror to see a miracle blooming on my face.
Were those … could those be … was it possible?
I had cheekbones.
Not just cheekbones, but a dimple as well. A dimple!!
Where had these come from? Why hadn’t they showed up before?
As far as I know, there’s no scientific study proving that breastfeeding gives you cheekbones, but the evidence is right in front of my face. I’ve since spoken with other women who report the same experience: breastfeeding dissolves stubborn fat deposits.
But, please, don’t have a child just to test this out.
5. Contouring
If worst comes to worst, there’s always makeup.
The Kardashians sing the praises of contouring, and it works. Contouring can make a wide nose seem narrower, a round face appear oval, minimize your forehead or give you covetable cheekbones.
The illusion is only temporary, but it’s infinitely customizable. You can adjust your looks any way you like.
In fact, many of the accusations leveled against celebrities who appear to have had cosmetic surgery can be blamed on a heavy-handed makeup artist.
Makeup makes us look different. Ideally, it makes us look better rather than unrecognizable. We still want to look like ourselves, after all.
And that’s why you don’t want to change the face you were born with too much:
You still want to look like yourself.
Even those qualities you don’t particularly like contribute to making you look unique. One-of-a-kind. Like no one else on earth.
Perhaps loving the face God gave you is the easiest beauty tip of all.
Let us know what you think!