While growing up when picture time came and this phrase was spoken I almost never showed my teeth.It was always a closed mouth grin. Now I know that a woman is happy to give a wide smile for a lot of situations and Amber would love to be able to show how proud she is but how does a person give a smile. I feel as tho I do not know how to smile. When I try it looks so fake/forced
Amber needs help to give a natural smile to show her true beauty
Amber
I am not sure if looking in a mirror will give you the same view you will see in camera, but you can start there.
Think about how happy you are to see yourself as Amber, out with friend at mall, passing.
How peaceful and calm you feel. It may be a smaller smile, but that is a good start.
I normally don't show emotions in drab but do have nice smile with pictures. Not as white as some, but OK.
But the smile as Ellen is great!
Hugs, Ellen
Hi Amber, I have the same problem. I look in the mirror to try and help, I look at selfies, and other pics. My said Saturday, you need to just relax and smile. Later I was relaxed and smiled just out of the blue. The pic came out fine. Funny how that worked. I guess we need to do that, relax enjoy life and have fun.
Candi
Perfection Is a Road Not a Destination
Think of something hilarious and try to laugh out loud before doing a big CHEESY SMILE!
Smile! "I am smiling" was always my reply growing up. Men don't know how to smile but happy girls do. Took me years to figure that out.
I also have trouble showing my teeth when I smile. I've noticed that many men don't show their teeth while many women do. It might be how their face is made. Even when I try to force a smile for the camera it doesn't come out right. That's where I think having a person take the photo as opposed to using a self timer might work better for photos.
I suppose men, for the most part, are expected to be serious while women can be a little more carefree.
Well, my jokes suck, so next time we meet I'll bring a feather to tickle you. That or a bottle of brandy. Ok, forget the feather, brandy it is.
I've always had a problem with smiling, too. When I finally figured out how to smile properly, it made a world of difference in my photo appearance for both my femme and guy sides
and see, I smiled though this whole thread. It's simple, relax your face, you should be smiling because you can dress. At least that's what I read here
The earth is the mother of all people and all people should have equal rights upon it.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
“Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” - Fred Rogers,
I too have a smile problem. Wish there were a "smile DVD".
Susann_Gardener
Do people show teeth when they smile?
I'm ugly when I don't show teeth and uglier when I do!
That's a dude talking. Christina would show teeth, but she doesn't know how :-(
Relax and let out a natural smile.
I never understood the inability to smile. I think one must actually restrain oneself from smiling rather than just letting go.
Life is funny. Cross dressing is funny. Monty Python is funny. Have you never read of book and laughed out loud? Whatever you think is funny, think of that and let loose. I can't help but smile. Hell, sometimes I just think of funny things and start to crack up. I don't care what people think. Don't think about smiling, enjoy the funny
Use a mirror!
Practice smiling. It will become more and more natural. Try to relax more. Think of things that makes you feel good.
Despite all the selfies out there, there remain a significant number of people who don't like having their picture taken. My sister is one of those; a good picture of her is rare. The few times we managed to get a picture, she was always making a weird face or trying to hide her face. My dad wouldn't smile with teeth; the best we could get was a closed lip smile from him. He didn't avoid pics, but for some reason wouldn't smile much for anyone. Teeth were fine so that wasn't the reason. He sort of resembled Gary Cooper, and had practiced trying to look like him in photos where he didn't smile either. Me, I break out in a big grin, maybe because it always bothered me that neither dad nor sis would cooperate for me in getting their photos taken. And I'm the one with the irregular teeth!
Some causes of crossdressing you've probably never even considered: My TG biography at:http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/...=1#post1490560
There's an addendum at post # 82 on that thread, too. It's about a ten minute read.
Why don't we understand our desire to dress, behave and feel like a girl? Because from childhood, boys are told that the worst possible thing we can be, is a sissy. This feeling is so ingrained into our psyche, that we will suppress any thoughts that connect us to being or wanting to be feminine, even to the point of creating separate personalities to assign those female feelings into.
We al know how to smile when we hear or see something humorous.
Also you don't necessarily have to show teeth to have a great smile .
The old adage is true... "A smile is just frown turned up side down.
Amber, props on a good thread question. I think you will find a lot of company here in that department. First off, generally guys are not enouraged to smile like women are. In fact we are often taught to perfect our menacing look or scowl! Secondly men are brought up to be more stoic. Maybe not across the board, but in general in most cultures.
So now, as a girl, you have to overcome a very basic inclination to not smile. BUT even men are allowed to smile, it just requires being a little happier.
My advice? Get a good make over. If you look at my avatar, you see a smile that is rare in male mode. That smile was not forced, it came from pure joy and exhilaration. Even now when I look at that photo, I feel joy.
I also have never been able to smile, If I try to force one I look even worse. Family will avoid taking pics of me because I appear to be scowling or angry even when I'm perfectly happy.
Relax, yes, but what I do is wait until JUST before snapping the picture and act like someone just said something amusing to me. Think about what you do in that situation. It forces out an exhale and you will smile with your eyes (and obviously your mouth). Your eyes are a dead giveaway for a fake smile. So, don't hold your smile (especially waiting for a timer on the camera, that will kill it) but rather smile real quick right before each shot is taken. Sometimes thinking about how great it feels to dress up helps.
There's a recent post by Robin in the media section that includes a link;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xfz...ature=youtu.be
If you watch the video and especially the mouth movements, the speaker Jaclyn constantly shows her upper set of teeth while the mouth movements are far more pronounced than what you'd expect to see in a male speaker. So my thought is if you're looking to give that "girly"smile will practicing talking like a GG lead to it being more natural. Has it something to do with muscle development? I believe it has something to do with GG's not having such pronounced facial hair so the top lip is able to sit closer to the nose but that doesn't explain it all by any means. The articulation of both the top and bottom lips is way more pronounced than anything I'd normally expect to see in a male speaker.
In primates how teeth are displayed plays a large part in indicating a "no threat here" stance. It's not a huge leap to think that what we witness is an echo from our early development. However it's also possible that what we see is learned behavior, GG's at a young age copying their seniors so as to be part of the female club.
If I deliberately smile a big toothy grin type of smile I can feel that I'm using muscles I don't usually use. Not because I'm a plain old misery but because they're muscles I don't normally use when speaking unlike Jaclyn.
Who dares wears Get in, get out without being noticed
Amber,
As a photographer I had to work so hard for the smiles, if I'm faced with a camera I smile like a Cheshire cat, my wife always says you take a good picture, only because I smile !
I was watching a recorded 'quiz' programme last night that went out last Sat. Stephen Fry's QI. They had a question about smiles and cameras. It seems that most countries have their own words for making a smile, here in the UK it is ' cheese ' (altho' sh1t has always worked for me). In Croatia (Ithink it was) the word translated to cabbage
Carole
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You bet. The idea is to make that "ee" sound to widen your mouth as much as possible. And the sound is spelled differently in every language.Originally Posted by Carole
Sorry Amber, wish I could offer you something more, but I'm virtually identical to you when it comes to smiling. It simply isn't a normal facial expression for me. Strange part is I'm basically a happy person.
Karen
I just looked in the mirror and i am not sure what is worse smiling or not smiling .Either one does not seem to work for me
I have a hubcap diamond star halo
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