Throughout my life people have always accused me of pouting in photos. As a model in the nineties I could get away with that. With Kate Moss as the poster girl that all of us lesser models attempted to emulate, looking haughty and indifferent was all part of the program. In family photos though, you look a little, well, tragic, if you pout too much and never smile.

The thing is though, that I wasn’t pouting, honestly. (Well, not in the family photos anyway) What I was actually trying to achieve was a closed mouth smile; one that still made me look friendly and approachable, but never, ever showed my higgledy, piggledy teeth. I might have looked like I was pouting, but what I was really doing was going through a thousand inner turmoils, each of which started with me mentally begging the photographer not to utter the words “let’s see some teeth”

Obviously though, whatever I was doing wasn’t working. When I look back at those photos now I can see that not only did I not look very happy, I did indeed look self conscious and well, just a little bit pouty. A little too much like trying to look cool, and not enough like I was enjoying the moment.

So, getting my pictures back from my latest holiday, I was thrilled to see that not only am I not pouting, I am grinning from ear to ear! I actually look happy.

I know my teeth aren’t finished yet, and aren’t yet as perfect as I would like them to be, but what I realised, looking at my holiday pictures, is that when all of these photos were taken I wasn’t thinking for a moment about my teeth. I could just smile, naturally and enjoy the moment….. and honestly, that lack of self consciousness is worth the price of the braces alone.

So, I will leave you today with a picture of me at my brother’s wedding last month.

I’m smiling!….