I hate to seeing myself in pictures..

[letsjog]

Carrying more weight than I'd like large size 12 UK at 5'4" and a half. It's not flattering on me as it's also on my arms and face (first place to gain weight for me).

When I look in the mirror I don't mind my face but I look horrible and frumpy in any pictures that I haven't taken myself. My eyes/lips look much smaller than they look to me in the mirror and like they're being drowned out by my face. My arms make me look humongous.
I might be at a party hair/makeup done, when I look in the mirror I think I look good but then when I see pictures from the day I feel like crying.

I'm only in my 20s but feel I look 10years older and overweight to boot. DP took a picture today of me holding both DCs at once with minimal makeup and hair scraped back and when they were all looking at it I had to walk away and hold back tears at how awful I looked and so drastically different to what I think.
My confidence plummets everytime I see a picture of myself.

AIBU to feel this way?

I look hideous in photos. I don't mind myself in the mirror. I hope I'm just unphotogenic rather than actually looking how I look in photos. I run if anyone comes near me with a camera.

@formerbabe I know what you mean. I want to take more pictures with DC's while they are little but everytime I see one I think "that's not me" . It's shit.

I have no advice op but I feel the same op. I hate photos. I avoid photos at all costs but I do have some just for us - my partner and the children just photos don’t happen with extended family!

I look like a sweaty slug in all photos of me and I am a size 8 alright looking person in real life. I hate photos.

I’m the same op and pps!
I think it has to do with the fact your face is reversed in the mirror but not in the photo, so looks ‘weird’ to you.
Everyone else in the picture looks how you see them normally, so they don’t look any different

I definitely look worse if I know my photo is being taken too, something strange happens to my face that I can’t control 😂

I’ve found if I look at photos later they don’t always look as bad as I first thought (although I don’t think I’d ever call myself photogenic!)

Definitely take loads of pictures with your children, but maybe wait before you look at them if you can (much easier to do in the olden days!)

I have adult and small dc. Nobody has one single pic of me. Only pics are a few wedding ones..

Totally the same. I have been FaceTiming friends lately and hate seeing the little picture of me. Hair is awful, face wonky, no defined features and chin & neck are one. Again in the mirror is not too bad but photos are awful. I don’t understand how I can look so different.

A friend once described me as the most unphotogenic person in the history of the world. I feel your pain. My DS is 7 months and I don't think I have a single picture of the two of us.

@letsjog im sorry you feel that, i am also in the same boat. I hate looking at myself in photos. Like you, i sometimes look in the mirror and think i look ok (mainly when ive made an effort), i then get my picture taken and i look monstrous. It sounds like a silly problem but i cant look at my wedding photos and i hardly have any pictures with my dc. I really envy people who can take pics but for me it can lower my mood. No strategy to help but you are not alone.

The worst bit is that my face looks like a wonky potato in pictures no matter my weight 😭

My DM who's in her 50s has always had lovely cheekbones and a slim face especially jaw and chin even to today. I inherited my DFs wonky potato face.

And I really do relate to my face doing something weird I can't control when a camera is aimed at me! I can't replicate it!

I feel exactly the same. I’m not overly sold on my reflection but I can live with what I see. Photographs make my heart plummet. I’m gutted by how unattractive I look.

Yes, even at my slimmest, at my wedding my face looked completely asymmetric. I feel i have a really big jaw but people till me crazy. If it wasnt for money, i would get surgery on it. Unfortunately i will never have money for that. Do you have social media like Instagram etc?

@mynameiscalypso thats really sad you dont have a picture of your dc. I have 2 and hes 2. I really envy people who have lovely family pics up on their wall.

I’m not overweight but very unfortunate with my looks so I can understand. I avoid pictures, and don’t even like catching my reflection in the mirrors/glass windows whilst out as it will instantly dampen my mood.

I don’t think I have high expectations, I can accept not everyone gets to look like a gorgeous model but I at least wish I could look average and clean/tidy. sigh

I'm the same size 14 but too much weight on my face. I was looking back at photos from when I'd just had my baby 5 years ago and I look amazing. How do I look so awful now not even 5 years on

I could’ve written this! I felt like this when I was a size 10 pre baby, now I look at those pictures and think I look amazing. Can’t win! I’ll probably look back at pictures taken of me now in 10 years time and think the same.

I get told I'm pretty a lot, but I look at photos of myself and no worse of a lie, I look like a goblin, and if that is what those peopel see then they must be blind or insane to think in pretty.
My own mother once told me to take less photos of myself as they never come out right

I had a friend who had the oddest angular warped face irl, but looked fucking amazing in photographs. Like a bloody model. Put her and a photo of her side by side and you couldn't tell it was the same person.

I'm the opposite - or so I've chosen to believe! Lol. Posing, angles, lighting, makes no bloody difference. I've decided that some memories are more important than how I look (or how I think I look). No one is ever going to be as critical of photos of me than I am! I chose to see the happy memories, not me as i see me in photos.

Hate photos of myself as well and I'm overweight by a lot since having my DCs I've gone from a comfortable size 12 to a size16 and it shows I'm not tall either 5'6 I think I just look stocky and hate to see photos of myself

It’s the angle and the lighting- a good photographer (pro or not) could take pictures you’d like.

I could have written this, I feel exactly the same 😩😩

I hate pictures of me too but my answer is just not to look at the pictures. I'd hate for my children not to have pictures of us together so I smile and get on with it but don't actually look at the pictures until a few years have passed when I find I don't mind as much.

Apparently it’s to do with the symmetry in your face, a camera reverses your image, plus it flattens shadows, so some people then are enhanced with that reversal and change in the shadows,, others look worse than real life.

I’m considered attractive, I don’t mean that to be arrogant, but I look terrible in photos. I’ve a friend who would be considered quite masculine in real life, and she looks very pretty in photos, which without being bitchy she’s really not in real life. You look at her pics and think wow. She loves getting her pic taken, I hate it.

As said, it is supposed to be about what happens to the symmetry of your face when it’s reversed, the flattening of the shadows, you either look better or worse. I’d not stress about it honest op. It’s not going to change, you’re not photogenic. Many of us aren’t. But the reality is the camera does actually lie.

I’m the same - ok with how I look in person, hate photos. Think I’d rather this way round than the reverse though.