How can good looking children have not particularly good looking parents?

[smyshna]

Genuine question, just curious if anyone else has noticed this.

DH is very conventionally attractive. His two sisters are also very pretty and both modelled when they were younger. DH has been scouted too but wasn’t interested.

His parents are lovely people, but neither is what you’d call conventionally attractive. Even looking at photos of them when they were younger, you wouldn’t say either was particularly good looking.

I know genetics is a lottery but it seems quite remarkable that all three children turned out good looking. They’re all genetically related. Has anyone else come across this?

Oh, the Beckhams are good-looking! I'm not a fan of David because he's a cheater, but even I can see that he's an incredibly good-looking man under all those tattoos, which most of the world seems to agree on. And Victoria may not be super-model material, but she's still really pretty. Their daughter is very pretty, and actually, Romeo's the best-looking boy, although he looks like Victoria, not David. It's definitely unfortunate how none of the three Beckham sons inherited anything of David's extremely handsome face.

My grandma, mom, sisters and daughters all have wide-set eyes and sharp jawlines. Everyone is pleasant looking, and I think those features are inherited.

But to be really stunning, it takes something a bit extra, a little different to truly standout. That’s the wild card.

That said, pleasant is good enough, and more than anyone can ask for. Style, charm and personality have to make up the difference- and are up to us.

In his prime.
At his peak.

Oh, I disagree! Lily Depp has incredible bone structure, really angled, sharp cheekbones. And that's what the camera loves. In fact Lily looks quite a lot like Kate Moss. If you put her and Lila with Kate, I don't think you'd guess that Lila was the daughter and not Lily. Lila hasn't got the kind of face that the camera loves; she has very flat cheekbones, like her dad. Which is not to say that, back in the real world, she isn't a very pretty girl indeed, because she is. Just not top-model material.

I think the Jude Law thing is that he has quite a pixie-like face, which I think works better in the "Peter Pan" years of youth. Older men look better with a stronger jaw I think.

Jude Law was perfect for those movies where he was on the cusp of manhood but with a lingering boy-child thing going on, like Bosie and then Picture of Dorian Grey. I think his slight profile and build worked for that.

But for me, he never quite fell into "could fancy him" territory even back then, as he just seemed a bit young and boyish!

I think she is very pretty. Possibly more striking than her mother for me, though I'd call them both above average!

It probably comes down to the mix of features.
Dakota Johnson is very good looking and comes from a line of very good looking parents and grandparents. She looks more like her father imo than her mother.

Other offspring of famously good looking parents just miss out on the genetic lottery, looks wise - so the dds may look more like their bruiser dad than their mum.

I was going to say the same thing! Philip was a very handsome man for most of his life, but the Queen was always a right old pudding-face. She'd never have pulled him if she wasn't destined to be the monarch. Princess Margaret fared better when young, but as a family they've had to inject beauty via marriages, because they sure don't have any themselves!

I think Lila's very pretty, too.

I don't think I've ever seen any model or actress who can hold a candle to Kate in her youth, though. Her cheekbones are absolutely amazing. She looks like a sphinx.

My niece is a really lovely looking young woman now she's into her teens.

Her parents are not blessed in that department at all but she has got some features that you can see really suit her much more than her parents! She looks like both of them but about 99% prettier. Bless her. I guess it could easily have gone the other way 😬

She was attractive with a distinctive look for sure, but personally I find softer, more open features a bit more to my taste. And taste is what I think this thread shows it all comes down to.

ETA for me someone like a young Emmanuelle Beart is in a completely different league beauty-wise. Kate had more of a blank canvas model look to me - doesn't outshine the clothes.

I think when different nationalities or races have children together, it helps create more beautiful people and I’m not being cringe at all - just an observation.

I have no idea how DH and I produced DD. That isn’t us being biased parents. People have felt the need to comment on her beauty her entire life.

It definitely isn’t nutrition. She has ARFID and several known nutritional deficiencies. She just got the best of our genetics.

How did you take this from the OP ???
she said her DH and his sisters ( all adults ) are good looking but his parents aren’t particularly good looking?

This is definitely the case for us. I am glad they are better looking than us. 😄

Being tall doesn't equal attractive. Think Peter Crouch. Whereas there are some absolutely stunning tiny Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, as well as white women.

My dc are objectively very attractive and I am average, dh a bit better looking but no head turner. My aunts on my dad's side otoh are all stunning well into old age. That gene just skipped me 🥲😁

In our family I’d say myself and DH would have been considered nice looking when we were young .
We both have very regular features, quite symmetrical and all in proportion.
I have been told I have lovely cheekbones and that I was pretty but no way are we anything out of the ordinary .
My oldest daughter seems to have inherited a mix of family facial features and has been described as stunning.
She absolutely has my ( and my late mum’s) colouring and a mix of my features and my SILs features
She doesn’t always look great in photos though .
Middle offspring is quite nice looking and youngest looks like a Disney Belle

Some of the responses on this thread have confused me. If we are talking beautiful etc I would assume that means facially which has nothing to do with height, hair colour etc.

Tall, slim, well proportioned, well groomed etc can all help with attractiveness but that is different to a beautiful face.

No it really doesn’t I agree on that first line. But I think Kate Moss was one of the most beautiful models. Really rare features.

But I don’t think KG has the x factor of her mother.

I'm surprised a couple of people have said Lily Rose Depp is average looking. I think she's stunning and as good looking as her mother.

I've never understood the Kate Moss hype. To me, she just looks like any girl next door. I don't see this beauty that so many see in her 🤷‍♀️

Naomi Campbell or Heidi Klum were true beauties of the supermodel world at the time. I never got the Kate Moss hype.

Isn’t it nice that opinions vary and beauty is somewhat subjective? Someone for everyone and we aren’t all focused on exactly the same people.

Both my children are significantly better looking than my ex husband and me. Somehow my daughter has her dad’s features and my son has mine and yet they work on them but not so much on him and me.

The dd of the Beckhams is not very pretty at all. VB has had surgery and beyond that, makes the most of herself through starvation strict diet, weight training and general high level grooming.

DB was a noughties pretty boy and technically good looking, but their kids are not. The fact that they let their 14 year old dye her hair blonde from brunette suggests they know it too.