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?

If you mean Shiloh, I see loads of Brad!

The younger one less like brad but I'm not sure I see any more of Angelina in her.

Which is another aspect of it all: we all see people differently because we are geared to focus on different features. I find some people cannot see past colouring.

JLo and Oskar...

Celebrities dc show just how much a genetic lottery it is. A mother will look incredible, Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss A few others. The dc are attractive but without the famous parents unlikely to be modelling. Apple Martin is modelling but Gwyneth is a major factor.

They are attractive it’s not that, just that really rare stand out thing is missing.

It’s sometimes said that Angelina Jolie’s features are almost too much. The combo of her very beautiful mother, Marcheline Bertrand & Jon Voight, had they meshed just slightly differently could have been totally Picasso… Her brother’s face is exquisite too.

Look at it this way, your in laws were good at choosing a partner with DNA which would complement theirs, and this resulted in 3 good looking children.

Well 50% come through the sun roof, so

I have two very good looking boys and neither myself or their father is particularly beautiful - they must both have both our good bits 🤣

I’ve known this happen loads and the other way round.

My gram and grandad were not very attractive but one of my uncles was/is very good looking compared to them and his siblings.

My mil and fil are I’m sorry to say not good looking but dhs sister is very pretty and he dh is nice looking too, but their dc are very strange looking children, I think they will grow into themselves though and be stunning adults. You know when you see celebrities awful childhood photos.

I have a friend who is absolutely stunning but her two daughters have not taken after her at all. They are very pretty girls but they are nothing like their mum and the youngest looks like neither parent.

I also think they children can be nice looking as kids and grow up to be not so much and children can be odd looking am grow into gorgeous adults.

My grandmother was beautiful. My mum has always been beautiful as well in a turning heads when walks into a room way. My sister is the same, absolutely gorgeous as a teen and as an adult. My dad was very good looking. I am not, I got unlucky and got the worst of each of their features and the mix isn't attractive. I once overheard two relatives talking about me and saying they can't understand how I look the way I do when my sister, mum and grandma were so beautiful.

Probably cos she was your mum! There's a saying that everyone's mum is beautiful and so are every mum's children.

That's why it's a really good idea to read what the poster has to say before deciding to comment. It's courteous too. And actually, you seem to be the only one talking about children being objects of desire.

I've also heard it said that true beauty is on the knife edge of ugly. If it doesn't push that far, it can only ever be everyday attractive.

Personally I find her very beautiful. Much more so than her daughters actually, though both are nice looking.

Some people are very attractive when they’re young, but really go off as they get older. I’m noticing that a lot now I’m into my late 50s. People who were gorgeous when they were in their 20s really aren’t now!

Or you have love googles!😍

I've also heard it said that true beauty is on the knife edge of ugly. If it doesn't push that far, it can only ever be everyday attractive.

I think that’s somewhat true, someone can be “perfect looking with perfect features” but it can look boring, there needs to be an edge.

Hahaha you just want to drop a bomb in the family 😂

It's 100% not true.

Come to think of it, it applies the other way in my and my brother's case. My parents are both very attractive. My mum was truly stunning when young and my dad is very tall and handsome. Neither my brother or I are good-looking at all. In fact we're both pretty ugly 🥶

Beatrice Dalle was said to be “jolie laide” ugly-pretty, a phrase sometimes used in France.

Even ‘unattractive’ people can have some attractive individual features, it’s just ‘luck’ whether or not their children inherit all/most/some of them, and whether they harmonise when put together. Works the other way too, attractive people might have a more harmonised face, even if the individual features aren’t ’perfect’.

My parents are good-looking. I’ve got my mum’s eye shape and colour, and her face shape, but I’ve got my dad’s nose. All lovely features by themselves and on their own faces but they just don’t work together, in my opinion.

I do see a little bit of Brad in Shiloh but mostly Angelina. To me, Vivian looks like Brad.

Yes, I've got a friend who is very attractive, his wife even more so, actually quite stunningly beautiful. Their child is, as a teenager now, perfectly pleasant looking but really quite average when judged by conventional standards of attractiveness.

Then you've got families like the Bellinghams where clearly the gods have blessed them all!

I don't think it's the same everywhere. There's a certain acceptance of chubbiness at least among young women in the UK and their male counterparts.

I think Vivian is very Brad whereas Shiloh just has a bit of him. Knox is a mix.