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?

Genes are so randomly mixed up though. I don't look like either of my parents but my sister looks like a 50/50 blend of both of them.

My son looks like a male version of me, it's like his dad's genes didn't even try. Our daughter looks the spit and image of my husband's mum when she was young and nothing like me except she has my facial expressions (and those are probably learnt!)

My husband's sister and her partner were not good looking people by any stretch of the imagination but their daughter is stunningly beautiful. Yet she does look like them in terms of features, they just seem to have combined into a better arrangement for her!

By the law of averages, everyone is either better- or worse-looking than their parents, so it's just a question of which way it goes. I'm marginally worse-looking than my mum, but she never realised she was a hottie.

Money ups the looks of young people, not all of the beautiful young ones will be beautiful in middle-age either.

Having a stunning parent ups the chances you will be uglier, which is always a shame for the offspring of top models and not very attractive but rich, fat men.

There’s nothing wrong with how she looks, but like Lila Moss, I think she’s just very average looking. Without the money and the stylists, they’d look like any other girl on the street.

I actually knew a similar set of twins.

When they were little, one was much cuter. She had very blonde swishy pigtails and was shorter and cherub-chubby and generally just very cutesy, whereas her sister was taller, skinny and had brown hair that wouldn't grow much below her ears. The smaller one also seemed cleverer because she was smaller but more outspoken, and loved the attention so was outgoing and seemed generally more switched on.

When they hit their teens, the shorter one was getting round and heavy, broke out in acne and her hair started to go mouse, while she failed in school. The other became a total beauty and won an academic scholarship. I think it was very hard for the other one after always getting the attention. And yet ... there WAS still a strong likeness somehow!

I think this is pretty accurate actually. The ugly ducking turns into a swan, as they say

To be honest that is true of a lot of celebrities. They are often very disappointing when you see them in the flesh.

Jamie Redknapp is very easy on the eye so yes definitely it happens..

A minus + a minus = a plus

I'll back you up on that one!

I find it funny that the good-looking ones at school who bullied me and some of my friends have, erm, all gone downhill in the looks department since then.

In comparison, some of the ones who got bullied for their looks have turned out to look quite stunning. I find it bizarre that I got bullied for my looks a lot at school, and have apparently turned out to look surprisingly similar to Anne Hathaway, who definitely isn't ugly!

It's obviously Kate Moss's paternal side that's responsible for her looks, because her paternal half-sister is also beautiful and has many features in common with Kate. But neither of them look like their dad! They probably look like a relative or ancestor of his. People can often not look that much like their closest relatives but resemble someone way back, and often that someone is not in their direct line but an uncle/aunt's line. Often two or three generations back. An off-shoot line, I'd call it!

When Kate Middleton was getting married, the papers ran all this stuff about her family history, and there was a photo of a paternal uncle about 2-3 generations back. Pippa looks just like him. And my MIL says that my exH looks just like a deceased great-uncle. My mum always said that I look like a maternal great-grandma. In doing my family's ancestry, I have found photos of my recent ancestors that people have posted online. They look just like my dad and his dad, although they're off-shoot lines rather than direct line.

All this is to say, the off-shoot lines from some way back can appear in your present-day direct line, and I think that that goes some way to explain how good-looking children can have not particularly good-looking parents. Emma Roberts looks SO much like her aunt, Julia Roberts. Another off-shoot line crossing over, looks-wise. They're all gorgeous, of course! Or, like me and my great-grandma, you can look like someone in your direct line back a few gens back.

It works the other way round, too. You can have very good-looking parents and rather average children. Brad and Angelina's first bio child, Shiloh, is stunning, whereas their twins, Vivienne and Knox, are much more ordinary-looking.

I actually find this a fascinating topic, how genes mix and match. I'm convinced there's a "face plate" gene. When people look like a relative, it's often a whole-face thing. Look at how Lisa Marie Presley was a carbon copy of her dad, and how Kaia Gerber is a carbon copy of her mum. Julia Roberts looks just like her dad.

I'm quite surprised and shocked by the fact that no one in this thread seems to take issue with the fact that this happens. It's very disgusting when this occurs and no child, or parent, should ever have to be in that situation.

I think that 10 percent figure was debunked, and it's closer to 2 percent. I'd have to look it up though. I am sure it's not 20 percent.

Don't think Mum and Dad are beautiful.

@EasternStandard I think Kaia Gerber is one of the few celebrity kids who might be modelling without Cindy as a mum. Not only is she absolutely stunning, she also has the height and long legs and natural thinness. The late Presley was also utterly stunning and good enough to have made it on his own, imo. (So tragic.) Both Cindy's kids are/were just gorgeous. While their dad looks rough these days, he was a model in his youth and looked totally different. He actually looked a lot like Presley.

Agree about Lila Moss. She looks nothing like Kate and just like her dad, Jefferson Hack. While Lila is still a very pretty girl by real-world standards, she in no way has the bone structure required for modelling and would very obviously not be doing it, if not for Kate. Her face is flat, like her dad's.

The RF have a strange and particular range of features.

That’s because all 3 of them inherited Bruce Willis’ large chin/jaw. A bit unfortunate as it gives them all a rather masculine look.

Yes, when the mum had an affair with a very attractive man.

Yes! Princess Andre is a good example of this. I always thought she was a bit odd looking as a child...but as an adult, she's grown into her face and is stunning!

As a child I did some modelling. I was a figure skater, a dancer and often doted on for my good looks. I had a small nose, beautiful eyes, perfect cheekbones, a very slim figure and a head full of blonde-brown ringlets and a smile even I am jealous of!
I have grown into a fat, 30-something with a semi-permanent scowl, greying hair and thick glasses. (Although I still have pretty eyes)
My husband was a skinny, freckly child, with ears that stuck out, watery hazelish eyes and a massive nose. He’s grown into a handsome, dark haired man, he grew into his ears and nose, his eyes are deep brown and his smile makes his whole face light up.
Our boys are tall, slim, with thick blonde-brown hair and cute button noses. Oldest has dimples and a cocky smile, his dad’s dark eyes and wide shoulders. Little one has my very green eyes and wide grin, long legs and super long eyelashes.
Genetics are weird. Neither of my kids have inherited my fucked up heart (genetic issue) but they both inherited their dad’s neurodivergency.

I've just googled Michael's sheens daughter, I think she is very pretty. Ben Afflecks and Jen's kids are below average looks and yet they are both attractive people.

I think this thread is getting a bit specific now ...

Especially when it is children being commented on negatively. Must be hard enough to grow up as the child of a celeb.

KG is very tall, slim and attractive but her facial features are more her dad than mum. Her eyes are closer together. Ik it’s small fry stuff but with looks it’s so rare that people have the whole thing that accelerates them to the top of modelling.

Not to be harsh, she is still good looking. Just that it’s tiny changes that make top models.

Agree re LM though.

Maybe, but Johnny Depp and Venessa Paradis were always far above average if you ask me

I come from a genetically blessed family, but my features are the slightly wonky version, and quite asymmetrical.

My son inherited the "good side" features of me, but perfectly symmetrical.

My husband is drop dead turn around in the street gorgeous. In his thirties he looked like young Daniel Craig but a bit more buff he is still good looking now in his 60s and gets a lot of attention. His nephew is very similar. The rest of the family not so much. Genetics is a lottery really

My eldest DS is classically handsome. He was a cute child who’s turned into a very good looking man. DH and I are both, frankly, very average. DS looks like both of us (more like me) but somehow out featured have merged to create a lovely looking human. I do sometimes just look at him and wonder where it came from 😂.

This is a really mean thing to say but I’m always shocked at how Brooklyn Beckham has turned out, looks-wise. Until he ruined his looks with Botox I thought his dad was one of the most handsome men in the world. Clearly it didn’t filter down to BB!