Types of Smiles
The Meaning of a Smile A smile is the universal welcome. They come in many different shapes, sizes, and even meanings. When someone decides to flash their pearly whites at a passerby, what exactly do they mean by it? I smile all day long for my customers, but that doesn’t mean that I am always happy to be around them. People link smiling to being one of the friendliest gestures one can receive. However, a smile is deceitful and can be taken in many different ways, and wore on many different occasions. Everybody has experienced that moment in their life when they have truly been happy.
They smile all day long and can’t even find one reason why. Those smiles are the best ones to see and, oddly enough, they can even improve someones looks. They are simple smiles that brighten up the entire face and put the sparkle in their eyes. Happy smiles cannot be faked or forced and they curve from ear to ear. People that normally wear happy smiles are ones that are able to put the past behind them. Happy people always seem to be happy and they are fun to be around. The people that frequently use this smile often laughs a lot more than most people. They can also be picked out easily in a crowd because their smiles are genuine.
This is a smile that reflects a happy and joyful heart. Children are the best at the famous naughty or “Up-to-no-good” smiles. These smiles can normally be seen when someone has been caught red handed. For most people, these smiles are humorous and can easily be picked out because of the red faces they cause. Naughty smiles cause the eyebrows to raise, cheeks to redden, and they seem to show more teeth than normal. One can typically find an up-to-no-good smile on a student that was just caught cheating on a test, or a toddler that didn’t hide their vegetables very well.
These smiles show defeat, yet the person wearing them is willing to fight their way out of trouble. Forced smiles are commonly found in Christmas card photos or around the hallways in a high school. These smiles are fake and clearly take more energy to make than a person originally planned to give. Forced smiles are not attractive and do not hide the fact that the person would rather not be smiling. Fake smiles portray an attitude of “I am better than you” to anyone that witnesses them. Preteens seem to abuse this smile more than others, then wonder why their parents tell them to “be nice. High School aged girls have the fake smile perfected, however it looks more like a smirk. It is their way of saying something rude, without saying anything at all. This smile can be paired with an eye roll and a flip of the hair for dramatic effect, but often times the smile alone could kill. When an individual overhears a spicy conversation it sometimes ends with an amused smile. These smiles can either be one of humor or horror, depending on the circumstance. Amused smiles are almost a smug look; the eyes squinted just a little to hide the giggle trying to escape, and the mouth closed yet curved just enough to show a pair of dimples.
An amused smile is one to watch for in a crowd or when telling secrets, because often times the one sharing the smile will share the story to someone else. Confidence is a necessary trait in anybody, and a smile to go with it is sometimes a pleasant thing to see on a person. However, some people like to show it off more than others and it quickly turns into a not-so-pleasant smirk. For example, pageant queens and teenage boys with fancy cars. From the moment the girls walk on the stage, or the boys turn on their car, there is a switch that turns on in their head that makes them believe they are “on top of the world. Their smiles tell all. A smirk looks almost as if the person is boasting. You can tell a smirk from any other smile because the person’s nose is stuck up so high in the air there is a shadow over top of their mouth. These smiles often result in a loss of true friends or a harsh fall back down to Earth. A true confident smile, however, don’t come around very often. Confidence has to build just enough to make the smile look proud, yet subtle. This smile can sometimes take years to develop, but when it’s there it’s hard to remove.
The best way to explain a confident smile would be through example. Such as, a high school freshman trying out for the Varsity Dance Team at her school. As she walks into the gym to show off her double turn, she looks nervous (even though she has it perfected). However, after everything is said and done, she nailed it. She now can walk proudly out of that gym with a very confident smile on her face, knowing she made the dance team. A smile radiates from a person no matter what or who it is meant for, however a confident smile radiates from the core and is there for everybody to see.
Smiling can be the answer to all of our problems, to everyone around the world. It is there to say what we shouldn’t say out loud, or to just simply show that we are happy. Everybody smiles for some reason, it’s just something we as human beings can’t escape from. It is often interesting to think about why we smile, or why we show emotions at all. Often times, it seems as if smiling is our way of letting all of our emotions escape in one simple gesture. Our smiles are uniquely limitless in meanings, and because of that, we are able to hide behind them and only show what we really want to be seen.
