lessons I learned about looking younger from a photo

Mom	Dad's Mom	Mom's Mom

I am a big collector of family photos and as you can see my mother and grandmothers could have all been movie stars ~ perhaps some of it was the black & white photography, but I tend to think they were all just hotties.  I'm sure you can understand why I want to believe it's genetics ~ hehe.

But I learned a lot more about looking younger from this picture taken when my grandmother was older than from any of the pictures taken in her youth.  And I will share my "secrets" with you

Mom, Grandma Cook, Me, Great-grandma Dennis

* smile ~ we were celebrating Christmas when that photo was taken but you sure can't tell if we were having fun or not!  Smiles might not make us look younger but being happy is better than looking young any day.  (Mom says it's cuz it took so long for pictures to be taken back then!!)
* wear clothes that suit your shape ~ I don't think anyone looked good in those shirt dresses besides Barbara Billingsley on Leave It To Beaver!  No matter how you're shaped, there are clothes that emphasize what you like and others that show what you prefer to keep hidden.  Choose accordingly.
* hair ~ what can I say?  You don't have to color your hair ~ several of my friends don't and they look amazing.  I'm not quite there in the bravery department!  But whether you color your hair or not, if you wear it like an old lady OR like you did in high school, your age is going to show.
* overall image matters more than the details ~ if you could look closely at this picture, you would see my grandmother has no wrinkles!  Her skin is soooooooooooo smooth.  But that's not the first impression you get from looking at this picture.
* be prepared ~ this photo showed me that double chins and weight gain are just as likely to be in my genetic code as movie-star good looks so I already have a chin surgery fund!!  Okay, not really but I've joked about it for a long time.  I do prefer photos be taken from slightly above so my chin, well, only has one layer.  When I got my drivers license renewed this year I noticed that my chin line is a lot less distinct than it was 4 years ago!  yikes! 

Right now my age is half-way between the ages of my grandmother and great-grandmother in the photo above.   I think you'll agree that one of the above lessons took ~ I sure know how to smile and laugh!!