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The first time, I thought it was unfortunate.
The second time, I thought it was a coincidence.
But the third time I met a guy from online only to find he had a huge gap between his two front teeth, I realized it wasn’t a coincidence at all; guys with gap-tooth smiles only post closed-lip photos in their online dating profiles.
Of course, we all show off the "best" versions of ourselves online. The popular online dating site OkCupid, for instance, has found that on average online daters are two inches shorter and 20% poorer than they say they are in their profiles, and the more attractive a person’s profile picture, the more likely it is to be out of date.
But should we all exaggerate in our online dating profiles?
I’m going to say no. And not because the guys’ gap teeth turned me off, but because their hiding their gap teeth turned me off a whole hell of a lot. It showed that they felt insecure about that part of themselves. Did they not think they could get a date if they showed their true smiles?
Sure, they probably get more first dates only showing their hot, semi-smoldering, closed-lip smiles. But they probably get less second dates that way than they would if they also showed their true, big gappy smiles.
So let’s all just all post our real height, our real body type, and yes, even our un-Photoshoped pictures online. Because what’s the fun in being insecure, turned off, and generally awkward?
xo,
Click-n-Tell