Kim Kardashian is known for being in front of the camera 24/7. When the KKW Beauty mogul isn’t letting us all into her life on her long-running reality show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians she’s on Instagram snapping selfies or sharing videos on her IG stories. However, in recent years there has been one significant difference about North, Saint and Chicago’s mom in photos. Though she used to smile for the cameras and on red carpets, Kardashian rarely shows her pearly whites these days.

The real reason Kim Kardashian never smiles anymore

Though she’s mastered the Tyra Banks smize –Kim Kardashian refuses to crack a full smile in her photos. Instead, she chooses to stare into the camera for a more “high fashion” look. Since Kardashian seems like a nice person, this look doesn’t exactly fit her personality, but the 38-year-old recently revealed that not smiling is one of her biggest beauty secrets.

During a recent Mario Dedivanovic’s Master Class event, Kardashian was asked by an attendee to share her secret for smooth skin. The soon-to-be mom of four replied, “Don’t smile.” Not smiling certainly prevents any laugh lines from appearing, but because Kardashian laughs and smiles with her kiddos all the time we don’t think she’s just going around frowning or smizing in every aspect of her life.

Why did Kim Kardashian stop smiling in photos?

Preventing laugh lines was simply a side-effect of Kardashian’s choice not to smile. She originally stopped smiling back in 2013 when she was pregnant with her first child –North West. She experienced extreme swelling due to preeclampsia. This happens when women develop high blood pressure when pregnant, and their feet, legs, and hands swell.

The horrible comments about her appearance changed the way Kardashian wanted her picture taken. She also felt like she didn’t want to be nice to people who profited off of taking her photo. She told C Magazine,

Before I was always smiling, and so into being out and about…I don’t want to smile for them. I don’t want to be out. Even if I was more confident, I just didn’t feel like being that girl who was going to be smiling for every photo. It changed my mood; it changed who I was; it changed my personality a lot.

Does smiling make you look older?

Kim Kardashian might be on to something. According to a 2017 study by the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review-Journal, people may look older when they are smiling. However, the study does not say if smiling actually ages you. Still, with her no-smiling crusade, Kardashian has an ally in her rapper hubby Kanye West. Back in 2015 at The Daily Front Row’s Fashion Los Angeles Awards he said, “You know the paparazzi, always come up to me, ‘Why you not smiling?’ and I think, not smiling makes me smile.”

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