We could just stop there actually. If the photo made you laugh then my work’s done.

A few weeks ago I was with my son at the orthodontist. She asked him to smile and then said, ‘we could make that smile even better’. So next month he’ll be sporting braces. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with his teeth, but these days it seems perfection is hard to obtain.

I wore train tracks on my crowded teeth for two years. By the time I got my twenties I still disliked my smile. Even today I still hide behind my husband’s shoulder when we’re taking a selfie. Honestly.

I love my son’s smile now. That will never change. My brother once told me I had a ‘kind smile’. Unfortunately that was in response to me saying I was ugly so not really a compliment either!

I would argue that everyone’s smile is beautiful, if it comes from their heart. ‘People’ have decreed that Audrey Hepburn has a uniquely symmetrical face. Her life wasn’t perfect though. No-one’s is.

I spend eight minutes every other day making my hair as perfect as I can, smoothing the frizz, straightening the kinks. I tried to leave it be once but the results were an Olive Oil-esque type of crazy!

Didn’t help that my husband called it ‘wild’.

So, what to do?

Look into a mirror and smile.

You are perfect.

Don’t work on your appearance.

You’re already beautiful.

I’d rather be wild and kind than perfected, wouldn’t you?