Pucker Problems: Duck Face Passé

Posted on Wednesday, February 20

Guest Post by Natalia Diaz-Weissman

Have you heard of the newest photo trend on Instagram – the duck face? Our guest writer, Natalia, shares her thoughts on this fad.

duck-face-2Are you a victim of the duck face?  You know—that awkward facial expression that way too many females and (males)  post pictures of themselves in a powerful, perch of lips. [Quack, quack!] The picture squeals, but LOL is all your audience is thinking while clicking through the 50 different renditions of the same pose in your social network profile. The sucked in cheeks and head tilted at a thirty degree angle while self-shooting with your iphone over and over from nightclub bathrooms to a seat in your house only you should know about. The prevalent pose has become the target of all digital persona’s and the mission is to perfect the pucker and the perch.

The duck face syndrome is spreading at a million gigabytes per app; with over 200,000 searches a month and thousands of uploads, the “Duck Face” has become the official face of social profiles on all platforms. Not sure what an experienced perch pucker would do if a photographer offered a photo op. If I can recall correctly, the infamous pose first aired on the TV comedy series Full House in 1989, when a student on the show was nicknamed, “Duckface” for making the pursed-lip facial expression. A few years later—the Zoolander phenomenon came full throttle and took the smiling faces being photographed and turned them into a sour-sucking symmetry of “Blue Steel” played by Ben Stiller. The trademark pose won over the world and started a new photo phenomenon! Today, celebrities are also helping spread the duck face movement via social networks, marketing the pose to millions of their followers. Kim Kardashian has trademarked her own photographed “duck face” photos and with the many images of Michelle Obama’s go-to, candid pose, there’s no escaping it! The big question is: what is it about the pose that tricks us into believing it’s cute? Sad to say but most victims don’t know how generic they look! Many involuntarily pose with their friends caught in between fellow duck-face posers, followed by an even more surprised look and paired with the overly-expected hand gesture of the peace sign.

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We’ve gathered here today to try and end the era! Although what feels like the never-ending duck face may go on forever, it begins with you. So as fast as you can say lights, camera, action translate that to stand up straight, drop your arms and smile, you don’t know how pretty you are! If one were to study their own facial expression with a serious scientific purpose or feasibly look in the mirror, this would set hopes that people who make the duck-face would consider changing their go-to expression for their next selfie. If you haven’t caught my drift by now, it’s not that I’m biased towards ducks, it’s that I believe ducks belong in lakes; or, maybe it’s just time for a new photo trend.

Meet Natalia

Natalia Diaz-Weissman is Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Greenroks a multi-media kid-themed entertainment company. A passionate soul and talented multi-tasker, Natalia specializes in the creation of web development, design, content management and social media strategies. Natalia also serves as a digital analyst and contributor to LorensWorld.com and advisor to select number of tech start-ups.

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