An ex-Mormon has shared her theory of why members of her former church resemble each other.
YouTuber Alyssa Grenfell moved from Utah to New York in 2017. Now, she’s using her platform to inform her followers about her days in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and explain why she “gave up eternal life for coffee.”
- Ex-Mormon Alyssa Grenfell believes "Mormon face" is due to a small gene pool from marrying within the church.
- The concept of "Mormon vibe" includes being "super hyper-friendly," the YouTuber indicates.
- A study found people can identify Mormons by appearance, particularly skin texture.
In one of her videos, titled “Mormon face is a real thing,” the 31-year-old shared why she believes members of the Mormon Church have a physical resemblance.
“I see this all over social media, where content creators get tons of comments saying ‘You look very Mormon,’” she begins saying in the clip, which has received 2.5 million views.
An ex-Mormon has shared her theory of why she thinks members of her former church look alike
Image credits: Alyssa Grenfell
The video then shows a photo of Ryan Gosling, with Alyssa writing that the Canadian actor “used to be a Mormon, and people say he has a Mormon face.”
“Mormons really only marry other Mormons,” the YouTuber reasoned. “You can’t marry in a Mormon temple unless it’s two Mormons getting married. This, in large part, has made it so that the gene pool is actually very small — especially in a place like Utah, where Mormons fled and went to Utah to be able to practice polygamy in peace.”
Therefore, those church members were only having children with other Mormons “for a very long time.”
Her clip, titled “Mormon face is a real thing,” received 2.5 million views
Image credits: Alyssa Grenfell
“The only opportunity to make the gene pool a little larger is to convert people,” Alyssa said.
“Also, Mormons thought interracial marriage was a sin for decades,” an overlay text on the video reads.
According to the author of “How to Leave the Mormon Church: An Exmormon’s Guide to Rebuilding After Religion,” the Mormon “look” is accompanied by a specific “Mormon vibe,” which the content creator describes as “super hyper-friendly.”
“Mormons are taught to proselytize and share their religion,” she continued. “I think that Mormon culture is very copycat.”
“You can’t marry in a Mormon temple unless it’s two Mormons getting married. This, in large part, has made it so that the gene pool is actually very small,” Alyssa said
Image credits: Alyssa Grenfell
A 2010 research paper may actually prove Alyssa’s point. Psychology professor Nicholas Rule of Toronto University found that Mormons and non-Mormons alike can identify Mormons based on their appearance—more specifically, their “skin texture.”
Rule began the study by collecting images of Mormon and non-Mormon men and women from major cities in the U.S. The photographed individuals had no facial adornments (piercings or glasses) and were aged 18–30. Participants were asked to differentiate between who was Mormon and who was not.
Non-Mormons could identify Mormons 60% of the time, and the percentage of Mormons identifying Mormons was slightly higher.
Rule explained that skin texture was the key indicator in distinguishing a Mormon from a non-Mormon, and it was related to a perception of health.
Watch Alyssa’s video below
“The only opportunity to make the gene pool a little larger is to convert people,” the YouTuber explained
Image credits: Entheta
Mormon doctrine advises against the use of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, and drugs.
These factors make Mormons some of the healthiest and longest-living people, according to a UCLA study.
“People make inferences about group membership based on how healthy someone looks, and some see spirituality in that,” Rule explained.
“Perceptions of health were also responsible for differences in perceived spirituality, explaining folk hypotheses that Mormons are distinct because they appear more spiritual than non-Mormons,” the study, published in the Public Library of Science Journal, reads.
“I have to say I like that super friendliness about Mormons,” a social media user commented
This is funny because Alyssa herself resembles the women shown in that Mormon blog picture alot, so she does have a point. (Downvote me all you want. This is just an observation based on her pictures and the pictures she shows. I haven't done any research myself and don't know enough mormon people.)
I felt like people in the Provo and Salt Lake areas had the look, but as I have lived outside of Utah, I see a lot of people with similar features that (to my knowledge) never were part of the religion. A lot of the people in Utah are descended from Northern Europe, so I've noticed more people with such heritage tend to have the skin texture and facial features. Just my observation.
I do not think they look that much alike, but they do have similar facial expressions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has 17.2 million members worldwide. Of course people from certain geographic areas will tend to look similar.
I am ex Mormon with a long family history in Utah dating back to the founding of SLC. Like many Mormon people of that era my genealogy is NW European. So, yes, you'd expect to see such features from folks in SLC, Provo etc. That's how genetics works. That will be true for any time and place. It's not the Mormonism that creates the 'look', but the shared history. Marrying by type will perpetuate that some, sure. I lived in upstate NY for a long time. I overheard my girlfriend talking to her professor once. He took one look at me and asked her if my parents were Mormon. We were floor at the time, but it makes sense.
My Swedish g-g-gransmother's eldest brother (20 years difference) moved to Utah in the 19th century. I now have many Mormon relatives. I am in contact with them on FB and email. One mentioned he was coming to my area this year. I'm afraid he'll try to convert me, and I made a point to make it known I am an atheist.
Learn all the songs from the Book of Mormon and you'll be fine.
Load More Replies... If anyone would like to read an article fact checking her claims, this is very informative: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/04/17/mormons-new-york-post-article-alyssa-grenfell/
I have not noticed this! A close friend of mine is Mormon and black. So is her husband. She looks very different from your typical Mormon!
My former best friend is Mormon and she is not super hyper friendly. Or wasn't anyway. Her family wasn't typical either. But maybe that had something to do with the fact the mom converted from Catholicism? But these people sure weren't hyper. Major nerds though. And big fans of British humor (mainly the shows they featured on PBS). Plus this was in Southern California not Utah. that could also have something to do with it. IDK.
Yes, the Mormons in Zion (Utah/Idaho) are a different creature from Mormons in the "mission field" (everywhere else on the face of the Earth).
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Hopefully at some point in my life people will realize that religions are all evil and serve no positive role in society.
The hair style, singular, not plural, on those girls is kind of a give away too. Farrah Fawcett much?
Not at all religious but had a great Mormon experience. We wanted to see the eclipse a few years ago in Idaho and the accommodation fell through. A nice Mormon lady said we could stay in her kids' playroom for a couple of days. Lots of kids, of course. We met her Mormon friends and had a great time. Lovely people.
So all the cult members look alike? Shocking. So glad some dumb TikTok video pointed that out.
Interesting that this is how some use their experience to hurt, condemn and bring disbelief to the world rather than looking at the positive brought to them. Also how does she explain the variety found among those members of the church in Africa, South America? is this just for white individuals? Do those outside an organization know best? Especially when they seem to have a chip on their shoulder? I think I’ll get my facts from those willing to live the difficult principles vs those who only point, complain and laugh. Perhaps it’s time to move on and find a useful outlet for her life.
@Richard, she is talking about Mormons from Utah, where she lived until she moved to New York in 2017 and specifically about "Mormon Face", which was described in the article as being attributed to the white Mormon pioneers and their descendants who... let me just cut and paste from the text above for your convenience: “Mormons really only marry other Mormons,” the YouTuber reasoned. “You can’t marry in a Mormon temple unless it’s two Mormons getting married. This, in large part, has made it so that the gene pool is actually very small — especially in a place like Utah, where Mormons fled and went to Utah to be able to practice polygamy in peace.” “The only opportunity to make the gene pool a little larger is to convert people,” Alyssa said. “Also, Mormons thought interracial marriage was a sin for decades,” an overlay text on the video reads. Therefore, those church members were only having children with other Mormons “for a very long time.” This ain't about Mormons elsewhere.
Load More Replies... This is funny because Alyssa herself resembles the women shown in that Mormon blog picture alot, so she does have a point. (Downvote me all you want. This is just an observation based on her pictures and the pictures she shows. I haven't done any research myself and don't know enough mormon people.)
I felt like people in the Provo and Salt Lake areas had the look, but as I have lived outside of Utah, I see a lot of people with similar features that (to my knowledge) never were part of the religion. A lot of the people in Utah are descended from Northern Europe, so I've noticed more people with such heritage tend to have the skin texture and facial features. Just my observation.
I do not think they look that much alike, but they do have similar facial expressions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has 17.2 million members worldwide. Of course people from certain geographic areas will tend to look similar.
I am ex Mormon with a long family history in Utah dating back to the founding of SLC. Like many Mormon people of that era my genealogy is NW European. So, yes, you'd expect to see such features from folks in SLC, Provo etc. That's how genetics works. That will be true for any time and place. It's not the Mormonism that creates the 'look', but the shared history. Marrying by type will perpetuate that some, sure. I lived in upstate NY for a long time. I overheard my girlfriend talking to her professor once. He took one look at me and asked her if my parents were Mormon. We were floor at the time, but it makes sense.
My Swedish g-g-gransmother's eldest brother (20 years difference) moved to Utah in the 19th century. I now have many Mormon relatives. I am in contact with them on FB and email. One mentioned he was coming to my area this year. I'm afraid he'll try to convert me, and I made a point to make it known I am an atheist.
Learn all the songs from the Book of Mormon and you'll be fine.
Load More Replies... If anyone would like to read an article fact checking her claims, this is very informative: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/04/17/mormons-new-york-post-article-alyssa-grenfell/
I have not noticed this! A close friend of mine is Mormon and black. So is her husband. She looks very different from your typical Mormon!
My former best friend is Mormon and she is not super hyper friendly. Or wasn't anyway. Her family wasn't typical either. But maybe that had something to do with the fact the mom converted from Catholicism? But these people sure weren't hyper. Major nerds though. And big fans of British humor (mainly the shows they featured on PBS). Plus this was in Southern California not Utah. that could also have something to do with it. IDK.
Yes, the Mormons in Zion (Utah/Idaho) are a different creature from Mormons in the "mission field" (everywhere else on the face of the Earth).
Load More Replies... Hopefully at some point in my life people will realize that religions are all evil and serve no positive role in society.
The hair style, singular, not plural, on those girls is kind of a give away too. Farrah Fawcett much?
Not at all religious but had a great Mormon experience. We wanted to see the eclipse a few years ago in Idaho and the accommodation fell through. A nice Mormon lady said we could stay in her kids' playroom for a couple of days. Lots of kids, of course. We met her Mormon friends and had a great time. Lovely people.
So all the cult members look alike? Shocking. So glad some dumb TikTok video pointed that out.
Interesting that this is how some use their experience to hurt, condemn and bring disbelief to the world rather than looking at the positive brought to them. Also how does she explain the variety found among those members of the church in Africa, South America? is this just for white individuals? Do those outside an organization know best? Especially when they seem to have a chip on their shoulder? I think I’ll get my facts from those willing to live the difficult principles vs those who only point, complain and laugh. Perhaps it’s time to move on and find a useful outlet for her life.
@Richard, she is talking about Mormons from Utah, where she lived until she moved to New York in 2017 and specifically about "Mormon Face", which was described in the article as being attributed to the white Mormon pioneers and their descendants who... let me just cut and paste from the text above for your convenience: “Mormons really only marry other Mormons,” the YouTuber reasoned. “You can’t marry in a Mormon temple unless it’s two Mormons getting married. This, in large part, has made it so that the gene pool is actually very small — especially in a place like Utah, where Mormons fled and went to Utah to be able to practice polygamy in peace.” “The only opportunity to make the gene pool a little larger is to convert people,” Alyssa said. “Also, Mormons thought interracial marriage was a sin for decades,” an overlay text on the video reads. Therefore, those church members were only having children with other Mormons “for a very long time.” This ain't about Mormons elsewhere.
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