“You Are So Beaut-OHGOD!”: 40 Hilarious Before-And-After Pictures, As Shared By These Women With A Sense Of Humor (New Pics)

The community in question welcomes its members with a description saying, "The only way we'll judge you is if you try to maintain your dignity." Ever since it was created in 2012, it has been a safe space for women to share the ugliest photos they could possibly produce. And if we’re being honest, seeing how these beautiful and humorous ladies can turn into the goofiest creatures in mere seconds is making us feel extremely validated.

According to the internet database 'Know Your Meme', the subreddit was created shortly after the trend appeared on Tumblr on a blog 'Pretty Girls Making Ugly Faces' in 2011. The idea for women to juxtapose their attractive photographs with less-than-photogenic moments quickly spiraled online, inspiring thousands of women to participate in the fad. Heaps of double chins, bucked teeth, and squashed lips graced people’s feeds, challenging the unrealistic beauty standards and proving that nobody can look on-point all the time. And before anyone asks, men participate in the trend as well! They even have a 'Handsome Guys Ugly Faces' subreddit dedicated to the cause.

The purpose of the pictures you see in this list is not only to be a source of rib-tickling laughter but also to show everyone that even the most photogenic people can have an unflattering side too. After all, we’ve long heard about how both social and mainstream media present utopian beauty standards and body images that affect how we view our own. Whenever we succumb to the lure of the mindless scroll and forget that what we see online is not always real, it can have an impact on how we perceive ourselves and how we judge others.

Unfortunately, this can have dire consequences and can lead to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, or negatively affect our psychological health in other ways. Especially if we compare ourselves to images of other people online. In a survey of 227 female university students, the respondents said that while they browse Facebook, they tend to judge their own appearance negatively in comparison to their peers or celebrities.

Jasmine Fardouly, a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and co-author of the study told BBC, "People are comparing their appearance to people in Instagram images, or whatever platform they're on, and they often judge themselves to be worse off." As she pointed out, it all stems from the fact that people tend to exaggerate their lives online and often present a one-sided, more polished version of themselves. "If you know someone well, you’ll know they’re only showing the best bits — but if they’re an acquaintance, you won’t have any other information to go on."

Many women feel sick and tired of unrealistic examples they see on social media, so they take matters into their own hands. Even doing something as simple as striking a silly pose adds a sense of genuineness to the online world and briefly interrupts the carefully curated images we’ve gotten so used to.

The founder of 'Pretty Girls Ugly Faces', Redditor Sinkingfast, told Bored Panda in a previous interview that the community has stayed consistent and loyal throughout the years. "We get a lot of users who see positive reception to their posts and come back as repeat posters. Creating a safe and fun environment to post weird pics in judgment-free was always the goal and I'd like to think we've maintained it, especially with the help of our loyal user base. Our community is great. I want people to be comfortable enough to share and have fun. The subreddit really belongs to the users and wouldn't exist without them."

They explained that we humans usually tend to deem people based on their appearance, clothing, and clothing. However, forming certain opinions about people we don’t know can lead to snap judgments that, more often than not, tend to be false.

"My opinion loosely follows something like Dunbar’s number, the theory that we can only know so many people. We used to live in hunter/gatherer tribes as a species and as cities grew, well, people don't know people anymore. You can't know everyone, especially not within a massive city. Even in the age of social media, you can only peek into so many lives."

"As an example, I might wear a specific band t-shirt and in that instance, I would be doing it to advertise to others I am a fan," the moderator continued. "Someone could judge me on the shirt and I may get a friend out of it. Someone could also judge me negatively. I chose to present myself that way, though. I don't choose my face."

Redditor Sinkingfast pointed out that people now often assume that if someone presents themselves one way, that’s how they want the world to see them. Even if we're talking about features that are simply out of their control. "You see it all the time in films where someone like Steve Buscemi (Did you know he was an FDNY firefighter?) who may be the nicest dude in the world, is hired to play a certain role or type because of his physical appearance."

"What if he wasn't an actor who was typecast all the way to the bank? If he was just a unique-looking dude on the street? Might someone have harsher opinions of him because he's not the typical standard for beauty? Over attributes he cannot fully control," they wondered.

But even though many people have a tendency to jump to conclusions, Redditor Sinkingfast remains optimistic about the future. "I think even the most diligent people can't help but slip up and sometimes be biased or judge a book by its cover even if it may be unfair to do so. Hopefully, over time as a society, we don't snap judgment about someone over something they can't control. Humanity could stand to be a little nicer in general."