Hate How You Look In Pictures? You Need To Hear This Dermatologist’s Advice.

Have you ever gotten ready for a night out and been happy with what you saw in the mirror, only to be disheartened by a photo taken of you shortly thereafter? Unflattering pictures have a way of shaking your confidence.

A simple analogy — courtesy of Bay Area cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Samantha Ellis— may help you reframe negative thoughts about how you appear in photos. She posted a video on her Instagram in June about a memorable piece of advice she once received from a mentor of hers.

The analogy “really changed the way I view photography of myself because I generally don’t like the way I look in pictures,” Ellis says in the video. “And it also changed the way I talk to my patients as a cosmetic dermatologist because I have lots of patients who are beautiful and they come in to have cosmetic work done just because they don’t like the way they look in a photo.”

Here’s what her mentor said:

The video has amassed more than 22 million views, hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments from people thanking Ellis for this perspective. So if you consider yourself unphotogenic, you’re definitely not alone.

Elisa Martínez — a psychotherapist in Aromas, California, who specializes in self-esteem — said it’s pretty common for people to dislike the way they look in photos, “especially with the rise of social media and the emphasis on presenting our ‘best self’ to the world.”

“Common complaints I hear are ‘I look so old!’ or ‘I’m too fat’ — perceptions that are largely rooted in ageist, fat-phobic societal beauty standards, among others,” she told HuffPost.

“Some complaints fixate on specific physical features — think crooked nose, skin discolorations, etc. — that, in reality, are usually not perceived as