Don't you dare smile!

Ok, so one of the girls I go to school with was telling me that she went down to get her driver’s license renewed. Apparently at the Charlotte DMV, you can’t smile in your driver’s license photo anymore. (What the heck?) She said that right before they took her picture, she smiled, and they made her take it over again! When she asked about it, they told her that it is because if she ever got arrested, they want her license photo to look more like her mug shot (!?!)

I found this hard to believe. So I went to research it… could not find any written rules about DMV smiling regulations, but I did find this:

Last December, the New York Times reported that international passport guidelines advised people posing for passports that, "only closed-mouth, 'neutral' expressions will be allowed," so that they could be read by biometrics instruments. Throwing a bone to the irrepressibly cheerful, the guidelines state that a "smile with closed jaw is allowed, but is not preferred." So don't you dare smile with an open mouth unless you want the terrorists to win. You can read the article here.

I guess that the DMVs are following suit? Makes a little more sense than a mugshot reason. Still, I’m glad I was allowed to smile in my photo. License photos are usually bad enough as it is, and I consider myself lucky that mine isn’t too horrendous.