The joke goes that folks are always shy or embarrassed or [insert any other adjective expressing modesty of any caliber] about their passport pictures. They’re always too serious or unnaturally bizarre or [again, insert any other adjective or phrase for expressing dissatisfaction with one’s own passport pic] about it.
Well, the one time it is the reverse—someone actually likes their passport picture because they prepared for it—it still causes a bump in the road. A bump that could have ended in tears.
More Info: TikTok
Passport pictures suck, but they don't have to. Note, though, that if they don't, you still might have trouble at airport security points
Image credits: CardMapr.nl (not the actual photo)
Influencer Alisha Marie recently shared how her very "hot" picture in her passport almost made her miss her flight
Image credits: @alishamarie
Since its posting, the video garnered over 14M views, serving as a warning to everyone not to overdo it with makeup
Image credits: @alishamarie
Airport security had a hard time seeing the similarities between Alisha Marie's "hot" persona and her real, makeupless self
Image credits: @alishamarie
Image credits: @alishamarie
In the end, Alisha Marie did make it through security, but she admitted it was a humbling experience
Meet Alisha Marie, a woman who “does that thing called influencing”, who has recently shared an experience that she won’t forget any time soon. Mostly because passport pictures don’t change all that frequently once you’re an adult.
In the video, Alisha Marie explains that she nearly missed her flight. Why? The people at security were not all that convinced about her identity. Specifically, her passport picture was in great contrast to what she looked like at the moment of boarding.
It’s understandable why most people skip putting on the regular levels of makeup while traveling—for the most part, it’s just impractical. That’s what Alisha Marie did. However, in her passport photo, she was wearing copious amounts of makeup—so much, in fact, that you could say it’s a whole different person.
At least security thought that way.
After some convincing, Alisha Marie did manage to get through security, though feeling humbled and embarrassed. Despite that, she was still able to laugh and joke about it, but the video still serves as a warning to everyone to not overdo it with passport photos or else they might have to do a quick makeup tutorial on the spot. Or miss their flight. Whatever the case, there will be inconvenience.
The video took off immediately. As of this article, it has over 14 million views with 2 million likes and heaps of engagement. Folks who got stopped for their drastically different passport pictures also chimed in, commiserating and relating to the humbling experience.
And others who were on the opposite side of the spectrum—the ones with passport pictures that leave much to be desired in their eyes—explained they never know how to react to the idea that someone at security looks at their most miserable visual representation and thinks “yep, that’s definitely you. Have a safe flight!”.
Well, at least Alisha Marie looks good in her passport picture—that’s the silver lining, according to some netizens.
Image credits: alisha
Requirements for passport photos have become more lax over the years—with one of the biggest simplifications being that people can not submit their own digital photos—but there’s still a number of rules to follow.
The key here is to look how you’d look normally. So, wear clothes you’d normally wear, something simple works best. Also, don’t wear glasses, hats, or headphones, have a natural facial expression, and assume a natural pose and face the camera directly. The point is for you to look as plain as possible, as it’s easier for security to add to that visual instead of trying to take away from it.
Now, the Bureau Of Consular Affairs has a section about how to take a picture yourself, and nowhere does it state that you can’t wear makeup. However, the Passport Photo blog explains that overdoing it with makeup is a big no-no. For once, Alisha Marie’s video explains the obvious reason.
But more specifically, the goal is to keep it as natural as possible: no flashy eyeliner, no saturated lipstick colors, no makeup art, nothing that would exaggerate your face to an unnatural degree. Keep it simple and light. The site suggests matching the foundation with your skin tone, powdering excess oil, contouring, using matte eyeshadow, natural-color lipstick and the like to look best for the picture.
And if makeup doesn’t help, remember that there is a slew of other identification documentation that requires so little, you can literally wear a kitchen strainer as a hat. There are always worse passport pictures in the world, don’t sweat it.
What you can sweat, though, is leaving a comment in the comment section with your thoughts on anything that we talked about today, including your own experiences with passport pictures. And don’t forget that upvote button, and be sure to leave some constructive feedback letting us know how we did in this article. All of this can be found below.
Folks online agreed on the humbling part, sharing their own experiences, but the silver lining was that at least Alisha Marie had a good passport photo
