The Uncanny valley

This is a bit of an odd thing to talk about (I tried explaining it to my husband the other day and he just nodded politely while clearly thinking about football).

I’m a bit of a science fiction geek, I love Star Wars, Star Trek, and I’ve just finished The Hail Mary Project which was fab (highly recommend, and yes this does have a point!)

Anyways, have you ever heard of the uncanny valley? It’s a term from science fiction used to describe when something looks human… but not quite human. Something feels a bit off, even if you can’t put your finger on it.

And weirdly, that’s exactly what popped into my head the other day when I saw photos from a movie premiere.

Back when I was at uni, one of my good friends had a younger sister. She was one of those people you couldn’t help but notice, outgoing, funny, magnetic, and absolutely beautiful. I used to see her a lot when she was visiting uni, or when we stayed at my mates house.

Any hoo, Fast forward to now, and she’s a proper movie star. Like, starring-in-a-blockbuster-this-summer famous. Her face is everywhere, in magazines, on Instagram, on billboards.

And before I go on, this isn’t a dig at her. I can’t imagine the pressure of Hollywood, the constant scrutiny, or what that must do to your self-image and ageing. Everyone has the right to make changes to their own body.

But when I saw the premiere photos, she looked… different. I can only presume she’s had work done. She still looks good, but in that slightly uncanny valley way. She almost looks unreal, not human.

Seeing her made me realise, this isn’t just her. More and more, I’m noticing this subtle sameness in famous faces, and it’s not just genetics. It’s a combination of makeup techniques and facial tweaks designed to sharpen, lift, and smooth and it’s quietly changing our perception of what’s ‘normal.’

It got me thinking about how our idea of beauty and “perfection” has shifted so much. Sometimes, in trying to improve or perfect something, you can smooth away the very thing that made it so unique in the first place.

And lately, it feels like more and more famous faces are starting to morph into each other beautiful, yes, but in a way that doesn’t quite look or feel real.

It’s a combination of the way they do their make-up and the tweaks they have done to their face to sharpen, lift, and smooth.

It wasn’t so prevalent in the past, where Hollywood stars all looked really different, impossibly beautiful yes, but often with quirks, imperfections, natural features that looked very different from each other.

Celebs from the 00’S

Some more current stars.

Also apparently celebs no longer flash gorgeous smiles for photos!

Now compare that to many modern stars, where the features start to blend:

• High lifted brows

• Overfilled lips

• Sculpted cheekbones

• Same contour and highlight placement

• Same neutral-toned make-up looks

So if you catch yourself comparing, wondering why you don’t look like that, remember, you’re not supposed to. Their faces aren’t a “baseline” for beauty, they’re a product of very deliberate (and expensive) editing. The things that make you different are often the very things that make you beautiful.