The woman in the picture is not smiling.
Nor is she wearing any make-up to soften the sharp lines of her face.
She may have been pretty once. In the way that anyone young and slender is. But she is no longer young or slender. Her face is wrinkled and has the unmistakable roundness of somebody carrying more than a few extra pounds.
Her hair is unstyled and just a bit frizzy.
Her eyes are blank.
At first glance this is a woman with nothing to lose. I’d not want to meet her in a dark alley, that’s for sure.
But on closer inspection she just looks tired.
Passport photos, there’s no hiding from the truth.
I really do look like that.
