For years now, celebrities and influencers have been pouting their lips and sucking in their cheeks to create the infamous duck face look.
But now, there’s a different facial expression taking over the internet — and it's called "dead face."
When Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager heard about the dead face phenomenon gaining momentum among Gen Z social media users, they decided to get to the bottom of the trend — and try it out for themselves on TODAY.
What is dead face?
Basically, the point of dead face is to make your face look completely blank and devoid of emotion.
While duck face requires you to tense and exaggerate certain facial muscles, dead face is achieved by making no effort whatsoever.
“It’s like the face you use when you take your driver’s license picture,” Hoda said Friday on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna.
i-D magazine took a deep dive into the dead face trend earlier this month, and described the look as a “dissociative pout” and even “lobotomy-chic.”
Hoda and Jenna studied some recent examples of dead face done by Gen Z celebrities, including this recent Instagram selfie from 20-year-old Billie Eilish, who is a pro at doing dead face.
They also looked at this photo of musician Dua Lipa with a neutral expression, but weren’t convinced that her expression qualified as dead face.
“To me, that doesn’t look dead,” Jenna said.
They felt the same about a photo of rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
“Well, that just looks model-ish and beautiful,” Hoda said.
Hailey Bieber posts selfies from time to time that look like she’s serving up dead face.
As has model Gigi Hadid.
How do you achieve dead face?
Basically, by doing nothing. Don’t smile or purse your lips in any way. The goal of dead face seems to be to communicate that you’re bored with your picture being taken, and possibly also that you feel slightly dead inside.
Hoda and Jenna tried their hand at dead face with some direction from TODAY photographer Nate Congleton.
“So, what do we do? Like, look like you don’t care? Apathy? Give us our motivation,” Hoda said during their impromptu photo shoot.
She and Jenna got serious to show off their best dead face expressions, but they were laughing again before long.
“I don’t think your face looks dead,” Jenna said to Hoda.
“I feel dead!” Hoda joked. “I only have one expression.”
While Hoda and Jenna were intrigued by this Gen Z trend, it sounds like they won't be posting many dead face selfies going forward.
Jenna said the expressionless pose made her feel “like a mannequin,” and Hoda said she didn’t like how adopting a dead face affected her mood.
“I feel mad, and I’m not mad,” she said. “I think how your face goes, you start feeling.”