15 Benefits of Smiling

Ever have anyone walk up to you and tell you to smile? It might be for a good reason. You can boost your mood and immune system, and even gain trust from another person! Here are 15 fascinating facts about the benefits of smiling, and why you should do it more often.

1. Forcing yourself to smile can boost your mood: Psychologists have found that even if you’re in bad mood, you can instantly lift your spirits by forcing yourself to smile.
2. It boosts your immune system: Smiling really can improve your physical health, too. Your body is more relaxed when you smile, which contributes to good health and a stronger immune system.
3. Smiles are contagious: It’s not just a saying: smiling really is contagious, scientists say. In a study conducted in Sweden, people had difficulty frowning when they looked at other subjects who were smiling, and their muscles twitched into smiles all on their own.
4. Smiles Relieve Stress: Your body immediately releases endorphins when you smile, even when you force it. This sudden change in mood will help you feel better and release stress.
5. It’s easier to smile than to frown: Scientists have discovered that your body has to work harder and use more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
6. It’s a universal sign of happiness: While hand shakes, hugs, and bows all have varying meanings across cultures, smiling is known around the world and in all cultures as a sign of happiness and acceptance.
7. We still smile at work: While we smile less at work than we do at home, 30% of subjects in a research study smiled five to 20 times a day, and 28% smiled over 20 times per day at the office.
8. Smiles use from 5 to 53 facial muscles: Just smiling can require your body to use up to 53 muscles, but some smiles only use 5 muscle movements.
9. Babies are born with the ability to smile: Babies learn a lot of behaviors and sounds from watching the people around them, but scientists believe that all babies are born with the ability, since even blind babies smile.
10. Smiling helps you get promoted: Smiles make a person seem more attractive, sociable and confident, and people who smile more are more likely to get a promotion.
11. Smiles are the most easily recognizable facial expression: People can recognize smiles from up to 300 feet away, making it the most easily recognizable facial expression.
12. Women smile more than men: Generally, women smile more than men, but when they participate in similar work or social roles, they smile the same amount. This finding leads scientists to believe that gender roles are quite flexible. Boy babies, though, dosmile less than girl babies, who also make more eye contact.
13. Smiles are more attractive than makeup: A research study conducted by Orbit Complete discovered that 69% of people find women more attractive when they smile than when they are wearing makeup
14. There are 19 different types of smiles: UC-San Francisco researcher identified 19 types of smiles and put them into two categories: polite “social” smiles which engage fewer muscles, and sincere “felt” smiles that use more muscles on both sides of the face.
15. Babies start smiling as newborns: Most doctors believe that real smiles occur when babies are awake at the age of four-to-six weeks, but babies start smiling in their sleep as soon as they’re born.

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Get into STEM with the Girl Scouts

Know a girl who wants to get into STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)? If you’re looking for after-school activities, check out the Girl Scouts! There, girls can immerse themselves in STEM education and even earn spiffy new badges for “Naturalist,” “Digital Art,” “Science and Technology,” “Innovation” and “Financial Literacy.”

Girls push boundaries, test limits, and look at the world around them with inquisitive eyes. They're natural scientists!

Girl Scouts introduces girls of every age to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experiences relevant to everyday life. Whether they're discovering how a car's engine runs, how to manage finances, or exploring careers in STEM fields, girls are fast-forwarding into the future.


STEM and the National Program

Every girl needs a chance to explore the fascinating world of STEM. Girl Scouting encourages girls of all ages by offering "fun with purpose" through its K–12 national program. The Girl Scout program includes two curriculum resources: National Leadership Journeys and National Proficiency Badges.

Leadership Journeys are core to Girl Scouting because they lead girls to discover what they care about and change the world. Girls explore a variety of interests along a Journey, everything from the arts to the outdoors and, of course, STEM.


Girl Scouts' Unique Approach to STEM

Girl Scouts' approach to STEM is unique because:

• STEM experiences are framed within the context of leadership: As girls participate in Girl Scouting, they develop leadership skills to make the world a better place. Research shows girls are more interested in STEM careers when they know how their work can help others.
• The Girl Scout Leadership Experience engages girls through the three Girl Scout processes of: girl-led, learning by doing, and cooperative learning.

Here's how these processes provide quality STEM experiences for girls:

Girl-led: Even when a girl has an interest in STEM, she might find that boys take the lead in a school environment due to unspoken assumptions about gender roles. Girl Scouts offers a safe, supportive place for girls to seek challenges. The girl-led process encourages girls to decide which topics they want to explore and how they want to go about it.

Learning by doing: Research shows that, particularly with STEM, youth need to be hands-on, active learners. The learning-by-doing process encourages this approach. In addition, Girl Scouts' learning-by-doing process involves a reflection step that asks girls to think about how a given activity worked and what they would do differently in the future—a key skill in scientific testing and conducting experiments.

Cooperative learning: In general, girls prefer a collaborative leadership style, rather than the traditional, top-down, "command and control" approach. The cooperative learning process gives girls the opportunity to develop leadership and STEM skills in a way that might feel most comfortable.



Read more at girlscouts.org.

Girls Love Science Too: 5 Tech Toys to Inspire Your Daughter

It can be hard to overcome all the messaging that science is just for boys. If your daughter is more hesitant to try out the discipline, consider one of these STEM-friendly toys that are targeted just for girls!

Doc McStuffins

Wired reports kids in kindergarten can find science intimidating, characterizing it has "hard" or "only for adults." At the same time, girls in particular begin absorbing cultural messages that their intelligence isn’t necessarily an attractive trait. But Doc McStuffins acts as an antidote to those ideas.

A talking doll with her own animated show on Disney, the Doc character is a young African-American girl who loves science. She practices play-medicine on her dolls, using her glitter-encrusted medical tools to treat and diagnose them. Because Doc is a child, her approach to science-based themes feels friendly and accessible, not to mention, it actively changes the image kids usually conjure up when they think of the word "scientist."

Doc's positive influence has made her so popular even adults love her.

Roominate

Roominate was created by three Stanford-educated engineers who all credit their interest in science to early childhood exposure to it. Their self-designed toy got quite a bit of attention this year, and for good reason: It allows girls to design and build a customizable dollhouse, including designing the furniture and wiring the rooms for electricity. Because the wiring aspect is simple, and the dollhouse parts are made for small hands, there’s no intimidation factor involved. Even better, Roominate helps girls learn basic engineering concepts while they exercise their imaginations.

Creative Cosmetics

Thames & Kosmos is renowned for creating a variety of cool science-based kits for kids, but one in particular unites the concepts of chemistry and beauty. Creative Cosmetics is the kit that teaches kids how to mix ingredients to create particular chemical reactions, and then use those principles to formulate their own unique skin cleansers, shampoos and makeup products.

Thames & Kosmos also creates a similar kit called Perfume Science, which uses the same principles so that kids can create customizable fragrances.

GoldieBlox

Goldieblox is an engineering toy with a twist. Creator Debbie Sterling discovered that while boys naturally like building things, girls really love reading. And so she created an interactive story based around "Goldie, the kid inventor who loves to build." As girls read along, they construct whatever Goldie does. In the first installment, girls build a "belt drive," which Sterling cleverly names a "Spinning Machine." Later in the series, they design a vehicle and erect a pulley elevator.


SmartMax Magnetic Discovery

SmartMax is a series of building blocks originally sold in Europe. What makes them special is that they're loaded with heavy-duty magnets, allowing for easy connectivity and stability. Its "Flower Palace" series in particular is a refreshing change from the severe aesthetics of traditional building sets. And because these blocks are also made from larger pieces, small hands can handle them with ease.


Read more here.

Guy Kawasaki: Want to be enchanting? Get your smile right

Need more proof about the power of a smile? Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist for Apple, says that an “enchanting smile” can have a major effect on your career and success.

You’re smiling, but are you doing it right?


Guy Kawasaki, an author and former chief evangelist for Apple Inc., shared thoughts on Thursday ranging from big picture advice down to tips for giving a PowerPoint presentation – and how to light up a room with your smile.

Kawasaki was in town for Bold Fusion, the annual summit for young professionals. He spoke to a crowd of about 500 at Music Hall, delivered key ideas from his new book, "Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions."

Most of the ideas were pretty general: Try to be likable and trustworthy, for example, and make sure your products are functional and elegant.

But Kawasaki brought his points to life with examples and applications. People like you more when you smile – but only if you do it right. Lose the “Pan Am smile,” which involves only the lower part of the face, and go for the “Duchenne,” which takes hold in the eyes, too. Don’t be afraid of crow’s feet.

“You’re not getting older,” he said. “You’re getting more enchanting.”

One guy who wasn’t always enchanting was the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, whom Kawasaki worked with. Jobs wasn’t shy about insulting, even humiliating, his employees.

“Everything you know about HR,” he said, “he did the opposite.”

Perhaps Kawasaki’s most practical lesson: When you give a slide presentation, keep it to 10 slides, and speak for no more than 20 minutes. This, even though Kawasaki admittedly went through 60 slides and used 40 minutes.

“You,” he reminded playfully, “are not me.”

Read more here.