Photos: Meet the woman who hasn’t smiled in 40 years - Explains why

Meet Tess, a 50-year-old woman, who works as a cook instructor for a vegetable produce company and has not broken into a smile for the past 40yrs.

Although she's not devoid of humor, the last time she smiled was when she was 10 years old.

Not even the birth of her daughter, was emotional enough to make her smile. 

According to DailyMail, she always sit stone-faced while her friends giggle around her.

Tess says maintaining a perennial poker face, is a crucial way to keeping her - admittedly, impressive - youthful looks. 

By the time Tess who divorced in 1998 reached 40, she realized that while friends had developed lines around their mouths, her face was wrinkle-free. 

It’s not as if I’m miserable. I love life. I just don’t feel the need to show it by walking around with a rictus grin on my face.

“If I did smile I developed big hamster cheeks that made me look deranged. I looked up to old-school Hollywood icons such as Marlene Dietrich for inspiration; she never smiled and I loved the way she shouldered glamorously.

 “When I found something funny or I was tempted to laugh — which happened on a daily basis — I learned to control my facial muscles by holding them rigid. The corners of my mouth might go up a little, but I never looked anything other than faintly amused. Friends knew I was fun to be around, so it wasn’t an issue.”

“It dawned on me that I looked younger because I’d spent my life not smiling. My friends have nicknamed me Mona Lisa, after the da Vinci painting. ‘Mona Lisa was said to have been quietly amused, as am I. I just won’t show it. Recently, an interior designer friend was telling me how a Spanish client kept referring to the department store John Lewis as “Juan Lewis”. I found it hilarious, but kept a straight face. I never crack.’

The men she dates, often ask her to smile.

“I assure them it’s not because I’m not interested,” she says. “My pet hate is men who call out, “Cheer up, love, it might never happen,” ’ in the street. ‘I wouldn’t dream of criticising their appearance.