How Emma Stone Looks Photogenic in Pictures Without Even Trying

She won a best actress Oscar in 2017 for La La Land. Now, Emma Stone is nominated again, for her supporting role in The Favourite. (Slow clap.) The result? Let’s just say girl has got a lot of red carpet experience—past, present and future—that requires her to strut and look photogenic at every turn.

So, how does she look camera-ready? No, it’s not placing a hand on her hip or crossing one calf in front of the other for a look that’s “natural” yet totally posed. Instead, her secret to always looking photogenic is all in the way she relaxes her face.

It’s called the squinch.

What the heck is the squinch? Well, it’s a combination of squinting and pinching. To pull it off, you need to tighten your eyes as if you were going to squint. But simultaneously, you should slightly relax your top lids and let the lower ones do more of the work. (This is where the term “pinching” comes into play.)

You can smile, look more serious—mysterious, even. It’s your call.

But the goal—which Emma Stone consistently delivers on—is to find a happy medium between full-on squinting and, conversely, looking like a deer in headlights. (If you’d prefer to watch a tutorial, there’s a great one here.)

Our advice? Practice it a time or two in front of the mirror. Then, once you’ve got it, flaunt it…and instead of calling it the “squinch,” call it the “Emma Stone.”