By Emma James
(In case you needed any reasons other than, you know, protecting the health and safety of the entire population.)
1. Let’s start with the obvious: It hides your face.
Not everyone can be blessed with natural good looks and the easiest way to remedy a less-than-ideal appearanceis to keep half of it covered up. You’re doing the world a favor by not forcing your ugly mug on us, especially if you’ve got braces or yellow teeth. Trust me, no one wants to see that.Plus, it adds an element of intrigue. When people can’t see your whole face, you automatically come off as mysterious. Congratulations, you’re finally interesting.
2. You save money.
Why empty your pockets paying for skincare products (that, let’s face it, aren’t working anyway) when you can throw on a mask to cover up your insecurities instead? Plus, for those of you who wear makeup, you only have to apply it to half your face. That’s full coverage for half the price! 3. RBF? No problem.
Normally, you'd feel obligated to give a pity smile to every person you walk past, but thanks to Miss Rona you don’t have to. With a mask on, no one can even see your mouth, so give those muscles a break and scowl on! You could lick your lips like a weirdo while making full eye contact with someone and they’d be none the wiser. Don’t... do that, but the point is that you could.
4. People are less likely to recognize you.
I’m talking to all my introverts for this one. That feeling of terror at the prospect of running into someone you know in public is a thing of the past. Constantly ducking behind walls and grocery aisles gets old pretty quick, and pretending not to see someone while they’re literally waving at you is just embarrassing. If you think about all the time you’ll save not having to avoid people, wearing a mask is definitely worth it. (Plus, if you’re on the run from the law, you’re less likely to be turned in!)
5. We don’t have to smell your breath.
Your loved ones are too nice to give it to you straight, butI’m not. Here’s the cold hard truth: just because you had garlic chicken for lunch, doesn’t mean everyone around you needs to know about it. Ever heard of a mint? Thanks to good old face masks, you don’t even have to brush your teeth! (And by the smell of things, you haven’t been.) For those of you taking classes in-person, your classmates and professors will thank you. And for those at home, well... just brush your teeth, man. No wonder they’re so yellow.
6. It can count as exercise.
There’s a lot of stuff that we rely on our ears to carry. We already put a lot of weight on them with things like glasses, hearing aids, headphones, and jewelry, and now we’ve added face masks into the mix. All that weight makes for quite the ear-workout but hey, at least you’re burning calories, right? 7. You can use it as a snack holder.
Not hungry now but you will be later? Stash it. Have classes back to back and no time for a food break? No need. Make like a horse and turn that mask into a portable feedbag. You might get some weird looks, but they’ll secretly think you’re a genius. (As a side note, this is yet another reason why those mesh face masks some people have been wearing are a bad move. Lana Del Rey, I’m looking at you.) 8. Face mask tan lines are all the rage in fashion nowadays.
No, seriously. You haven’t seen people doing that online? It’s literally a thing. They purposely apply makeup to look like they fell asleep at the beach with a mask on; look it up. But more importantly, don’t spend another second being ashamed of your unfortunate tan line. If people are doing it on purpose, your accidental one can’t be that bad. 9. Halloween is right around the corner.
Chances are you’d be wearing a mask as a part of your costume anyway, and there are so many characters to choose from! Iron Man, Spider-Man, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Kakashi Hatake from Naruto, Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul, a bunch of Mortal Kombat characters, and that’s just naming a few. You could also go the more classic route and be something like a doctor or a nurse, which will likely be pretty popular this year (for obvious reasons). The possibilities are endless!
10. Everyone is doing it.
You thought you escaped peer pressure when you graduated high school? Think again. Welcome to peer pressure on a global scale: Actors, musicians, athletes, world leaders, YouTubers, TikTokers, even your fellow classmates are doing it. Health and safety have never been more in. Why not jump on the bandwagon? If Cardi B can do it, so can you.