Everything You Need To Know About Making Eye Contact





By Katie Heaney,Glamour magazine

Making eye contact with a cute stranger can be fun and flirty. But how do you know when it means what you think it means?

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Forgive me for getting a little doe-eyed for a moment here, but eye contact is the absolute best. My eyes like to look at pretty things, other people's eyes like to look at pretty things, and when two people's pretty-seeking eyes land on each other, it's just so great.

When I was in middle school (or high school, who remembers!), I asked my mom about what she used to do to flirt with boys. She said when she was a teenager, she had a popular handbook that taught girls the right way to win boys over with eye contact. Now, I wouldn't usually instantly trust romance advice from a book from my mom's youth, but since she's been married for 25 years and these have her stamp of approval, I'm on board. The steps are as follows:

1. Catch the eye of your crush. (Easier said than done, right? If you stare long enough, though, he'll probably notice.)

2. Once he sees you looking at him, drop your eyes down and smile (mouth closed) as if there is something wonderful in your lap. Like a small cake, for instance.

3. Look back up slowly at your crush with eyes that say "I'm a little shy, but not too shy, if you know what I mean."


My mom insists that this method is foolproof. I tend to agree-the coyness of the smile makes this version of eye contact special. Of course, any prolonged silent interaction has the potential for misinterpretation-maybe one person thinks she's having sensual and meaningful eye contact with someone who just happens to land on her face every once in a while because he is constantly looking around all over the place and, probability-wise, he must come back to her face now and again so long as they are in the same room. Hypothetically speaking.

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Of course, if you're the aimless eye-wanderer in this scenario, be careful. If you make accidental eye contact with someone in whom you aren't interested, you must be prepared to never look upon him ever again, and maybe run away just for safe measure. That's just how it works. It is a cruel world.

Most of the time, though, eye contact works well, is mutual, and can be done virtually anywhere. Shops. Restaurants. Bars. Streets. Laundromats. Zoos. So let's all stare at each other and never stop.

Do you have any secret eye contact techniques? Has eye contact ever backfired on you?

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Photo Credit: Fairchild Archive