Some faces stop people mid-scroll. A pair of bright eyes, an unusual skin tone, a scatter of freckles or simply a perfectly lit portrait can turn a stranger into a worldwide talking point overnight. This collection gathers 23 of those faces, from Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl" of National Geographic's 1985 cover, to models such as Khoudia Diop and Melody Mikél, actors like Dominic Sherwood, and portraits by travel photographers in Namibia, Kenya, Vietnam, Oman and India.
Beauty has no single definition, and the people here are not ranked. What they share is a photograph that many viewers found unforgettable. For each one you will find who they are, where the image came from and, where it matters, what happened after the picture went viral. A few of the stories that spread online were wrong, and those are corrected below.
The cover image shows Megan and Morgan Boyd, twin sisters whose photos, shared by their mother, drew wide attention for their striking blue eyes; their story appears in the twins section.
Faces that became famous photographs
Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl"
American photographer Steve McCurry took this portrait in 1984 at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, and it became the June 1985 cover of National Geographic. Her name was unknown for 17 years; in 2002 McCurry traced her to a remote part of Afghanistan, and her identity was confirmed by iris recognition. Credit for this print: Xinhua / Photoshot / REPORTER.
Gula, a Pashtun, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2016 for living there on forged identity papers and was sent back to Afghanistan. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, she was evacuated to Italy with the support of the Italian government.
Thylane Blondeau
Born in Aix-en-Provence in 2001, Blondeau is the daughter of footballer Patrick Blondeau and presenter Véronika Loubry, and she walked a Jean Paul Gaultier runway at age four. At ten she appeared in adult clothing and make-up in a Vogue Paris children's supplement, which set off a lasting debate about the sexualisation of children in fashion. She later signed with IMG Models, became a L'Oréal Paris ambassador in 2017 and launched her own clothing label, Heaven May. The image pairs a childhood photo with an adult portrait from her Instagram (© thylaneblondeau).
Omar Borkan Al Gala
Omar Borkan عمر بركان (@omarborkan) on
Al Gala, an Emirati, works as a photographer, model and poet. In April 2013 he became famous through a story claiming Saudi religious police had deported him and two other Emiratis from a festival in Riyadh for being "too handsome." That story was false. No one was expelled from the country; the one person actually ejected from the Janadriyah festival was a religious policeman who had objected to a female singer performing there.
Cindy Kimberly
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
Kimberly, a Spanish model born in Amsterdam in 1998, became widely known after Justin Bieber shared a photo of her and asked his followers who she was. She signed with a modelling agency shortly afterwards, later appeared in Vogue Spain and Harper's Bazaar, wrote a book about her life as a model and has since launched a fashion line and released music.
Features once mocked, now celebrated
Khoudia Diop
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
The Senegalese model, born in 1996, was teased as a child for her very dark skin. She chose the nickname "Melanin Goddess" for herself as a statement of pride. After moving to New York in 2016, her Instagram following grew from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands within days, and in 2017 she appeared in a campaign for the cosmetics brand Make Up For Ever.
Melody Mikél
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
Mikél is a model whose dense freckles became her trademark. She has spoken in interviews about being picked on for them as a child, and her images were widely shared as part of a broader shift in fashion towards natural skin. Freckles are harmless clusters of pigment that darken with sun exposure.
Negin Ghalavand
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
Ghalavand is an Iranian model who drew global attention on Instagram in 2017, when she was reportedly 17. The original post shown here is no longer online, but her portraits circulated widely for her dark eyes and strong brows.
Models and actors
Dominic Sherwood
Dom Sherwood (@domsherwood) on
The English actor, born in Tunbridge Wells in 1990, became widely known as the love interest in Taylor Swift's "Style" video in 2015 and later played Jace Herondale in the series Shadowhunters. He has sectoral heterochromia: one eye is blue, the other half blue and half brown. The trait is usually inherited and harmless, though any change in eye colour in adulthood is worth checking with an eye doctor.
Scott Eastwood
Scott Eastwood (@scotteastwood) on
Born in 1986, Scott Eastwood is the son of Clint Eastwood and flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves. He has appeared in films including Fury, The Longest Ride, Suicide Squad and The Fate of the Furious.
Isha Blaaker
Isha Blaaker (@ishablaaker) on
Blaaker is a model and actor whose Instagram portraits, like this one from February 2019, are often shared in lists of striking faces. Little is publicly documented about him beyond his modelling work.
Franco Noriega
Franco Noriega | Chef | Model (@franconorhal) on
The Peruvian former competitive swimmer turned model, born in 1989, was discovered in New York by photographer Mario Testino. He later trained as a chef, became known for shirtless cooking videos, opened the Peruvian restaurant Baby Brasa in 2016 and has hosted cooking shows.
Ekaterina Mironenko
Ekaterina Mironenko (@katyamiro) on
Mironenko, described in viral posts as a young Russian journalist, gained a large Instagram following around 2017 for portraits like this one. Little more is reliably documented about her, so the "journalist" label should be read as unconfirmed.
Yazemeenah Rossi
yazemeenah on
Rossi is a model known for working in her late fifties and sixties with her silver hair left natural, and she is often cited as an example of the fashion industry finally booking older faces. This portrait was posted in December 2018.
Audreyana Michelle
Audreyana Michelle (@audreyanamichelle) on
Michelle is a model and content creator whose full lips and polished make-up looks became widely recognised on Instagram. This post dates from November 2018.
Aiyana A. Lewis
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
Lewis went viral in 2017 through a portrait shared by photographer Angelo (@zavierdeangelo). The original post is no longer available, but the image spread widely for its styling and soft light.
Tsunaina
tsunaina on
Her photos circulated for months without a name before users identified her as a model who goes by Tsunaina; viral posts describe her as Tibetan, though that has not been independently confirmed. This post is from November 2018.
Twins who went viral
Ava Marie and Leah Rose Clements
Ava Marie & Leah Rose (@clementstwins) on
The American twin sisters began modelling as small children, and their parents run the Instagram account that made them known worldwide, where fans and headlines regularly crowned them the world's most beautiful twins. Their account has also been part of a wider discussion about how much of children's lives parents should share online.
Megan and Morgan Boyd
Trueblue3 💙💙💙 (@stephboyd24) on
These twins became an online sensation after their mother, who posts as stephboyd24, began posting their pictures; their pale blue eyes against dark skin drew millions of views. Reports at the time said modelling work followed, though how ongoing that has been is not documented.
Portraits from travel photographers
Several of the most-shared images in collections like this one come from professional travel photographers. They deserve full credit, because lighting, patience and the trust they build with their subjects are what make these portraits work.
A girl from the Black Hmong people, Vietnam
David Lazar (@davidlazarphoto) on
Australian photographer David Lazar took this portrait in northern Vietnam, home to the Black Hmong, named for their indigo-dyed clothing. The soft window-style light on her face is typical of his portrait work.
A girl from Lamu, Kenya
Eric Lafforgue (@ericlafforgue) on
French photographer Eric Lafforgue made this portrait on Lamu, an island off the Kenyan coast whose old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the oldest Swahili settlements in East Africa.
A child from Oman
Eric Lafforgue (@ericlafforgue) on
Another portrait by Eric Lafforgue, taken in Oman. Lafforgue has photographed in dozens of countries and is known for close, direct portraits of people he meets on the road.
A Himba man, Namibia
Eric Lafforgue (@ericlafforgue) on
The Himba are a semi-nomadic, cattle-herding people of about 50,000 who live mostly in Namibia's Kunene Region. Many coat their skin and hair with otjize, a paste of butterfat and red ochre that protects against sun and insects and is also valued as a cosmetic. Photo by Eric Lafforgue.
A woman from Mahabalipuram, India
Mahabalipuram, on the coast of Tamil Nadu, is famous for its 7th- and 8th-century Pallava temples, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This portrait was shared on Flickr by photographer jaroslavd.
Why some faces captivate us
Research on attractiveness finds a few patterns that hold across many cultures. Faces that are fairly symmetrical tend to be rated as more attractive, possibly because symmetry is a loose signal of good health. Composite faces made by averaging many photos are often rated more attractive than most of the individual faces, likely because average features feel familiar. Clear skin and bright, expressive eyes also rate well almost everywhere.
But plenty varies between cultures and eras, from preferred skin tone to body shape, and the faces that go viral often stand out precisely because they break the average: an unusual eye colour, very deep skin, heavy freckles. Psychologists also describe a "halo effect," in which people assume attractive strangers are kinder or smarter than they are. Knowing that is a good reason to enjoy beautiful portraits without treating looks as a measure of worth.
Two of these stories show how fragile viral fame can be. Sharbat Gula never chose to be famous, and the Omar Borkan story was invented. It is worth remembering there is a real person behind every shared photo, and that children in particular cannot consent to becoming a meme.
Sources: Photographs by Steve McCurry (Sharbat Gula), David Lazar and Eric Lafforgue, and from the Instagram accounts embedded above; Wikipedia: Afghan Girl; Wikipedia: Thylane Blondeau; Wikipedia: Khoudia Diop; Wikipedia: Dominic Sherwood; Wikipedia: Scott Eastwood; Wikipedia: Cindy Kimberly; Wikipedia: Franco Noriega; Reason, 3 May 2013: Saudi 'handsome deportee' story turns out to be bogus; Wikipedia: Himba people; Wikipedia: Heterochromia iridum; Wikipedia: Physical attractiveness.
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