a 'purpose' for vanity?

I have seen a lot of memes and blogs and stories on the interwebs lately regarding 'selfies' (I even wrote one a few months ago!) The thing is, I get as irritated at the number of gratuitous selfies as the next guy, but it has led me to ponder the "why" of it. Why do we girls (yes I group myself among the number, even though I 'try' not to overdo it) take so many pictures of ourselves?
While I cannot speak for all girls, I can speak for myself:
 I like the way I look when I have done my hair and make up and I like to document it for my own, personal self esteem boost. Especially when I know what I look like without said effort being put into my outward appearance. Now, before I go any further, I AM going to give photographic evidence of this.

WARNING: These are NOT photographic evidence of the impending zombie apocalypse. It is just me first thing in the morning. Please return your rifles, chainsaws and pitchforks to their original, easy to access areas for when the actual zombie apocalypse occurs. 


So I decided when I was about to get ready to go out today that I would do my own little "study" on 'selfies'

Here is what I discovered:

Before: "Are you feeling alright? You sick?
Tired?"

After: 'Normality'

I even made sure I had the same, blank expresson! 

To be fair I tried the "Everyone frowns in the 'before' pic to make sure the 'after' looks even better"

And, well.....this:

Before: Abject misery.

After:  OMG guys #poutyface!!

I even  tried legitimately smiling to see if that would improve it!

Nope. 

Yep.

So there it is. We take selfies when we feel like we look good......Or, at least I do.