Style, food, music, movies.

I thought it'd be fun to make my profile like that, so I decided to find out more about

it.

One thing I really want to know is what's the big deal with the V sign in photos?

So guess what?

I found a friend from Korea to guide me through all the cool stuff.

Her name's Ji-yun.

The first thing I noticed about Ji-yun's writing is that she uses a lot of wave symbols, I

think they are called tildes.

She never just calls me 'Sue', it's always 'Sue~'.

She adds it to pretty much every sentence.

She explained to me it's supposed to make them kinder!

And when it's added after a name, it shows affection.

That's so cute~!

It looks like they don't just add it to sentences, but even to emoticons.

Speaking of those old-school smileys, they do them their own way.

When you're trying to read the emoticons the way they are in Europe or the US, you have

to turn them to the side 90 degrees.

Otherwise you won't see how a colon and a closing bracket are a smiley face, right?

In Asia – you have to look at a smiley the way it is.

It makes the guessing game a bit harder, but you can read them easier when you've seen

plenty of them.

The most basic one is two carets and an underscore in-between.

You can try playing with it and adding some extra emotions.

I'll use it when I make descriptions for my future photos.

Ji-yun told me a sure way to get many likes on a picture is to cross your thumb and index

finger.

First I didn't see what it meant, but then I realized it's the cutest thing ever – a

little finger heart!

K-pop helped finger heart take over the world.

They say it started with an actress Kim Hye-soo in 2010, and has been a hit ever since.

When Benedict Cumberbatch went on a promo tour for Doctor Strange in 2016 he tried doing

it to please the Korean fans.

It turned out to be harder than it looks like.

At 2018 PyeongChang, they even sold official finger heart gloves!

Hmmm, that makes me wonder – what if V-sign also stands for something cute like finger

hearts in Asia?

I’m getting to it!

The more recent finger heart variation is the 'Chuu heart'.

Chuu from Korean girl group Loona started it, and everyone loved it!

You make a circle with both hands and then bite into it like into an imaginary hamburger.

And… here comes the heart shape.

I can tell why it's also called a bite heart.

Now I have a theory about the V sign.

Maybe it also has to do with some celebrity that started it all?

There are many pictures of Winston Churchill throwing the peace sign.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono also did it for world peace.

But did they really start the V-craziness in Asia?

I found out there are a few theories, and none of them involves Churchill or Lennon.

The first theory says it started in the 1960s with baseball comic Kyojin no Hoshi (Star

of the Giants), and manga Sain wa V!

(V Is the Sign).

They made a TV series out of the manga, and everyone started doing the “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!”

chant.

Another theory says a super popular singer in Japan from The Spiders band, Jun Inoue,

started it all.

He was in a Konica camera commercial in 1972 and threw the V in there.

This theory is the most wide-spread explanation of the V-sign craze in Japan.

I think it does make sense: in the 1980s cameras were becoming more and more popular.

At the same time, magazines for women and girls were another hit.

Everyone was buying these magazines, and everyone wanted to look as “kawaii” as possible

(that means cute), just like the girls from all those glossy pages.

This is most likely how it spread to Eastern Asia.

The magazine girls made V-signs, real life girls copied them.

It has to do with how it changes your face.

But more on that later.

Theory number three is that it began with American figure skater Janet Lynn.

18-year-old Janet was taking part in Sapporo Olympics in Japan in 1972.

She had a lot of fans, both her smile and her skating skills were fantastic, and she’d

just won five U.S. championships in a row.

Everyone was positive she’d win, but oh the fates, she fell doing a spin two minutes

into her performance.

It was obvious she wouldn’t win the gold.

But instead of making a sad or angry face Lynn was smiling like a rock star leaving

the ice.

And this is how she won a bronze medal and the hearts of thousands of Japanese people.

As she toured the country and signed magazines for her fans with “Peace and love”, she

showed the V-sign quite a lot.

And this is how it became associated with a “don’t ever give up” and “you can

do it” way of thinking.

Of course, no one thinks of all that these days when they put up their index and middle

fingers.

It’s almost an instinct all around Asia.

I think I can relate to that – I often don’t know what to do with my hands when someone’s

taking a picture of me.

Is it just me who feels awkward this way?

Let me know in the comments if you also struggle or you know exactly what to do when the shutter

goes up?

Anyway, it’s not just an easy solution for your hands, but also a way to make yourself

look more kawaii, or cute.

When you do it the right way, your face looks smaller and sweeter in pictures.

I asked Ji-yun for insights on how to make it work, and she said the trick was to tilt

the fingers towards the face and tilt the face forward.

It looks thinner this way.

You can also try touching your face with your fingers or spreading them on the side of any

of the eyes.

Add a wink and a duckface at the same time, and success is guaranteed.

It’s pretty much like a live version of Purikura.

Oh, Purikura are photo machines that are crazy popular in Japan.

You can find them anywhere from shopping malls to landmarks and aquariums.

They instantly add a ton of effect to your pictures.

You can experiment with effects, colors, and textures.

At game centers, you can rent real costumes, wigs, bunny or cat ears.

What I personally don’t like about it is that it changes your body automatically because

I think you’re beautiful the way you are, but well, it’s popular anyway.

There are tons of apps where you can do Purikura directly on your phone.

There are some more tips Ji-yun gave me for pictures that work in Southeast Asia.

As crazy as it sounds, random things make photos more fun!

Like, for example, a hat on a ski pole.

I know, I know, but it spices up boring shots.

Let your imagination fly, add a fun caption, and it’s a winner of the likes game.

If that sounds too extravagant, let the Sun be that random object that will make posing

easier.

Jump in front of it during sunset, “eat” it, hold it – whatever works.

Sunset is always photo time in this part of the world.

Or, experiment with the shadows.

Make an elephant, a bunny, a dove, a monkey, or whatnot.

Oh, I almost forgot, there is another really important rule my friend told me about – always

make sure your toes point inward!

My guess is it’s supposed to make your legs look slimmer and more elegant.

Kawaii, you know.

Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a

friend!

And here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy.

Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!