What is Awkward White People Smile?

Awkward White People Smile, also known as How White People Smile at You When You Pass Them on the Street, is a reaction image of a young David Vujanić with pursed lips, used to represent the strained polite smile strangers give each other in passing.

Where did Awkward White People Smile come from?

Vujanić, a Serbian content creator known as VUJ, uploaded the original middle-school photo to his Instagram on December 11th, 2014. Twitter user @rashadpls recaptioned it on October 2nd, 2015, with the street-pass joke that made it a meme.

What does Awkward White People Smile mean?

It captures the forced, closed-mouth smile people make during brief obligatory social interactions where they want to be polite but not actually talk. Users apply it to any scenario of social surrender, from elevator rides to hallway run-ins.

How do you use Awkward White People Smile?

Pair the photo with a short caption describing an awkward social encounter that forces a polite acknowledgment, like 'this how white people smile at you when you pass them on the street'. The image stands in for the facial expression you make in that moment.

Is Awkward White People Smile still popular?

Awkward White People Smile was still in circulation nearly a decade after the viral tweet, and in November 2024 Vujanić posed with the meme himself at the Dogeday event alongside Kyle Craven and Blake Boston.

Awkward White People Smile

2015reaction imageclassic

Published November 13, 2026

A young David Vujanić, the Serbian creator known online as VUJ, uploaded a throwback middle-school photo to his Instagram on December 11th, 2014, showing himself with pursed lips and raised shoulders3. On October 2nd, 2015, Twitter user @rashadpls recaptioned the picture as 'this how white people smile at you when you pass them on the street,' turning it into a reaction image for forced sidewalk politeness1. By November 2024, Vujanić was posing with Kyle Craven of Bad Luck Brian and Blake Boston of Scumbag Steve at the Dogeday event with the meme pulled up on his phone8.

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Overview

Awkward White People Smile, also known as How White People Smile at You When You Pass Them on the Street, works because the pinched, closed-mouth face reads as both friendly and visibly uncomfortable at the same time1. Posters match it to scenarios of brief obligatory contact between strangers, like passing a neighbor on the sidewalk or riding an elevator with a coworker, where the goal is to signal recognition without actually talking6.

Captions range beyond the original street-pass line. The image anchors 'Don't Say It' templates about biting back an inappropriate thought and shows up in meirl confessions where the boy's face stands in for the poster's own expression5. Vujanić, who kept making content under the name VUJ, later embraced his meme past and posed with other meme icons in 20242.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Instagram (source photo) / Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

David Vujanić; @rashadpls

Date

2015

On December 11th, 2014, David Vujanić uploaded the picture to his personal Instagram with the caption '#ThrowBackThursday on the way to phuck yo bIsh! TYBG'3. Vujanić was not treating the upload as a meme at the time. His identity as the kid in the photo was only confirmed publicly years later, including by an r/AskBalkans thread documenting the match4.

The reaction image reading took hold on October 2nd, 2015, when Twitter user @rashadpls posted a cropped version captioned 'this how white people smile at you when you pass them on the street.' That tweet collected over 8,200 retweets and 8,900 likes1, and the street-pass caption became the default way reposters captioned the picture over the following decade5.

How It Spread

Reblogs moved Awkward White People Smile through Tumblr and Reddit over the months after the @rashadpls tweet. On October 14th, 2015, Tumblr user lucifurby reposted the image and the entry collected more than 580,000 notes over the following years7. A /r/meirl copy from January 2nd, 2016, cleared 170 upvotes as users treated the pursed-lip face as a stand-in for their own awkward moments6.

The image kept getting remixed through the late 2010s. An Imgur upload by user cachem0n3y on October 25th, 2018, hit more than 106,000 views and 2,100 upvotes, and a 'Don't Say It' repost on Reddit by BestVayneEU in November 2018 reached over 6,000 upvotes5.

Nearly a decade after the viral tweet, Vujanić embraced the picture publicly. On November 2nd, 2024, he posted himself at the Dogeday event standing with Kyle Craven, the face of Bad Luck Brian, and Blake Boston of Scumbag Steve, holding up a phone with his own meme on screen8. His Instagram post collected over 11,000 likes within four days, while the X version got about 2,0009.

Timeline

2014-12-11

David Vujanić uploads the middle-school throwback photo to his Instagram with the TBT caption, not as a meme.

2015-10-02

Twitter user @rashadpls posts the picture with the 'how white people smile at you when you pass them on the street' caption, collecting over 8,200 retweets.

2015-10-14

Tumblr user lucifurby reposts the image; the entry eventually gathers more than 580,000 notes.

2016-01-02

A repost on /r/meirl reframes the face as a universal awkward reaction.

2018-10-25

Imgur user cachem0n3y uploads a version that passes 106,000 views.

2020-10

An r/AskBalkans thread identifies the boy as Serbian content creator David Vujanić, aka VUJ.

2024-11-02

Vujanić poses at Dogeday with Kyle Craven of Bad Luck Brian and Blake Boston of Scumbag Steve, holding a phone showing his own meme.

How to Use This Meme

Common convention for Awkward White People Smile is to pair the photo with a short caption describing a brief obligatory social moment where someone has to acknowledge a stranger, like 'this how white people smile at you when you pass them on the street'1. The image stands in for the facial expression the speaker makes in that moment. Variations swap the street-pass setup for 'Don't Say It' jokes about swallowing a thought, or meirl posts where the face represents the poster's reaction to their own behavior5.