Duck Face is a selfie pose where the subject presses their lips into a pursed pout that vaguely resembles a duck's bill, often paired with heavy eyeliner and a tilted head.

Where did Duck Face come from?

The pose spread through Myspace profile photos after the site went mainstream in 2005, and the term was pinned down in Urban Dictionary entries submitted in May and September 2006.

What does Duck Face mean?

The term is almost always pejorative, used to mock the pose as a try-hard flirty expression rather than a compliment, as captured in a BuzzFeed piece that framed it as a mock disease.

How do you use Duck Face?

You press your lips forward into a tight pucker and angle your head down and to the side while shooting a mirror or front-camera selfie.

Is Duck Face still popular?

Duck Face peaked with Myspace and early Facebook self-portraits in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with dedicated mocking accounts and a Facebook page passing 3,400 likes by April 2012.

Duck Face

2006poseclassic

Published August 19, 2026

Duck Face is the mocking nickname for a selfie pose where the subject presses their lips forward into a pursed pout, closely tied to Myspace and Facebook self-portraits from the mid-2000s. The term was pinned down in Urban Dictionary entries from 2006 and by the early 2010s had inspired blogs, BuzzFeed listicles, and dedicated Facebook pages built around mocking the expression.

selfie memes photo fad memes facial expression memes late 2000s memes behavior mocking memes

Overview

Duck Face is the nickname for a selfie pose where the subject presses their lips forward into a puckered shape vaguely resembling a duck's bill1. The pose is often paired with a tilted head, heavy eyeliner, and bathroom-mirror framing typical of early social media self-portraits2. Also called Myspace Face, the term is almost always used to mock the subject rather than compliment them1.

Older cultural touchpoints predate the internet version. A 1979 Little Feat album titled Down On The Farm featured a lipsticked female duck on its cover, and a 1989 Full House episode nicknamed a student Duckface for the same pursed-lips expression3. Ben Stiller's Blue Steel look from the 2001 film Zoolander is frequently compared to the pose as well3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Myspace / Facebook (viral spread)

Date

2006

The Duck Face selfie trend followed the launch of Myspace in 2003 and the platform's spike to mainstream popularity in mid-2005, when users began flooding their profiles with self-shot photos that showed off the pursed-lips expression3. On May 13th, 2006, user Crohnser submitted the earliest Urban Dictionary entry for Myspace Face, describing the female version as a combination of pouty eyes and pursed lips2. Four months later, on September 13th, 2006, user Mair Mair submitted an Urban Dictionary entry for duck face, defining the mannerism as a two-lipped pout2.

How It Spread

The pose jumped to other platforms as photo-sharing grew. On March 29th, 2007, DeviantArt user Hauntash uploaded an image titled The Duckface3. In January 2008, humor site Ebaumsworld ran a gallery called The Ugly Duck Face3. On April 24th, 2009, the single-topic blog AntiDuckFace launched to catalog examples of young women pulling the pose3.

Reddit picked up the mockery on March 7th, 2010, when user gentoolicious asked why so many women pulled the awful duck lip face, drawing a reply that framed it as a way to mask insecurity3. Comedy artist Gamble released a track called Duck Face that YouTuber benlyons83 turned into a slideshow music video on June 21st, 20103. Actor Nick Cannon then posted Duck Face Fails on his blog on September 23rd, 2011, collecting a gallery of examples3.

On February 28th, 2012, BuzzFeed contributor brandib6 published Duck Face: The Race for the Cure, framing the pose as a mock disease with symptoms of lips thrust forward in an imitation of water fowl, accented with heavy eyeliner and glowing orange skin1. The post recommended slapping affected friends as a public service intervention1. A dedicated Facebook page devoted to the pose had passed 3,400 likes by April 20123.

How to Use This Meme

Making a Duck Face typically means pressing the lips forward and slightly upward into a tight pout while angling the head down and to the side for a mirror or front-camera selfie1. Common conventions of the pose include heavy makeup, tilted framing, and a raised phone visible in the shot2. The look is almost always deployed ironically or as a target of mockery in the 2010s onward rather than as a sincere flirty pose1.