You look angry!

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I vividly remember one incident in grade school where my mom (who was a teacher at my school) came to me and said that this new girl who I had had absolutely no interaction with went home crying that day because I didn't like her. ???[/quote]

Yes, from time to time I have to hear from someone else that there are certain people who think I dislike them and I don't know why.

This makes me feel better because I always get this "so and so thinks you don't like him/her". One of my good friends even remarked that I need to practice my "default" face in front of the mirror because she notices how people respond to me in a negative way (I had no clue). Nowadays she sticks up for me and just says that I am thinking or preoccupied and it has nothing to do with the person. Oh, and apparently it sometimes translates to me being a snob.

I work at Subway (word of advice, never work there) and I get this all the time. For one thing I don't smile on command, and when I am focusing or concentrating on something my face tends to look angry. I've even had random people come up to me and ask me if I'm OK. I also don't take kindly to people who try to make me smile on command. I feel like some caged animal being forced to do tricks on command or something and I flat out tell them I won't do it. Unless I have a reason to genuinely smile this is what you get, take it or leave it.

When I was doing training for my current job, one of the trainers told me "You have negative body language." I actually told him off. I probably shouldn't have done that.

He thought I was being bitchy. I wasn't. I was just very uncomfortable in my work clothes and didn't know what to do with my arms, so I just crossed them over my chest the whole time.

I always get told I look sad when I'm not, which makes me feel bad... I wrote a comic about it a couple of years ago: http://asimplelife.thecomicseries.com/comics/44/

Thanks. I need to get back into the habit of drawing comics. Sometimes it's easier to express something in this form than just verbally!

I get this too. People think I look too serious. I just look like that. I'm usually thinking or being creative in my head and don't have any desire to spend any mental effort on making my face look a certain way so that others can be more comfortable.

I've been asked many times if I'm o.k. or "whats wrong?" when I was really very happy at the time. My ex-husband used to always tell me to "smile on the outside" because he couldn't always tell when I was happy. Just one of my many aspie traits he had little patience with.

I often think that this constant criticism of our facial expressions are a lot like meeting someone from a foreign country and then getting annoyed with them because they can't speak English. We don't communicate with our faces, so thence the misunderstandings. Plus, if a smile is so welcome when there is absolutely no reason for it, why was I constantly being told to "wipe that smirk off my face?"

If you do not want to look mad for you and not to please others (even though that is part of the point I guess) you could try looking at your face in the mirror when it is at the relaxed stage. I look quite moody and unhappy since my mouth seems to curl down slighty and my brow is lower giving me the unhappy look. I sometimes police my face and make minor changes like lifting the brow or smiling slightly. I don't prefer to look unhappy but it happens so I just learned to make slight changes and mainly just live with it and just be honest about it being my natural expression.

I have chronic bitchface, it's terribly annoying. I've also learned I tend to look extremely bored when I'm actually interested-- it's worse than the angry face because people don't want to continue talking to me because they think I'm arrogant.

Oh geeezzz, I get this ALL THE TIME!! ! Constantly asked what is wrong, that I look angry/morose/miserable/hostile. When I'm actually not feeling that way at all!