Everyone is beautiful in their own way, whether they want to believe it or not.

Nobody needs men telling them what is and isn’t attractive to them, but as a woman, I can confirm that sometimes having the reassurance is a nice feeling.

That is, when it's coming from a genuine place.

While it would be great if people could recognize the beauty in everyone — and especially in themselves — it sadly doesn't always work that way.

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People will always have their own idea of what they find attractive and what they don’t.

That’s just the way the human mind works, and there’s no other way around it.

While we can’t be exactly sure of what the perfect woman would look like in the eyes of men, we now have an idea of the type of face men find most attractive.

And it's all thanks to one study.

Researchers at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain surveyed 266 female students on their own perceived attractiveness, then asked 44 heterosexual men to rate the attractiveness of each woman based on basic black-and-white, neutral expression pictures. 

Independently, the researchers used criteria, such as symmetry, to categorize the women on a scale from average to unique and youthful to more mature in appearance.

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Both men and women agreed that symmetry was more desirable than faces with asymmetrical features.

Overwhelmingly, the men were most attracted to women who were categorized as average. And the men also reported youthful faces as the most pleasing.

Wow, what a shocker, said no woman ever.

So, it turns out that after years of being told that men prefer women who aren’t anything like other women, was a bit false. They were actually interested in quite the opposite.

Apparently, average faces are more attractive to men.

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Well, that's something we would have never guessed.

There is a scientific explanation for this, though.

Men associate average features with high heterozygosity, which means a high genetic variability.

More unique looks lead men to subconsciously link the woman with low heterozygosity, also known as inbreeding.

So, youthfulness is a sign of fertility and health.

All-in-all, when it comes to the type of face men find most attractive, more men prefer average-looking women with symmetrical faces.

But after all of this research, it becomes more evident to us that men aren’t just shallow for only being attracted to a certain face frame like we always thought; they’re just following their biological imperative to find a good mate and child-bearer.

And really, despite what society tells us about beauty and attractive features, you can’t argue with biology.

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Christine Schoenwald is a writer and performer. She's had articles in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Bustle, Medium, and Woman's Day. Visit her website or her Instagram.