If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the past few years, you’ve probably seen MrBeast, or more specifically, a photo of him smiling with his mouth wide open, an expression known in some online circles as soyface/soyboy face.


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Up until recently, most of MrBeast’s YouTube thumbnails included photos of him making the soyface. But now, thanks to the website’s decision to implement A/B testing that allows creators to see which thumbnails attract the most viewers, MrBeast, whose real name is James Stephen Donaldson, has learned that closed-mouth smiles yield better results; specifically, people watch his videos for longer.




Posting to Twitter, Donaldson wrote, “I closed my mouth on all my thumbnails and the watch time went up on every video lol,” following it up with, “My mouth is now closed in all my thumbnails but the war has just begun. We must not rest until mouths are closed in everyone’s thumbnails.”



In a reply, Donaldson shared more examples of his altered thumbnails, adding, “Now that I can actually A/B test thumbnails I don’t have to guess and I just test and see what people want. My mouth would have closed years ago if I had this tool." Or, of course, he could’ve listened to all of the people pointing out how unnatural the constant soyfaces seemed; it’s not like there’s been a shortage of posts online dunking on them.


For years, people have wondered why Donaldson has seemed so wedded to the expression, with some speculating it was an official part of his brand. It’s even been a topic of discussion over at the Looksmaxxing forums, with one person positing, “I think he's gay. Might be phytoestrogen maxxing through soy.” (That sounds like a solid scientific hypothesis, yep.)



Now that MrBeast, one of the biggest creators on YouTube, has officially kissed the soyface goodbye, it’s likely that other YouTubers will follow suit, in which case, it’ll likely be years before we ever see an open-mouth smile again.