Just this evening I made a discovery: my sister has a cleft chin. She’s 28 years old. It’s not obvious, but when she’s laughing, a cute dimple appears in her chin. Peek-a-cleft. My sister hates it and now has deemed that I have scarred her for life. She calls it a chin-butt; I call it a dimple-chin.

But this was not my first cleft chin realization — just a grand finale of a series of cleft chin discoveries. Two weeks ago, my father sat across from me on the couch. He was telling an animated story with his hands and his face. Right there, as if with glittery shiny lights, perfectly centered in the middle of his chin, sat a chin dimple. Much more prominent than my sister’s cleft, his was centered and indenting, not of the aforementioned butt look.

What got me looking at all the cleft chins? My boyfriend. He is very proud of his cleft chin and very much identifies with that as a facial distinction. (He has the butt kind, incidentally.) Whenever he paints himself, he includes the cleft; in photos, the cleft is often notable. He likes the cleft; it doesn’t define him – but it is one of his USP‘s (unique selling point).

It’s funny how life is like that – something small enters your life in one form – and suddenly you see it everywhere.

FYI – for a list of famous clefts – living and deceased – click here.

P.S. Wario is one of them. Popeye is too.