#26 Cameras

Because we are narcissists (reason #17 why we are still single), single girls rather enjoy taking pictures of ourselves.  Whether it be a self-portrait with our iPhones in front of the bathroom mirror (hey, the soft lighting in there makes my skin look amazing) or a group photo we have finagled some poor stranger to take of us (with five different cameras, of course), there are very few times when having a camera is completely unnecessary. 

Every outing, every birthday, every celebration, every holiday, every party (especially a THEME party!) is an excuse for single girls to have our picture taken.

Our friends in relationships rarely take photos of themselves - because they never go anywhere once they are happily coupled.  And when they do, they go on vacations to tropical resorts and take 400 pictures.  Of the beach.  Once a couple gets married, the only pictures you will see after the wedding are those taken of their children. 

Cameras have always been appreciated by single girls - even more so when we entered the digital era and no longer have to wait the three business days or one hour for our pictures to be developed at the drugstore.  (Single girls like instant gratification.)  Now, social networking sites (ie MySpace and Facebook) became a great tool for single girls to market ourselves.  The power of the perfect profile picture became as glaringly obvious as the very flash on our Canon PowerShots.

Certainly as much as single girls like looking at ourselves in the mirror, photographs are just another form of medium for self-expression self-examination.  By now, single girls have learned how to impeccably arrange ourselves in front of the camera.  We've had enough practice to determine which poses work best to showcase our clavicle, make our legs appear longer, or hide a weak chin.  Those smiles, smirks and pouts we perform in front of a mirror will later be captured on film.  Blue Steel, anyone?  Derek Zoolander, eat your heart out!

You may find it slightly disturbing how many hundreds of photos we have taken over the course of our 20s.  Sadly, we are reminded of our own mortality with these glossy 4x6 prints of our pretty, unblemished faces when seen juxtaposed with pictures from years past.  Essentially, cameras are the perfect way to canonize our youth and beauty before we succumb to Botox injections and the like.  And what better way to capture proof of our gorgeous, unflappable existence than with photographic evidence?