EVERYONE has a Mirror Face. Mine involves a duck-face pout and a fiddle with my hair.

Yours will be whatever primping and preening you instinctively do whenever you come within sight of a reflective surface.

I’ve been caught doing my Mirror Face in the rear-view mirror of my car. In the middle of meetings at work. In the back of a soup spoon. During sex. During arguments.

I can’t walk past a mirror without looking at myself. Does that make me vain? Absolutely.

But I reckon there’s nothing wrong with checking yourself out every now and again (OK, all the time).

A study published recently by the University of Graz in Austria has revealed that men stare at themselves in the mirror for a whopping 80 seconds each time they look – five seconds longer than their female counterparts.

That doesn’t surprise me. I’ve long believed that men are just as vain as women, if not more so.

It’s just that society teaches them they have to keep it a dirty secret, like masturbating or liking Coldplay. 

I think it’s a bit sad that we view looking in the mirror as something to be embarrassed about.

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Some of my best times as a teenager were the hours we’d spend grooming in the school toilets, the air full of Impulse body spray and raging hormones.

In my 20s, getting ready in front of my vintage gilt-edged mirror – tunes on, make-up bag overflowing – became as much a part of a big night out as snogging a stranger on the night bus home. 

But if men are deemed unmasculine or mocked for being vain, then women are called bad feminists. 

I remember a few years ago, the author Zadie Smith said she had limited her seven-year-old daughter’s mirror time to 15 minutes a day, after noticing that she had developed a habit of “spending a lot of time” in front of them.

But to me that completely misses the joy and satisfaction many of us get from staring at ourselves. 

It might sound self-obsessed to love looking at yourself like I do, but it’s often about practicality rather than marvelling at my own hotness.

Although, on a good day, it is a bit of that, too. No one wants to join a Zoom call with spinach in their teeth.

It might sound self-obsessed to love looking at yourself like I do, but it’s often about practicality rather than marvelling at my own hotness. Although, on a good day, it is a bit of that, too. No one wants to join a Zoom call with spinach in their teeth.

Mostly, I approach the looking glass with curiosity and fascination about my changing face. And by “changing” I mean “ageing and sleep-deprived”. 

The best fellow mirror obsessive I’ve ever encountered was in the changing rooms of a gym I frequented one January, many resolutions ago.

She would stand for hours, butt-naked, blow-drying her long hair in the full-length mirror, nonchalantly staring at her own reflection.

Other people looked at her strangely or steered well clear of her, but to me she was the Narcissus of Virgin Active – and I loved her for it. 

I keep hearing that the younger generation are more self-conscious about their appearance, with everything from selfies to Instagram to Love Island to blame.

But I reckon we’d all have a healthier relationship with our self-image if we didn’t make people feel bad about examining their reflections. 

Here’s a vanity project for you: next time you feel like taking a long, hard look at yourself, don’t do it furtively – enjoy it. Own it. Drink yourself in.

Find something about your appearance to love. And if all else fails, just find a more flattering mirror and some better lighting. 

• Follow Kate on Instagram @katewillswrites.

This week I’m…

Reading… Bigger Than Us 

I love Fearne Cotton’s podcast and her new book offers advice on finding meaning in life.

Loving… Puma 

Nice workout kit basically counts as exercise, and Puma’s Exhale range is made with recycled fabric and natural dyes.

Baking… Cake or Death

The vegan brownie company has launched bake-at-home cookie dough you can freeze.

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