Why do some people have dimples?

I have so many things to worry about right now, but of all things, today I woke up with the question in my mind: Why do some people have dimples? Why wonder such a thing? Well I'm the only one in my family that has dimples. Looking up my doubt on the Internet, I discovered that dimples are visible indentations of the skin caused by underlying flesh and sometimes form on people's cheeks when they smile. Also that some people have a dimple on their chins, known as cleft chin. Like cheek dimples, chin dimples are inheritable and have a varying degree of prominence. In other words dimples come with genes so they are hereditary. But the question remains, who did I inherit them from? That's practically impossible for me to find out because my mother, father, and one brother passed away. Another, my oldest brother, has alpheimer, so I can't count on asking him anything. In our albums there are a lot of photos of my family, but none really of grandparents and other family members. So the question is there:: Who did I inherit my dimples from?

I did find out something that I'm supposed to keep to myself, but what on earth for? I read that dimples are a defect in the muscles underlying the skin that didn't come together as these muscles should have. The writer recommended to keep it to myself, LOL. But dimples is something that a lot of people would like to have because people have the idea that they make one look more attractive and that they are cute.

A lot of babies are born with dimples, but as they grow these disappear. Many dimples disappear after age 13 or 14. But mine have never disappeared! And I passed age 15 a lot of years ago!

I remember a friend I had in my teens that was quite envious of my dimples. She kept on wishing she had dimples and started sticking a pencil on her cheeks to see if she could force some dimples on her face. All she got was a bunch of scratches on her cheeks of course.

There is a dimple that is particular to men. It's the chin dimple that I mentioned above called cleft chin. But cheek dimples appear in boys and girls, men and women have them. I remember Robert Mitchum had that dimple on his chin and it really made him look soooo handsome. Well, that's my opinion. On the Internet there's a long list of actors and actresses that had cheek and chin dimples, but the truth is I don't know any of them.

I guess I'll never know who I inherited my dimples from. One thing's for sure though. I must keep smiling to show my dimples off!

CarmenIsie