But it doesn’t have to ruin their lives any longer. Just look at Barry Jay, Director of Curriculum for the Barry’s Bootcamp Complete Workout System. Barry didn’t let the fact that he was born with a haunting, unholy, permanent open-mouthed grin stop him.

His parents, terrified at his visage, abandoned him at an orphanage. But through the Coping with Permasmile Association he was able to learn to accept that his wide-eyed terror stare was one small part of him without defining him. He learned to alter his breathing to minimize the train-whistle sound of his breath moving through his teeth. He installed a small, ultra-fine mesh screen in his throat to prevent bugs from flying in and choking him to death.

Once he was able to move beyond his physical deformities differences Barry turned his sights to a career. His experience in overcoming his own limitations inspired him to help others as a physical trainer. His experience in wanting more money than he already had inspired him to create a package of DVDs and workout equipment so people could try to figure things out at home instead of wasting his precious time.

Today he lives in a rented house in Long Beach, where he spends afternoons riding warm ocean currents and ingesting hundreds of gallons of water at a time while filtering out plankton and krill.