“Pale Blue Eyes” by the Velvet Underground. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. “I Still Miss Someone” by Johnny Cash. Those are just a few of the utterly ubiquitous amounts of songs out there about blue eyes, usually about someone yearning or pining for a lover with eyes the color of the sky. So there’s definitely a cultural obsession with those of the blue-eyed persuasion, whether it’s celebrating their unique beauty or expressing fear about their alleged icy cold-hearts.
All emotions and broken hearts aside, there’s a lot to learn about not just blue eyes themselves, but also the people who peer out at the world through them. Whether it’s due to weird scientific facts, related health conditions, or just plain genetics, those with baby blues are just a little bit different than their brown-eyed counterparts. So without further ado, read on to learn the truth about blue eyes and the population of people who have them.
Even though blue eyes appear to be, well, blue, they’re actually not blue at all. It sounds crazy, but here’s no such thing as blue pigment when it comes to our peepers – you’re either melanated or not very melanated at all. And if you’re melanated in each layer of the iris like the majority of the human race, then you would have brown eyes that are actually brown (via Gizmodo) – no optical illusions there!
So if there’s no pigment in the front layers of the iris of blue eyed-people (there is some melanin in the back layer), what mechanism is at work that makes them look blue? According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, blue eyes look blue for the same reason that both the ocean and the sky appear to be blue: it’s simply a trick of the light. This is called the Tyndall Effect, which is the way that light scatters in blue eyes, giving rise to the blue appearance. Fascinating, no?
Only a small percentage of people have blue eyes
Although there are a ton of actors, models, and other celebs who have blue eyes, which can make these colored eyes seem like a common asset (at least on television), not all that many people are lucky enough to boast baby blues.