self portraits

The kids at the school I taught at today produced their own self portraits and spent time looking at the self portraits of famous artists. I was thinking what a good exercise producing self portraits is- it tells us a lot about how we see ourselves. Self portraits are difficult for many maybe because we don't spend that much time looking at ourselves. If you are asked to draw your friend many  people are less intimidated by this as they see their friend often and know what they look like.
When children are very young they are less embarrassed about drawing themselves. Growing up can make people very self conscious and worried about how other people see them.