How to make photos bright like this? (Pics)?

In the photos below the girls face is so bright it's sometimes hard to see her facial features. I know that isn't the best for a self portrait but I'm experimenting with things. How do I make my photos bright like that without the background appearing over exposed? Picture #2 is a good example. She looks totally brightened and the background pops.

It is not just a flash. When I take a photo with just a flash the only thing that happens is that all the shadows on my face are increased and all my blemishes pop out more. It appears unflattering.

I have a Nikon D3100 and GIMP or could use picnik.com if need be.

These most likely were edited in a photo editing program like photoshop. If you have that you could get this similar affect under Edit >Curves.

Also with the type of camera you have if you play with the shutter speed and f stop you can get a similar affect. You want a shallow depth of field so pick a lower f-stop like 2.8 then you want to set your shutter so it is slightly over exposed. (If you look in the view finder you want the green bars at the bottom to be slightly off center.) This will give your face the blown out look.

It's not particularly nice looking. It's got a bit of a green tint to it and it's just pumping up the brightness and contrast. You can do that in any simple editing program.

All you have to do is get the app FlashforFree

On the first, she is by a window, which is the main light source as far as I can tell - I can see the reflection in her eyes, and it's over exposed, it's also poorly composed, and there's wide angle distortion caused by being too close to the lens, plus excessive use of editing to create a vintage cross processing type effect which is why the colours are sort of greenish/bluish.

The others are just over exposed with blown highlights - and then mangled in an image editor.

The girl is pretty, it's a shame the photos are so awful.