Apparently my body stopped aging (looks-wise) around age 15 or so, which might be useful later on, but is decidedly a pain in the ass right now since I’m 20.
I haven’t seen any benefits yet to being carded all the time (even for a freakin’ lottery ticket!) or having the nice lady at Pro-cuts ask if I was old enough to drive yet.
As I recall, actually being 15 was no bowl of cherries back then and why the gods have seen fit to prolong my torture is beyond me. But, maybe, just maybe, there are some things I can work to my advantage? Any ideas?
It may not seem to be such a great thing now, but wait til you hit 35 or so. I was carded until I reached 30, and, while it wasa pain in the ass, it is a huge ego boost.
I am now 34, and it’s not such the ego boost you say it is.
I would rather have been assumed to be adult and competent when I was in my 20s than be assumed to be “youthful” and whatever now. I guess it’s the silver lining, but I’d rather just look my age. Looking young is not a talent, and so is no credit to me, but making people assume that I’m not experienced is quite a detriment.
One woman had the lack of sense to restrain herself: “You don’t look old enough to have a bachelor’s.” I was 26. It’s my knowledge of her “younger is always better” chick mentality and my Christian training not to ballistic on people that prevented me from telling her off in a way that probably would have made her cry.
I really enjoy being told I don’t look a day older than 30 (used to be 25 or even less before I grew a beard - not my decision, BTW, I liked myself better without… but marriage has its price :)). And anyone who judges you on your looks isn’t worth worrying about [hijack] and this applies to how good looking you are, as well as what age you appear to be [/hijack]
'Course it means you have to really be 40 Can’t win 'em all, I guess!
I’m 24 and currently doing therapy so it sucks when my clients are wondering how this child snuck into the clinic and if i’m really going to be their clinician. But clothing can definately help as when I wear more professional clothes or darker colors I tend to look older. Basically though, if you present yourself in a mature and professional manner, people will tend to think that you must be older then you appear. Although I have a baby face, I still get taken quite seriously despite that fact. And believe me, when you’re twenty, you’ll get carded no matter what so just deal for an extra year. Once you have the lisence no one will care anyway.
I’m 24 and currently doing therapy so it sucks when my clients are wondering how this child snuck into the clinic and if i’m really going to be their clinician. But clothing can definately help as when I wear more professional clothes or darker colors I tend to look older. Basically though, if you present yourself in a mature and professional manner, people will tend to think that you must be older then you appear. Although I have a baby face, I still get taken quite seriously despite that fact. And believe me, when you’re twenty, you’ll get carded no matter what so just deal for an extra year. Once you have the id no one will care anyway.
I’ve never been fortunate enough (or not) to have this problem. I believe that in your older years, you will appreciate this genetic attribute-without botox, face peels, etc. You have been genetically blessed. While looks should never be a factor in one’s success, it is a sad thing that attractive, youthful people are more successful-at least in my observation.
I’ll be 28 this month, but people think I’m anywhere from sixteen to eighteen. I get carded regularly. It’s still damn annoying – if they at least thought I was in my twenties, but not usually. AAAAGH!
It doesn’t help that I’m very short as well. I’m convinced one of these days I’m going to get accused of having a fake ID or something. Maybe I should start carrying my birth certificate with me.
When I was a junior in college, I had to deal with this one woman who kept asking me what grade I was in, and why wouldn’t I stop lying, because it was obvious I was a 7th grader. (a 5’8" tall 7th grader, but a 7th grader nonetheless).
I now think that other people think I look to be in my early-mid20s. ((I think it has something to do with TV & movies, because I constantly see people on screen who are playing characters my age who look 10-15 years older, and it’s skewing everyone’s perceptions of what a certain age actually looks like.))
Still, I’m guessing it will be to some benefit in the next 10 years. It had better be.
When I was in my late teens, (18 and 19), people would ask me if I was old enough to be working and it was annoying but now that I’m older (a whopping 22), I’ve not been carded for drinks since the weekend after my 21st.
My wife has always looked very young. When she was 28 (and I was 21) we went to a bar in State College, and the bouncer accused me of giving her my sister’s id. She got braces when she was 30, and she could blend right in with the junior high crowd at the school she taught in.
I think it is a real plus. I probably wouldn’t have asked her out if I’d known she was that much older than me. (I would have just assumed she’d adopt a “you can’t be serious” attitude.) Plus, now that she’s pushing 50, I enjoy the looks of stunned amazement she gets when I tell people how old she is. Of course, I can’t do that when I’m too close to her, 'cause she hits me.
I also look a bit young, and it is a drawback at work. Bosses tend to lose track of where you want to be, career-wise, when they think you are younger than you are, so there are some drawbacks. On the other hand, occassionally 20somethings flirt with me, which is always fun.
I have the opposite problem. I’m 19, and I’m really getting sick of my coworkers gaping at me when I turn down beer at a bar. “You’re ONLY 19? You don’t look 19!”. Gee, thanks, I look like an old woman, love to hear it.
Wonderful. A little while after I post in this thread, I buy some wine. And for about the third time in my adult life, I DIDN’T get carded. I almost feel hurt, but not quite.
I was once asked if my mom was my sister. She LOVED that. Recently a coworker thought she was about ten years younger than she is. She loved that too. Maybe I will eventually love it myself.
A lot of younger people are fat, so being fat does not necessarily make you look older. (It depends.) A lot of younger men are going bald, but they still look young to me. I’ve seen several in the last week that still look 20-something, despite their rabidly receding hairline. Wrinkles don’t necessarily make you unattractive (Sean Connery. I rest my case) but if you have a lot of sagging flesh then no, you probably aren’t going to appeal to the younger set. But you can still be attractive for someone in your age range, and to someone in your age range.
Who worries about “inappropriate”? My sister is married to a black man (we’re white) and to many people, that’s “inappropriate.” Who cares what these people think?
But I guess I understand what you mean—not getting the fish eye. But other than that, who cares?
I look younger than I am (anywhere between 5-12 years younger, depending on who you ask and what kind of day I’ve had) and while it’s never been a huge perk, it’s kind of nice. Just the other day I saw a woman who was a year younger than me, and yet she looked quite a bit older. I don’t know if I feel happy for myself or sorry for her. (She was an attractive woman, but I think she looked much older than her years.)
In the past I’ve wondered if people cut me some slack because they figured I was so much younger than them, and if they did, I wouldn’t be flattered by that. (As in, “Oh, don’t expect her to understand, she’s younger than us, you know.”)
I have always been told I looked younger than I am. It can be an advantage in that I probably have got away with things simply because people presumed I was younger than I was, and therefore expected less from me in the way of mature and sober behaviour, but the disadvantage was often that I found it difficult to get people to take me seriously (even when behaving in a mature and sober fashion) simply because they presumed I was younger than I was (and that is annoying in itself; I have friends in their twenties, and I certainly don’t make assumptions about their ability to make decisions, or the validity of their opinions, based on their age).
I am completely unable to gauge people’s age based on their appearance: I can make a wild guess in a give-or-take 10 years kind of way, but I find it hard to work out whether people are younger or older than I am unless we’re talking about completely fresh faced and wrinkle-free, or in a zimmer-frame and senile. I tend to assume that anyone more sensible than me is considerably older, regardless of their appearance.
Nowadays, at 40, I have no idea whether or not I still look younger, I suspect that I do on a good day, but not when I’m tired. My face no longer springs back from adversity with the ease that it once did.
I have always looked about 10 years younger than I am, largely due (I think) to being petite. Put me in gym attire with a ponytail and I become a teen again.
I love it and never had a problem with it back when the gas station attendant asked me if I was old enough to be pumping gas (you have to be 15 here), and I don’t have a problem when I’m carded today (I’m 32), because I know that I’ll be grateful later on. Heck I’m grateful now.
Can’t win 'em all, I guess!
