# Can a minor look older than 18? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923 "2010-05-10T16:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/81 "2010-05-11T02:30:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I can’t believe that anyone is saying that 11 and 12 year olds can look 18. What a crock. Want to critique the input from me and **DSeid** , two physicians who have offered opinions contrary to your assertion? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/82 "2010-05-11T02:33:18Z")
Like I said, it’s more obvious from talking to them than just necessarily from looking at them, but I can still tell just by looking. I cannot be fooled. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/83 "2010-05-11T02:45:00Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It’s absolutely ludicrous to contend that there is less sexual activity among adolescents and even grade school kids now than was the case in the fifties, and it was this contention which brought up the whole teen pregnancy, STD and promiscuity rate debate to begin with. Wait, weren’t you the one that told us about how you lost your virginity at 15 with some neighbourhood nymphomaniac? And how nobody thought that was a big deal at the time? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/84 "2010-05-11T02:56:50Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I voted 14 because that was the age at which I passed for 18 nine times out of ten. Hey, at 14, I passed for 12, nine times out of ten. The tenth time, I passed for 13. It got to be a drag when I actually hit the age of majority. 🙂 Having carded many, many minors during my days working in a beer store (and I was in a Canadian province where the legal age was 19), I’d have to answer “yes” to the OP’s question. A minor can look older than 18. I’ll add that IME, looks are only part of the equation though–attitude and other factors play a role as well. You can look 25 when all you need to be is 19, but still get carded because of how you’re behaving, how you’re reacting to my request for ID, and so on. I won’t say more or get more specific, since that would give away some information best kept away from minors. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/85 "2010-05-11T03:06:38Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Like I said, it’s more obvious from talking to them than just necessarily from looking at them, but I can still tell just by looking. I cannot be fooled. I’d be curious as to what exactly you think the rest of us non-superhumans are supposed to do, in that case, since you’re in the vast minority in this thread alone. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/86 "2010-05-11T03:07:25Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Like I said, it’s more obvious from talking to them than just necessarily from looking at them, but I can still tell just by looking. I cannot be fooled. Wow. **Dio** even for you that’s some idiocy talkin’. Even on the talking part, just how “mature” do you assume 21 year olds all act? I have met some pretty damn immature and stupid 21 year olds. To my ear sounding stupid and immature is often pretty par for the course for 21 year olds. And 21 year olds in a bar setting? Oh yeah, I expect a lot of telling maturity there. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/87 "2010-05-11T03:35:34Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > I’d be curious as to what exactly you think the rest of us non-superhumans are supposed to do, in that case, since you’re in the vast minority in this thread alone. Supposed to do about what? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/88 "2010-05-11T03:45:37Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Prove it’s my opinion that it’s not “A OK” to give Jello shots to minors? What the fuck? No, prove that people always know what age someone is. Besides, if you think that a waitress wouldn’t find it okay to give Jell-O shots to a minor why else do you think she would give one to an 11 year old, except that she thought the girl looked much older? ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/89 "2010-05-11T03:55:20Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Supposed to do about what? He’s saying that you are either an extreme outlier in your abilities to tell the age of young people, or that you are mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/90 "2010-05-11T04:16:04Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > So is Dio’s position is that anyone who has actually experienced such a situation is delusional? :dubious: Of course. That’s \*always \*his position. He can’t back down even after hearing from the two physicians who have replied in this thread. He’s either trolling, or an idiot. If \*\*Dio \*\*doesn’t experience it, it doesn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/91 "2010-05-11T04:16:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Like I said, it’s more obvious from talking to them than just necessarily from looking at them, but I can still tell just by looking. I cannot be fooled. So what color is the sky on your planet? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/92 "2010-05-11T04:29:49Z")
Good Christ, the answer to this question is obvious. I was routinely mistaken for an adult when I was in junior high. Not just by men hitting on me, but by random people my parents knew, strangers, people at my church, etc. This was my religious phase. I did not dress like a typical teenager nor did I act like one. I wore flannel for god’s sake. I was a modest, reserved, serious person who spent most of her free time with adults in their early twenties (my beloved Aunt and her friends.) Once I was at the grocery store with my stepfather and he met a business colleague who immediately presumed me to be _his wife._ When I was 12 I stopped at a 7-11 on the way home from Tae Kwon Do practice wearing no makeup and a formal _ghi_, and the guy working the register, at least in this late twenties, started hitting on me hard-core. I told him I was flattered but that I was 12, at which point he nearly fell all over himself in apology while his buddy laughed hysterically. Not only is it possible for a 12 year old to appear as intellectually and physically ‘‘mature’’ as an 18 year old, you are seriously overestimating the maturity level of the average eighteen-year-old. I vividly recall being so bored one night during freshman year that me and three friends made a videotape of stuffed animals re-enacting Abba’s song ‘‘Mama Mia.’’ It’s arguable that college was a regression experience for me. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/93 "2010-05-11T04:38:22Z")
I have personally been fooled by a 15 year old who told me she was 18. She really did look it. Thankfully I discovered the truth before anything happened. I don’t like jail. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I said 21 in that thread, not 18. > > I can’t believe that anyone is saying that 11 and 12 year olds can look 18. What a crock. It’s disingenuous to say “ **Cyn** said that teenage girls can’t pass for 21 year olds so what do YOU think, can teenage girls pass for 18 year olds?” I’ve never seen an eleven year old who looked 18 but I have seen many, many 16 year olds who I would assume were 18 or 19 and I’ve seen many 18 and 19 year olds who could pass for 16 year olds. It’s just hard to tell sometimes. It might be hard for **Dio** to accept, but I don’t think **Olives** is lying. Things aren’t black and white and not everyone who mistakenly hits on an underage girl is a creepy monster. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/94 "2010-05-11T04:39:38Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Good Christ, the answer to this question is obvious. Yeah, you would have thought so. When I was a teenager people commonly assumed I was between 2 and 5 years younger than I was. To the point that even teachers in high school sometimes asked me if I had skipped a grade or two. I used to be paranoid that it was because I acted immature somehow, but now I’ve accepted that looking young runs in my family - my mom at 60 still looks to be in her 40s, and now that I’m 32 most people seem to think I’m about 25. I still get carded sometimes (and where I live the drinking age is 19). I seems perfectly clear to me that you and I represent the two ends of a perfectly normal bell curve of appearances. Some people look older than they are, and some look younger. Shocker! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/95 "2010-05-11T04:39:49Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > No, prove that people always know what age someone is. That’s not a claim I ever made, and the post that was quoted was me saying “of course not” after being asked whether it was ok to serve alcohol to a minor. > [@](#): > > Besides, if you think that a waitress wouldn’t find it okay to give Jell-O shots to a minor why else do you think she would give one to an 11 year old, except that she thought the girl looked much older? I DO think she thought it was ok. I was just answering the question that I _myself_ did not think it was ok. ---
**Author:** ![wipetheclock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@wipetheclock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wipetheclock)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/96 "2010-05-11T04:58:29Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I DO think she thought it was ok. I was just answering the question that I _myself_ did not think it was ok. Billfish678 asked you if the waitress thought it was OK, not you. See post 31. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/97 "2010-05-11T05:12:49Z")
> [@wipetheclock](#): > > Billfish678 asked you if the waitress thought it was OK, not you. See post 31. Whatever. I misread it then. Obviously the waitress did think it was ok because she did it. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/98 "2010-05-11T05:15:00Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Whatever. I misread it then. Obviously the waitress did think it was ok because she did it. How do you know the waitress didn’t genuinely think that the girl was old enough? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/99 "2010-05-11T05:28:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > How do you know the waitress didn’t genuinely think that the girl was old enough? Because she was fucking eleven. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923/100 "2010-05-11T05:37:19Z")
I would say 14 but could be younger. I once bought a beer for a 15-year-old, thinking she was my age (22). The ID helped, but I didn’t doubt it. Conversely, I have a friend who in her mid-30s, I would have carded, if I hadn’t known her. I had a friend who was with her 13-year-old daughter when they both got hit on, and the guys who hit on them would NOT believe they were mother/daughter and not friends, because the one looked young for her age (She was 19 when the kid was born, but still), and the other looked mature. Liz (mother) finally said, “Okay, we were kidding. She’s not my daughter, we’re friends, the answer is still no,” and the guys left them alone. But she wasn’t kidding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-minor-look-older-than-18/538923.md?page=6)