I’m 35 now. I know things are relative and that might not be much to some, but on paper it looks like a lot to me. (Before long I’ll be bumped up to the ‘middle aged’ advertising demographic and probably start getting flooded with ads for different products.) But I look like I’m in my mid-late 20s, most people guess I’m 30 at most, and I’ve had ID checkers read my birthdate back to me off by a decade. (obviously this all had drawbacks when I was much younger, but it has benefits now.)
In conversation, when someone learns my age sometimes they’re surprised, and I tend to make a light joke or brush past it and move the conversation on. If it isn’t a big deal to people, I guess that is the right response? I don’t want people to think I’m trying to ‘trick’ them somehow.
Not sure the question or the opinion you’re seeking.
I’ve always had a baby face and have continuously perceived to be much younger than I actually am. I’ve never had a problem with it. My wife and I have a wide range of friends that we socialize with that are across a wide range of ages. We are in our 50’s and our close friends range from age 30’s to 60’s.
It also has never been a problem with work because I’ve always worked for companies that evaluate and promote based upon merit and performance and not on tenure.
the question is “do other people care to any significant degree?” and if yes, should I conduct myself differently because of that
my guess is the answer is “not really”… older people don’t really care, younger people seem surprised but then process it and move on I guess?
I am in my 60s and have been told I look 50. Its genetic and I’ve never smoked.
It helped because I used to, always, like younger men. Its a moot point now.
From my mid teens until I was nearly 40 I looked a lot younger than my age if clean shaven. Unmasked by a beard I had a baby face. So I had a beard almost all the time in order to be taken seriously in business (and before that so I could get served at bars). Then suddenly my skin began to show signs of age, my hair began to thin a little, and gray hair infiltrated my beard. Once I began to look older than I was I missed the option to look youthful again.
I’ve always looked younger than I am.
It hurts that in high school I was younger, really, than my classmates.
I was also sheltered by my Daddy and was perceived younger because, I suppose I acted helpless and let others make decisions for me.
I got older and finally started making my own choices. I was real dramatic about it. Which only made me look less mature.
I think maybe I’ve now become my own person.
Better late than never.
I doubt anyone ever cared but me.
“Handling it”?
Yep. When I was 18-20, I still looked like I was 16. At 20, I grew a goatee, and it was amazing the changed it made in how people dealt with me. More respectful, more like a grown-up. I’ve now had it for 35 years, and can’t imagine shaving it off.
Enjoy it while it lasts. You’ll look really old really soon before you know it.
I’m 36 and I enjoyed looking 29 for a while, but I’m getting white/grey hair now.
Once, when we were in college, my younger brother and I tried to get into a bar. The bouncer let my brother walk right in, but carded me.
When my aunt and uncle celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, my brother and his wife helped organize the party. My brother was greeting people at the entrance. I was inside, talking to a friend of my uncle. When he learned my surname, he asked, “Is that your father, there at the door?”
Suddenly, I didn’t resent it anymore. 
I’m 72, but look 60. Gray hair but lots of it, no fat, and I move well. Never been a problem. My wife has great skin. At our reunion the wife of an old classmate thought she was 10 years younger than me (she’s less than a year younger.) That has made her happy for months.
I’ve tried to think about why anyone would care if someone else looked younger than they really were. Maybe jealousy from a sibling not as blessed?
I personally this is for a bunch of sneak brags. 
I’m guessing the question is a bit mangled and the OP may mean to ask, “Will other people treat me differently if they think I’m younger than I am?” (As opposed to, “Will other people treat me differently if they think I LOOK younger than I am?”)
It can be a problem for women, who have enough trouble being taken seriously as it is, without being mistaken for a fresh-faced 25-year old when you’re actually 34 with some real world experience under your belt. While it is probably less of a problem for males overall, I’m sure there are some who have had the same experience.
I had that problem. I think I countered it by having a rather cynical persona, which helped put the kibosh on the sweet-young-thing impression.
Ahem.
All my life! And it’s been not that much fun to be honest. Don’t believe me? Hear me out.
I come from a family of four children, I have a younger brother. He was tall for his age. I was tiny. As a child I was assumed to be the ‘baby’, ALL THE TIME. it was annoying and humiliating and no one wanted to listen to me complain. First day(s) of school teachers think I must be in the wrong room, grr.
But the true humiliation is through the teenaged years. You cannot imagine how humiliating it is to be, crushing on an 18 yr old at the park, only to find yourself being chatted up by a 13yr old. No one tells you what you should say. No matter what you do, it keeps happening. Now you’re 23 and teenage check out boys are still asking you out. I’m not gonna lie, those were horrible years.
As I came of age to drink, my friends made me go into the bars as a single so they didn’t all get carded too. I always got carded.
I went off to uni four years behind my cohort. Did it help? No. It did not. The first few weeks I was there, I believed I truly FELT older than most of my classmates, because I was, by a tiny bite haha. But I kept having conversations with people who thought I was a teenaged phenom of some sort. It was incredibly disorienting. That cured me, I stopped caring.
I just let people be wrong a lot. It was a lot easier.
My hubs is 10 yrs my senior, twice in our travels I have been mistaken for his daughter. One man insisted to take a photo of us!
I’m in my 60’s now, so long since any issue, but it was extremely annoying through several stages of my life. Being a small of stature girl didn’t help, just made it worse.
Seconding @elbows here. You think it’s a “sneak brag” to say I had trouble being taken seriously in my 30s? Okaaaay.
My husband is 41. I have a high school senior photo of him and the only thing that’s really changed is a few grey hairs. A couple years ago he got a haircut and the lady was going on about how great he would look compared to his classmates.
He ran into some trouble as a clinical psychologist with some clients who were skeptical of how someone so “young” could help them. He’s a professional so he would describe his qualifications and leave it at that. Now that he has the little grey patch I think it’s not as much of an issue.
But again at the salon last week, he had a person who couldn’t believe how old he was. She said, “Your wife must hate you.”
A little bit. But I’m mistaken for being a bit younger sometimes too. I think it’s because I’m allergic to the sun so I don’t have a lot of that kind of sun aging. As a young teenager I was frequently mistaken for an adult woman, so that’s only a recent development. We are the same age but I often wonder at what age people will start to raise eyebrows at the “age” difference.
No, I think you worked at the wrong place or had the wrong bosses. No one should be judged on their appearance but based upon their performance.
Or just maybe there is sexism in the world (and it was worse during the era when I was in my 30s).
Not disputing that. So was it sexism or reverse agism?