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Looking a lot younger?

Whoa absolutely!

I am soon to be 45 and told that I look about 29 to 35 roughly! Sadly due to anxiety etc, I have lines but what astonishes me is that lines do not detract from how old or young a person looks!

I have always been behind both mentally and physically. When I was in my early 30's, I tried to sign for a catalog and this woman apologised and said I need to be over 18 to apply and was blown away and rather embarrassed when I said how old I was!!!

When I was younger, I hated looking so young for my age and also, my maturity level was sadly depleted and was often teased, because naturally, I had to be in the "adult" world.

It is finally at nearly 45, that I feel a resemblance of maturity, but still and very much the teenager, but that is actually good, because my best friend (finally) is coming up to 20 next year lol I can tap into the teenager mind and child's mind and an adult's mind and right now, I am thrilled when I am told that I look a lot younger!
 
I seem to be youthful in apprearance and mannerisms and I've been told that I look younger than my age. Just last week, one of my young students said that he thought I was twenty-something and he couldn't believe it when I told him that I'm 43!!
 
epath13 said:
If I take my skin color and type, stress level, all the illnesses I have had, kids I still think I look exactly my age. I had hard time to recognize people's age when I was younger, but I became a little bit better at it. So far I've never met anyone who looked significantly younger. People might seem younger, but if you look closer there're always going to be indicators of an actual age. I've met people who looked healthier for their age. People who take care of themselves, have no serious illnesses, or simply belong to certain racial group or mixtures or groups may appear younger but the closer you look the better you see that it's not really true. I had 2 friends, one was 100% (more or less :) ) Korean and another obviously had some Asian or native blood in her. They both seemed young for their age (one of the reasons was, they were trying to present themselves as younger people, so they dressed and behaved accordingly) but if you looked closer you would be able to see signs of aging appropriate for their skin and body type, etc., so in the end they pretty much looked their age. And I don't think it is an "Autistic trait" or "Asperger trait", because I just don't see any evidence proving it :) and I think judgement depends on personal expectations of how people suppose to look like at certain age, people have different expectations so what looks "young" to one may not look the same to another. So I don't really see how it can be a trait. But then again, we have to specify what we're talking about, are we talking about an image a person presents or actual physical appearance?

I remember I watched one crazy show some time ago... something about dressing up people appropriately. There's a woman once, who dressed like a teenager. She claimed people thought she was 15, 16 or something like that, don't remember exactly. She actually was in her late 30s or 40s, I couldn't understand what she's talking about, to me she looked like a 40 years old dressed up in a 12 years old clothes. It all depends on what people pay attention to: image or actual physical appearance.
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I kind of wonder this myself, but people with the same skin color as me (or more precisely, those of either African, Carribean, or South Indian ancestry) also believe that I am much younger than my age. Up until a few days ago, I believed that I looked my age and couldn't understand why people couldn't see it. But, I was waiting for a train, and a group of people who looked my age to me came to wait. I heard an older person complain about the "high schoolers." She was talking about the group. And I looked at them and was confused and thought, "I really do look like them." Edit to add: They were in high school. They were on a high school field trip. I also was watching a tv show and someone told the character that she couldn't be more than 28. I thought she was 35. I looked up the age of the actress at the time of filming, and she was 27, my age. I really don't look like her. It's weird to me. I look at pictures of myself when I was 11, and I looked much, much older. I looked about 16/17. I seem to still look like this to people as I have been routinely made fun of for being a high schooler when I am not, for instance. Also, when I visited my soon-to-be university, the college students thought I was in high school. The guys who express interest in me, in general, are around 19-22 and consistently believe that I am younger than them or 19. 19 seems to be another specific age number that gets thrown at me.

I don't dress in any specific way. There are many women in their late 20s who dress as I do. I don't ever wear make-up which could be why I look younger to people, even to those of darker skin.

If it is a trait, it may be connected to telomere length or genetically determined shifts in hormone balance that affect the rate of biological aging.
 
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Progster said:
I seem to be youthful in apprearance and mannerisms and I've been told that I look younger than my age. Just last week, one of my young students said that he thought I was twenty-something and he couldn't believe it when I told him that I'm 43!!
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I am on saturday, going to be 45 and told that I look in my late 20's!!!!
 
pushpin said:
Oh yes, I forgot, the Jehovah's Witness religion doesn't celebrate birthdays!
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No worries or offence taken and to add. My choice, nothing was forced on me! Actually lol I used to love celebrating my birthday and was really upset when I found out that birthdays were not celebrated, because I was really loving what I was learning about the bible and, so, was shocked and demanded to know the reason, because to me, they seemed so harmless. They explained and showed me a scripture that says. The day of one's death is greater than their birth, because they have made a name! Plus, no where is it mentioned in the bible, Jesus date of birth and so, I saw the logic that if Jesus never celebrated his, why should I, who want to follow in his footsteps? From the day on, I was very happy to not celebrate and besides, saves a bit of money lol oh and why celebrate getting old
 
I am 29 but I still get asked for id when I buy tobacco (you have to be 18 round here) so lots of people think I'm 17 or younger. And one of my friends was asked the other day by someone I hadnt met before "who's the child holding the baby?". Well, that was me holding my son.
I'm also very small. Which baffles me how I gave birth to my son who was a good size at birth and now he's huge!
 
Maybe part of why we tend to look younger is because we spend less time out in the sun?

Many of us are hermits or we skulk out, discretely in the dark? We avoid much of the sun damage that is the main cause of skin ageing.
 
Quite possible. I practically lived outside when I was a kid, but now days go by where I won't leave the house except to check the mail. I'm sure I'm not the only one like that. Although I'm hoping I can go back to spending a ton of time outside when the kid gets older, I really miss the outdoors.
 
Soup said:
Maybe part of why we tend to look younger is because we spend less time out in the sun?

Many of us are hermits or we skulk out, discretely in the dark? We avoid much of the sun damage that is the main cause of skin ageing.
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Well, I spend a lot of time outdoors...as much as I can, anyway...and I've had at least one customer approach me saying I looked like "the sort of person who spent a lot of time outdoors," meaning he assumed I would know a lot about the hiking trails in our area (I don't; there's just a few trails that I restrict myself to). That said, even, there are many people who assume I am much younger than I actually am. I don't know if that's because I actually look younger, or because of the nature of the place I work at.

Either way...I'll take it! :D
 
Suzanne said:
No worries or offence taken and to add. My choice, nothing was forced on me! Actually lol I used to love celebrating my birthday and was really upset when I found out that birthdays were not celebrated, because I was really loving what I was learning about the bible and, so, was shocked and demanded to know the reason, because to me, they seemed so harmless. They explained and showed me a scripture that says. The day of one's death is greater than their birth, because they have made a name! Plus, no where is it mentioned in the bible, Jesus date of birth and so, I saw the logic that if Jesus never celebrated his, why should I, who want to follow in his footsteps? From the day on, I was very happy to not celebrate and besides, saves a bit of money lol oh and why celebrate getting old
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Interesting! Jesus, huh........ Didn't the wise men love to celebrate Jesus' birth with gifts? Is it OK If ? I hope the wise man in your life at least offers to buy you something, but respects your wishes. : )

Suzanne said:
Whoa absolutely!

When I was younger, I hated looking so young for my age and also, my maturity level was sadly depleted and was often teased, because naturally, I had to be in the "adult" world.

It is finally at nearly 45, that I feel a resemblance of maturity, but still and very much the teenager,
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Wow! Yeah! It's difficult feeling so young, child like, PLAYFUL, yet having grown up hormones at this age (38, 45, etc). for me, it feels ridiculous........ aw.........
 
Add me to the list, I have always looked younger (even when I put on a bunch of weight), most people have been putting me 5-10 years younger since I was 25. 34 now and 25 is the average guess, unless of course I let slip that I have a 15 and 10 year old daughters (younger one for sure is an Aspie too, but shes only 10 and looks way older because she is so tall).

Ill take it, I like being carded for stuff, makes me feel young too :-)
 
I've always looked much younger than my real age. Used to hate it, but now I consider it an asset.
 
-23 for real used to be -26 this was a hard year. had people ask me if I was in highschool over a decade out of collage. My father has the young thing too. I think it is genetic and there may be a AS link. I think its cool, we get to win on one, eat your hearts out...:p Makes it hard to date tho ladies my age look twice as old, weird.:confused: But online no one who looks my age will touch me. I wish I could find a nice AS girl who matched me. Sigh!o_O BTW am cute and wicked smart:D:dog:charming and warm too.
 
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I've not read through every single post on this thread but from the ones I have read, maybe i'm an odd one then!
Most people usually think I'm between 25-32, although i'm only 19.. :) I don't mind though. I don't really know how old I look...few people say I look my age and only ever has one person said I look younger than what I am. Apparently my manner makes people assume I am older, because I am not your typical 19 year old :D Mind, I quite like that. It could all have come from mainly associating with women of 60 years and older lol.

Just as a side note I suppose, I was in the city with a friend who is 1-1.5 years younger than me, and a man stopped us (he looked in his 50's but I could be off with that) and he asked me if I was my friend's mother? Maybe he was trying to compliment my friend for afterwards he told me she was "well hot", but I am still confused as to why he would ask me such and thus suggest I look old enough to have an 18 year old daughter?!?! hmmph.
 
I totally look a lot younger. (I love that word,'totally!' lol) I pass for being in my early twenties and I'm in my early thirties. No matter how hard I try to look older it doesn't really work.
 
I am 29 and people always think i am around 18-20.
mental age i would say around 16. It is not always a good thing though. I am a vet student and recently a dog owner that came took one look at me and said ''if we are gonna have a vet that looks like a kid, we better had none''. The asistant professor reasurred them i can examine their pet but still...ouch.
 
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