Do you look your age or not? Is it an advantage?

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People often don't believe me when I say I'm 24. I often get asked if I'm thinking of going into college or uni after school etc. While this is in some ways flattering and I hope to use this to my advantage in later years (so long as I don't age suddenly), I do find it hard to be taken seriously (like in jobs and job interviews) and getting into pubs and things.
Often I can see in people's eyes they think I'm just some upstart who's better off worth ignoring.

Do you look your age? Is it an advantage?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

People always always get my age to within a year. Always have done. I think it's probably a good thing, all in all. Actually, now that I'm almost 31, maybe I don't.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I probably look my age. The grey hairs are there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I look my age, probably I look a good few years younger than 28. I doubt if this has ever given me any sort of advantage.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure I do.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

it's my ascetic life style.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I started getting grey hairs when I was about 22. (27 now. Years, not hairs.) People are usually spot on guessing too.

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

looking younger makes it less weird to be into music past 30

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I only judge my looking younger from when people my age appear on the weakest link.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I just got my first grey. I'm 30 but the general consensus is I look 25ish. When I go out with friends my age, it's a younger set of women that seem to ~~abide my presence~~ like me. Which was great but is now getting kinda old. Also I should stop wearing hoodies and converse everywhere.

― Aaron A., Friday, 18 February 2005 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I do not look my age. I get carded trying to cash in lottery tickets.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Toumas, you are such a lame fucker.

― pingu, Friday, 18 February 2005 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, tracer, that was my reaction too.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

ditto, but i am willing to belief that people with huge wangs can still be lame fuckers.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

believe

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

People always think I'm about 5 - 10 years younger than I am, which is a pain when trying to be taken seriously.

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

My behavior does not always match that expected of someone of my age.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Before I lost all my weight, peeps presumed I was at least 3 years older than I looked most of the time. Now, I guess it's just 2.

― Deerninja B4rim4, Plus-Tech Whizz Kid (Barima), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I look younger than I am .. advantage - none that I can think of, except that I don't feel old. Most of my friends are older than I am (and also look young), so the subject rarely comes up.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Nobody seems to be able to get my age right.

Work colleagues tend to think I'm around 22.

People outside of work tend to think I'm around 28-30.

I'm 24. SOON TO BE 25!

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

And I've discovered being the youngest at your office is, like, the worst thing ever. I haven't had a boss ever take me seriously.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I look my age but I'm really bad at guessing how old other people are so maybe I'm bad at guessing how old I look as well.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

And Mandee, I know what you mean and feel your pain (about being youngest in the office).

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The key to getting people in offices to take you seriously is to talk in low and breathy whispers so everyone has to shut up while you're talking or else they'll miss it. This alone won't do it though. You have to have a few key moments where people see/hear you just going to town on somebody over the phone, or through a doorway, angrily slaming the phone down, etc. When they ask you what was wrong switch back to low and breathy. I learned all this by watching George Mason on 24.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a 90 day review yesterday and I just about boiled over at all the assumptions made about my performance based on my age. I heard "lack of experience" a LOT.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I look my age but I'm really bad at guessing how old other people are so maybe I'm bad at guessing how old I look as well.

Me too. I have no idea if I look young or old for my age.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Mandee I feel your pain too. I have women at work who are very rude to me in meetings because of my age. One woman asked me if I had any children and I said no, and she responded with "Well, you're lucky because when I was your age I had twins becuase we didn't have this 'new-fangled' birth control." I almost went into the history of contraception but stopped myself at the last minute.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

You should have just laughed.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to work at a pretty young workplace, too. Everyone is probably mainly 29-40 years old. It's just that I am young enough for everyone to remember how dumb and clueless they were back when they were my age.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I get older people telling me about music and TV references from the 60s and 70s and tell me they were "before my time" (I'm not sure how old they think I am) .. and then I correct them for getting an actor's name wrong or a song's artist wrong .. Once I told someone she must be too old to remember right.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always looked young for my age (thirty). I only recently stopped getting asked for ID in bars, pubs, etc. I attribute this to the fact that my hairline started receding a few years back (which I deal with by simply shaving my head). Dress comes into play as well - put in me in a baseball hat and a hoodie, and I can still pass for a teenager, but if I dress like a twentysomething, I'm usually treated accordingly.

― Tantrum (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not fool enough to ask anyone how old they think I look. I'm 45 and balding, I'm pretty sure I look it. I can't say I give it a lot of thought.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

― TOMBOT, Friday, 18 February 2005 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I have literally had a woman in a store call her husband out of the back room to point and laugh at me buying cigarettes. yes, i look about 17. apparently when i'm middle-aged this will be good. now it is annoying. although being short and not dressing like a "lady" doesn't help. i realise i could avert it by not wearing sneakers but that is extreme.

― scout (scout), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I just came from someone's office who made a Hee Haw joke and when I didn't laugh, he said, "I guess that was before your time."

WTF?! Just because I don't laugh at HeeHaw doesn't mean I'm 9.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I look much younger than I am. I does make things difficult in my profession - often I find clients tend to take me less seriously when they've seen me. I can tell it takes me a while to win them over and convince them I know what I'm doing.

This also applies beyond my professional life too. I had to get the arm rest fixed in my car after it came off and the service manager was such an ass about it. It was under warranty but he felt that me and my "buddies" must've broken it while "hanging out in a parking lot". I was so angry about that. I realized arguing with him wasn't worth my time and just went to another dealership to get it fixed. I did make it clear though, when my lease was up, why I was never going to return to their dealership.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm reminded of the much-imitated (albeit usually for comedic purposes, and maybe it's not imitated that much) scene in bunuel's Land Without Bread, where he shows the haggard and worn features of this villager and after you get a sufficient look the narrator says "this man is 18 years old" or some shockingly low age.

when 27 they all thought i was 21, 22. at 31, they think i'm 27, 28. so i guess it's catching up to me in increments. i've never noticed any advantage, however. unless you mean all the sweet young tail i'm able to pull. then yeah, advantage is mine.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I look much younger than I am. I does make things difficult in my profession - often I find clients tend to take me less seriously when they've seen me.

I will now and forever picture you as Topher Grace.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I look somewhat younger, it means I can hang out at hipster parties without feeling like a dad.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I will now and forever picture you as Topher Grace
I'm not sure how to feel about that.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure how I meant it.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I am fifty. At this stage of the game looking my age is not an advantage. I can't say my looking 45 would be a signifigant help, either. Nor can I turn my face into a heart. What's to do?

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

most people think that i am 19 years old or younger while i am in fact 22.

― t0dd swiss, Friday, 18 February 2005 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

That's not bad. I got 16 & 17 often when I was 22ish!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I just turned 32 ans was recently mistaken for 22. This please me.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was about 27, I had someone ask me if I was in high school. But that was an old lady, and I attribute the question to her being a complete idiot.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

You tell me. I'm do I look 41?

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh my god, you look like a transvestite in that picture!

Actually, I can't see the picture.. File not found....

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Shit. This could throw a wrench in my plans to model for International Male.
(xpost)

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i have always looked 35. now that i'm getting close to 30, i'm afraid that's gonna push up to 45. i never got carded.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Curious, I'm more worried about the zombie disembodied hand crawling along your monitor.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a little beanie-baby crab.

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

HEAVENS! ZOMBIE CRABS!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 18 February 2005 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i get mistaken for high school age all the time (i'm 22).

― latebloomer: HE WHOM DUELS THE DRAFGON IN ENDLESS DANCE (latebloomer), Friday, 18 February 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I think when my hair is long I look my age. When it's short I look like a teenager with well-developed facial hair.

― Remy (for better or worse... not the comic) (x Jeremy), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Interesting that hardly anyone says they look OLDER than their age. Are we all just bad at reading age by appearance or something?

I've always been seveerly misunderestimated in age - in my early 20s people said I was about 16, and the underage thin persisted til at least my mid 20s (I had to get drinkers ID as I dont drive and I kept getting carded). Now I'm almost 34 and I like to think my face has started that sort of sagging thing - no lines, just loss of elasticity - that might be ageing me a lil bit.

Of course, if I stopped dying my hair I would be 100% silver grey all over and that would age me instantly! :/

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Silver grey (with appropriate highlights, bells & whistles) is actually a fairly forgiving color compared to dark hair when it comes to wrinkles and whatnot.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah people keep tellign me to grow it out and see how it looks... but Ive been a redhead (or black/red head) for so long it just feels wrong.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Trayce, I guessed you around 26-28 from ILX thread pix

― Aaron A., Friday, 18 February 2005 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i think i look my age, but i can pass for younger or older depending on the social situation i'm in.

― christo and jeanne-claude (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I am 23 and still in University. Looking young is ok for me here but I think I look like I am going to a junior high dance when I wear a suit. I think the biggest way I have gotten around that is to wear grey suits. Blue sportcoats make me look like I am borrowing my dad's coat for the country club formal dance. Black suit = washes me out / makes me look like I am trying to look "old" / is can be lame for younger guys to wear generally.

― Fat Anarchy on Airtube (ex machina), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always looked much younger than I am, but I am starting to get grey hairs at an alarming rate (and judging by other people in my family I will probably be very grey by my early thirties (I'm 27 now)) so i'm worried that in a matter of a couple of years I'll go from looking much younger than I am to looking much older than I am.

I'm not sure why it bothers me that I'll never look like I'm 28, but it does.

― spaces are allowed (spaces are allowed), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I got carded for a beer purchase when I was 33.

Unfortunately, that was 18 yrs ago.

― jim wentworth (wench), Saturday, 19 February 2005 04:52 (twenty-one years ago)

hi jim--enjoying this nice cold Vermont evening?

it's been a nice sit-inside-&-drink-wine night here in the 'Nook (Winooski)...

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Saturday, 19 February 2005 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I frequently get carded for beer at 42 -- I'm bald, but I often wear a cap, and have otherwise young features. The only conceivable advantage to this is that I feel like somewhat less of a dork at live music venues. God knows it's not sexually advantageous.

― briania (briania), Saturday, 19 February 2005 05:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no idea how old I look like. My guess is that I look exactly my age and am not fooling anyone, which is really, really unfortunate, because I *would* like to fool people into thinking I'm 18 or similar. I would love for people to look at me and think automatically that I'm a freshman in college or similar. But no, I don't get to have those sorts of problems. I had to go buy something alcoholic from a vendor a few months ago and I didn't have a problem purchasing it. Not a single hint of a problem. Which really wounded me because I really wanted to have been obliged to show ID.

In other words -- to all of you out there who are commonly mistaken for being a lot younger than you are, I hate you.

― Surreal Addiction (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 19 February 2005 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

That's ok. AARP is sending me stuff these days.

xpost / Jay

So THAT'S where you are. And I drove right down 89 to Burlington yesterday.

Yeah, lovely evening. Exuse me while I put some wood in the stove...

― jim wentworth (wench), Saturday, 19 February 2005 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm 26. Girls at work had a friendly argument about my age. One thought I was around 19. Truthfully, I feel about that age , but age (how old i am, how old i feel, how old others think i am) isn't really something I give a lot of thought to. It's pointless.

― ()ops (()()ps), Saturday, 19 February 2005 06:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm 22 but I look around 16-18. People often respond with incredulity when I tell them my actual age. It does get tiresome.

― Dr. Bitterfeld, Saturday, 19 February 2005 09:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm becoming borderline obsessed with this awful programme called Ten Years Younger which is all about standing random fools out on a street corner and having strangers walking past judge how old they think they are, and the results are almost always insultingly high.

And then this annoying woman goes and shouts at them about their unhealthy lifestyles of cigarettes and sunbeds, but what is the answer? A healthy lifestyle? A good diet? No! Plastic surgery and a makeover.

It's frankly terrifying.

I generally don't ask people how old they think I am, I just let them assume. But then people often assumed I was in my late 20s and oh how I laughed.

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Saturday, 19 February 2005 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder, when I watch that, how many of the random strangers got the right age or under it, and had to be edited out of the show.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 19 February 2005 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I am 31 and look, apparently, about 25 (this seems to be the most frequent guess amongst the type of people who get asked this - work colleagues and the like). This doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I also have a habit of judging myself against people on the telly. If the folk in their early thirties who appear regularly on the telly are representative of this age, I really do look about 25. I mean, I don't think I look the same age as Natasha Kaplinsky or Jessie Wallace or Kate Moss. They're, like, so grown-up looking. Even "real" people my age (and younger) who don't have the benefit of professional beauty treatment all seem so much more grown-up than me. All my friends seem older than me, and hardly any of them actually are.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 19 February 2005 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I am 34 and people generally think I'm between 28 and 30. I have recently started going grey on the right hand side of my head, with no greys on the left, which is quite weird. If I take after my mother's side of the family then I suspect it will take a long time for my hair to be completely grey.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 19 February 2005 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Conversation at work this week, about my new haircut:

Them: "It makes you look a lot younger - before, you looked older than X"

Me: "Thanks! Although ... I *am* older than X"

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 19 February 2005 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

ilx = the real neverland

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 19 February 2005 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I look about my age because of the weight I've gained in college. There's not that much difference between being taken for 15 or 20 anyway, but I can't wear cute tight clothes anymore, so it is all in all a disadvantage.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 19 February 2005 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I generally don't ask people how old they think I am, I just let them assume. But then people often assumed I was in my late 20s and oh how I laughed.

I still believe you're in your 20s, Kate!

I look younger than I am, could probably pass for a teenager still - it's all about the slight build. It is disturbingly useful for, like, pulling; I don't like to think about why.

― The Lex (The Lex), Saturday, 19 February 2005 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I probably look my age, I haven't asked recently. Whenever I shave my beard off, though, I look younger.

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 19 February 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I think most people are used to TV actors playing characters much younger than they actually are, skewing their perceptions of age. I call this the 90210 Factor.

― Fat Anarchy on Airtube (ex machina), Saturday, 19 February 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

After hearing fom various coworkers that I looked about 18-20, I was almost insulted when I made some boy guess my age and he said 26. (I am 28.)

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Sunday, 20 February 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

People always tell me I look younger than I am...I'm a couple months shy of 36, but people still keep guessing that I'm in my mid-20s. I'm still not sure how good a thing that is sometimes though.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 20 February 2005 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I stopped maturing around 28 or so. I'm 38 now. I've lost some hair and gained a few pounds since then, but that only means I look like a prematurely-balding 28-year-old who could lose a few pounds.

― mike a, Sunday, 20 February 2005 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm 46. I have a bald spot on the back of my head. But no grey hairs, I haven't gained a pound since I was 35, and I have no frownlines or wrinkles or big creases in my face. Good skin runs in the Hurt family; I spend a lot of time outdoors but have dark complexion, so it hasn't hurt me none. And, cliché, I am always told "I act young." Which I think is a compliment. Anyway, I wore a cap the other day and bought beer and got carded, and people tell me I look about 37. So I guess that's good. It's like I always looked a lot younger than I was until about 5 years ago, and then it did catch up with me a bit. I'm pretty happy with the way I look, actually, and hope it lasts for another 20 years, yeah right...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 20 February 2005 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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