Does anyone really look younger than their age?

[smoleyjolie]

Online on forums, social media, on dating profiles and even in real life people claim to look younger than their age, they are X age but don't look it. They get ID's in the supermarket buying wine.

I am always highly sceptical because I've know people who say to my face how they look like they are 25 when they are actually 38 because they have no lines or wrinkles when I am looking at them and thought they were actually in their 40's and they have obvious wrinkles and grey hair, people are delusional! Honestly the capacity people have to delude themselves about anything is quite staggering and I have never met someone who claims to look younger and it actually turn out to be true.

When I was younger I thought some older people looked younger so I once thought a woman when she was 49 was closer to 30 but that was because I assumed all people of 49 looked "old" which isn't the case at all and looking back she looked great but she also looked her age which is fine.

Going back to the first case where the women was convinced she looked over 10 years younger, what could I say I just said yeah you look great and its the same anytime anyone makes that claim. People aren't going to dispute it.

36

Mid 50s

Of course they do - just like people look older than their age.

I am in my 40s and have always had a baby face so continue to get ID'd . I remember being 25 and being refused anadin as they didn't believe i was over 16!!

Until my.mid 30s people always thought I looked at least five years younger. This was partly my dress sense (brights, slightly punk) and the assumptions people make about what women pushing forty look like. I've since hit my 40s and had a kid. No one thinks I look young anymore and I think I sometimes look older.

It might be partly a real thing that they struggled to let go of and there is also that weird thing that it's complimentary to say you don't look your age which has the underlying message of your age is terrible and you should be ashamed.

I would like to look good for my age, which doesn't mean younger but good - suit myself, body confident, wearing styles that suit me.

My husband is 37 and was asked for ID a couple of weeks ago - turned out he was the same age as the cashier’s daughter, and she was astounded. In my choir, when I started (at 35), lots of people were slightly shocked that I had a 6 year old, as they thought I was early 20s. They are all older women though, so perhaps their perception of how people age has changed.

I used to - not anymore!

I found it annoying in work. I am short and was mistaken for much younger when in my twenties.

but we all age and get wrinkles! People pretend I still look younger than 40 but I know they are just being kind🤣. I have no problem looking my age. I have put in the hrs years to get here.

This in a nutshell.

People respond and react differently to you on the basis of age.

I don't think I look 25 now. I wouldn't want to. But I do think I look 35 to 40 when I'm 45. Just because it happens so regularly and across such a broad section of people.

I'm petite. I always used sun cream.

If I look at my peers from school on Facebook, I'm doing ok comparatively.

I have to say I think those arguing to the contrary do so because of insecurity and because they look their age or older and it's born of jealousy to try and 'bring others down to their level'. It's petty.

There's so many people on this thread with the same experience. It's so incredibly rude and arrogant to dismiss them ALL as somehow delusional.

I would say 42.

And what year did that start? I still had the issue way before challenge 25 started. Back then venues were really quite lax.

I remember one occasion going out with a bunch of DHs friends. Most of them were 18 to 21. I was 30. At the venue they decided to ID just one of the group. Much to the amusement of the others who never get IDed. I was the only one who had come out with ID in the first place, because it was so common for me to have the issue and get asked.

It used to drive me nuts because it was at the point of it actually being embarrassing.

Yes my dad looks much younger than he is

I did until I became peri menopausal and aged about 10 years

I wouldn’t go on by being asked for ID as I still occasionally am (unless look to be early 20’s or younger) as they have to ask a certain amount of customers

im small, have a soft young sounding voice along with a baby face (or did) so this all adds to appearing younger

What a miserable thread from op. Do you always need to shit on other people to feel ok?

Looking back, I agree that some of us may get less good at judging the age of younger adults as we age ourselves.

I married young and I remember going to a Chambers party in my early twenties when one of the barristers brought a solicitor as his date as he was (temporarily it turned out) separated from his wife. She was very pretty in a young Julia Carling way and I remember thing she must have been very pretty when she was younger. She was 30! 😂

I bet I’d think she could be 10 years younger now.

Hair, make up, fashion mannerisms etc can influence (imo) how old we think someone is.
Eg Margaret Thatcher when she came into power seems way older than Sophie Raworth or Kylie Minogue today.

I can't raise my eyebrows or frown so l dont have forehead lines.. so people asuume im younger.. plus ive always had very good skin and looked after from my early teens ( dont smoke or drink)

Mid to late 50s. You'd look more youthful without the lip filler.

To older people, yes, but only in the same way I think my dentist is 12!

I used to have similar problems in my 20’s. I was at a leisure centre with swim, spa, sauna and when purchasing the wristband to use the spa and sauna the woman refused me because you had to be over 15 years old. I was in my 20’s. I had to show her ID to prove I was over 15. I didn’t have it on me because I was going to be swimming. I had to leave, get it and come back.

I constantly had people acting surprised when they found out my age and sometimes people wouldn’t believe me. It used to annoy me. I wanted to be treated as an adult in line with my age. And honestly I just couldn’t see it. I thought I looked my age. And I wondered are they really seeing the same person that I see in the mirror?

I never went around bragging that people thought I looked younger though.

But when others bring it up in a social capacity so another poster and I wrote about when you are discussing life, music, TV from your youth with new acquaintances or new social group and then someone references stuff that is ten years following your youth and they are genuinely surprised not patronising you, no commission involved, how do you explain that? I have posted my anecdote at Copenhagen airport, the lightening was not flattering as they need to see your face at the passport office, the young Danish official was doubting my 14 year was my son in an official capacity not in a flattering one. My Mum has experienced the same her whole life and many people thought my Dad in his late twenties was going (married to)out with a 15 year old! My Dad worked as an Economist in a company whose head office was in a South East Asian country, they entertained business clients in their home in the 1970s and they asked at first if it was my Dad's daughter although he was only 28 and looked it so I don't know how they worked that out. My Gran was the same and this didn't stop at 45 (the magic aging number). I am unsure why so many are in disbelief.

Really? I think there is a subconscious bias going on though as the poster is asking you on Mumsnet on a thread about looking younger than you are so people are going to exaggerate their guesses.

@Lostsadandconfused you’re both in your fifties. You’ve had lip fillers and possibly Botox.

I think we can see on this thread how wildly different guesses on people’s ages are…obviously that translates through to real life.

Basically some people look a bit younger, some people look a bit older. Therefore you have a wide variety of what the average 40 year old looks like for example. It’s very rare though for a 40 year old to look 25. For every single person that meets them to judge that they are 25 and not 40. It doesn’t happen. Some people are just better at judging ages.

Same! I think you can look loads younger if n your 30s - when I was kid 30s I could have easy still been in my 20s but once you get into your 40s even if you have no lines gravity shows and your face structure changes. I don’t think many people over 40 can look more than five years younger than their actual age really.

Well I always got OD'D at 18 when my 17 year old friends didn't. Thankfully before challenge 25 came in else I'd have never got served. But if say by the time I was in my 30s I looked my age. Now I'm 40 and I see people my age who I think look older and some older who I think look my age. So I think there's a bit in the middle where it's all less vague and then you get old and some people Def age more firmly than others

Do you think some people look “young” or some other people just look “old”?

I am 31 and looking at some of the people I went to school with, some of them have aged terribly. These are generally people who have had harder lives (very young parents, early divorce, low income) which is not exactly a surprising correlation.

This is true. Photos from when DS was born, in hospital for weeks with a critically ill child, I look really young. I mean I don't mean 12. But I think I look younger than 33. Sleep dep' chic is a thing.