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.

For decades, I was taken for at least 10 years younger. This usually manifested in conversation as e.g. people saying "Of course you wouldn't know about that [TV series/whatever]" or just talking down to me generally, then being shocked to learn I was older than them.

I still get that, but I don't think it's based on how I look nowadays. My nose seems to be growing since menopause?!?! Or is it just that the rest of my face is collapsing 🤦‍♀️

In the past few years, I've noticed that all photos of me look shit. There used to be some that were flattering. I'm in my 60s now, I've had my heyday so can't complain 🥳

Let's face it, we all look better looking towards the light. Here's a contrast between looking ahead and looking down, not a pretty sight nowadays!

Luckily I am married to someone who doesn't care what I look like 💗💗💗

Oh and @HeavenCANTwait, the thing is that you look kind and have a sort of innocence about you (not as in naive, as in not corrupt, if that makes sense!). So you will always "look good" – future wrinkles or not 🌸

You look lovely. The second pic is a less flattering angle anyway. You are very attractive!

Thank you! Yes, I deliberately posted the "less flattering angle" just to prove what bullshit all this "what we look like" is. Sometimes I look nice and other times I don't, and it can all be in the space of a few seconds (especially nowadays!!! 😜)...

You do look lovely @FlowerPants 😊

I work with someone who is 38 but I honestly thought she was 19 or 20 when she first started. Extremely young face with high cheekbones, petite and quite softly spoken. I know she hates it, looking so young as people speak down to her and comment on it all the time. I don’t know why some people are so disbelieving to be honest . Need to recognise that it can happen although is rare to look almost twenty years younger like my colleague but I can well believe that people can be mistaken for 5/10 years younger at times.

I’m 30 and still get IDed so I must look a few years younger.

That said I’m about to have our first child and I’m sure that’ll all change!!

We just dress differently and style ourselves differently, but we pretty much all look our age. My mum was my age 35 years ago (mid-40s), but she wasn’t wearing G-star jeans and a Superdry hoodie to go to work in an office. She was in a pleated skirt and an M&S twinset. She also had short permed hair.

Firmly in reality here, I look every one of my lifelong years if not at least 5 years more.

The only people that I know who do look good for their age have had excellent cosmetic procedures that simply make them look less tired. Sadly I look exhausted pretty much all the time.

I look younger

Well, I would if I didn't have eye bags. I also cheat with highlights to hide the grey hairs.

DH genuinely looks much younger than he is. He is 60. I don't think you'd think he was much above 50. He's always been like that though, when I met him he was in his early 30s and looked about 25.

I think people generally look younger now than they did in say the 1980s because of hairstyles and clothes.

Thanks for the replies. I'm 39. The early and mid 30s were really complimentary. But I guess 42 isn't that far off the mark really either!

Yes I think some celebs do… Thomas Brodie-something (the kid from love actually and other films) is in his 30s but it really doesn’t show! Selena Gomez does not look like a 30-something, the actress who plays the sister in Bridgerton looks like a teenager but is 34ish

I think we are talking about celebs 45 + when ageing actually kicks in. At 30 many look somewhat younger.

I think Omid Scobie looks very young for his age. He's 42 but looks at least a decade younger in a lot of the photos I've seen. I suspect it's not entirely natural though...

I think so Omid Scobie would be in danger of melting if he stood too near a heat source…

I have a colleague who definitely looks early 40s and is early 50s.
Pre-children people thought I looked younger than I was as I was short, slim and had girlish dark curly hair, nobody looks at the detail, they just think short, skinny, kid. Now that I have grey skin, bags under my eyes, wrinkles, grey hairs and am carrying about a stone of extra weight I look significantly older than my years, more hobbit than teen.

I said upthread - imo everyone has a decade, so at 39 you could be anywhere from 34 to 44 which is about right from the guesses you had.

People tend to think I’m 5-7 years younger than I am.

I do have pretty good skin but I think I look my age, just with good skin?

I agree the pp who said that people in general look younger now than previous generations did at comparable ages. My grandparents were all 50 when I was born, my mum was 50 when I had my child. She is far “younger” in how she acts and dresses than they were, as are all the other people I know in their 50’s.

In my early 20s I worked with someone who has mentioned in passing about having returned to work after retirement at 60. I genuinely thought she was having me on, I wouldn't have thought she was a day over 50. I was regularly mistaken for underage well into my 20s (being offered child tickets on the bus etc not just being IDed for everything). Some people look old for their age, some look young.

Yes I absolutely agree , sunscreen and more sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat .
I even bought myself an umbrella while in Japan that is also UV protection and hubby is embarrassed when I use it 🤣
I am a shade seeker , don’t like being sat in the sunshine .
I double cleanse every night , stick to a good skincare regime , don’t drink alcohol and have never smoked .
I haven’t had any Botox or fillers and don’t plan to do that at all .
My diet also quite good but I do like a bit of cake 😉 and the odd pudding here and there .
My life can be / has been stressful but my daughter’s friends think I look younger (as do some people who know me as well and they’re surprised when they find out my age )

She doesn't look like a schoolgirl though.

I used to look young for my age, but unfortunately I can tell that the gap has closed up a bit over that last couple of years! I'm 38 and would say I look early 30s, but when I was 35 I could easily pass for early 20s.
My colleague looks really young. When she joined our team in January I thought she was 25-28. I was amazed when she told me she was 42! I've still not gotten over it.

Jared Leto does not look like a 51 year old man. In fact it’s getting eerie.

Bracing myself

I’m 32 and have people often assume I’m 26-29? But all my friends are about that age so I’m sure they assume my age based on all of us. Although about a year ago I was sympathetically smiling at a woman with a tantruming toddler and she said “I wouldn’t laugh this will be you in 5-10 years” and when I told her my kids were 8 and 10 she didn’t believe me 😂

I do know what you mean. Jennifer Affleck (JLo) looks absolutely incredible but she does still look 54 to me.

Shirely Henderson is famous for playing a Hogwarts student when she was 35 but she is now in her 50s and looks it.

I don’t think people chronically look younger than they are. I think they look “good for their age” (horrible phrase) and folks automatic reaction is to say you look young. I don’t think people ever really look head to toe 10 years younger than they really are though.

I used to be mistaken for being in my 20s when I was in my 30s but I really don’t think it was that I actually looked super young. I didn’t have kids. I was working a “young persons job”. I had “young person hobbies” because I didn’t have kids like my peers. Now I have a child no one says I look in my 20s anymore 🤣 but visibly I am no different to how I looked 2 years ago before I became a parent. My life is just “older” now.