Does anyone else look quite young

[EgyptAdvice]

but really hate it? I'm not here to brag and I'm sure that I'll be accused of just that, but this is genuinely something which bothers me quite a lot. I'm in my mid 30s, but don't feel I get taken seriously because I look young. I was recently asked if I was my partner's daughter (we are no longer together, he's only 8 years older than me, but he still brings this up lightheartedly) and feel I don't get taken seriously at work when in male dominated meetings. I'm constantly being told I look young and one of the men at work called me 'babyface' which felt quite demeaning. It no longer feels like a compliment (such as if you get asked for ID when buying alcohol) but more like a running joke. I'm constantly googling 'ways to make yourself look older'. Am I being unreasonable that commenting on someone's appearance like this isn't ok? Or should I just take it as a compliment?

I get it OP, ignore the snarks. The age people tend to think I am is catching up to my actual age these days but I used to get the most condescending comments up until about my mid 30s from people who assumed I was way too young to be doing whatever it was I was doing. It can be a compliment to be told you look younger but sometimes people are downright rude or worse they'll find the discovery of your actual age hilarious and make a big humiliating scene of getting others to stare and guess your age - yes that has happened more than once. Being asked for ID is one thing, being shouted at across a pub that you'd better be ordering soft drinks or you can get out now (age 27, in front of in laws and extended family who took the piss for years afterwards) is something entirely different.

Which I'm sure you can agree would be then be going on beyond a ridiculous length to just "prove" to a bunch of numpties on the Internet a point, where they still probably wouldn't believe it anyway! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yeah you're right. They wouldn't believe it anyway and thought afterwards, even if they saw they pic they would probably say "oh well you look 30 in it" just to be a dick, knowing full well I looked about 17. I think the fact I've never had one person in my whole adult life think I'm my age and the (not so much now) condescending comments were consistent throughout then its not me making it up!

The fact so many others experience/d this with really similar stories is all I need to know 🙂

Posting a photo wouldn't prove anything, anyway. A 'lucky' photo can make a person look much younger, even if it hasn't been filtered or photo-shopped, if the lighting happens to be right.

I mentioned upthread that I most definitely look my age if not older, but I occasionally get a photo that, purely by chances shaves a few years off what I really look like (as well as plenty that make me look even older). I'm not saying Candle doesn't look young, just that posting a photo would be meaningless and certainly not worth outing herself over.

There's someone on this thread who is 37 and claims people think she is 17.

That is outright delusional. Or just taking the piss.

😁

Cameras automatically filter your photos these days and lighting, angles and position can be very misleading. I can look my age, older or younger depending on camera type, light and position and that's without any extra filters added, just the phone built in one.

There are people on here who claim their skin hasn't aged at all in 30 years, then swear at you when you tell them it can't be possible.

That would be me, glad you all find it so amusing. I would post a photo but then everyone would say how ugly I am and comment on my horrible hair and big nose. Can't win on here.

If I think about how my skin has changed since I was 20, I can say that at 20, it tended towards oily. Now it tends towards dry and I need a moisturiser. My complexion hasn't changed and I don't have any lines, not even light ones, at 50. I probably have EDS which is a medical condition where skin does not age fast, so maybe that's it. I can't think of any other changes.

Age changes I'm expecting: I hear the skin goes paler when you get older. More sallow. I also hear that aging is often tied into hormones changing. I'm not menopausal yet and it doesn't seem imminent. I know my time will come, maybe when my hormones change more. I don't care. I am grateful to get older. Many people don't.

No matter what you post, someone will critique it. It's almost like people feel a need to cut people down. I wouldn't bother. In the end it doesn't matter whether you're believed or not. Life will continue the same.

You don't need to post a photo. You're 37. You don't look 17.

Nonsense! How do you explain this then? I look a lot younger from behind which is why, on a visit to a school, I was shouted at by a teacher to 'get into class NOW'. It was only when I turned and he saw the wrinkles and the lanyard that he realised his mistake. He got really flustered and I thought it was funny. Like many other posters I am a short arse.

I can't explain it. At all.
Were you in uniform? I'm guessing it's a non uniform school and the teacher was distracted/having a funny turn.
Plus: wearing photo ID and a lanyard is not nonsense. The poster claiming it happened also claimed that her daughter was never given a lanyard. Now that is nonsense.

I was wearing a long cardigan over very non uniform clothes. Mid 40's and 5 ft 1 with longish hair. Teacher is a power crazed loon which is why I found it funny especially as he'd already met me. I'm a LADO and was there as part of a POT investigation so he may well have been distracted😀

I was saying nonsense to your assertion that it could never happen. Obviously given my job I am more than aware of the need to safeguard children in educational settings.

No. I am saying that not wearing a lanyard would never happen. Not the other part. That made me query the veracity of the story.
At least you admit to wrinkles 😉

They wouldn't believe it anyway and thought afterwards, even if they saw they pic they would probably say "oh well you look 30 in it" just to be a dick, knowing full well I looked about 17

"Knowing full well I look 17" 😂So if anyone suggests that a woman in her mid 30's doesn't actually look like a teenager, they're just doing so to 'be a dick' and not because they've, y'know, got eyes.

People who say you look 17 - completely believable. Totally plausible.
People who simply think you look somewhere around your actual age - lying dicks.

This thread gets more hilarious/mad every time I catch up with it 😂

Even a 37-year-old vampire does not look 17.

You are wrong. Edward is well over 100 years old and looks 17. He can even go to high school for decades on end and the teachers never even suspect different.

I stand corrected.

You haven't read the context leading to that post! The picture was from my 20s and I look so youg I looked teen youg. I have never said anything of the sort that I look 17 in my 30s. I have clearly said in all my posts that I was referring to a certain time frame ie my 20s when it was horrible looking so baby faced and I don't get it so much now I'm in my 30s.

She's referring to me. Not believing that nearly everyone puts me at 17-23 and have never veered from that. I've already described the fact that I am short, slim, bright eyes, freckles so lots of 'young' features as well as being quiet and not confident. But people just ridicule me for speaking about my true experiences so what's the point.

It wasn't you - it was a different poster who is 37 years old and genuinely believes that most people think they are 17.

Because it does. Can see I am getting nowhere here.