I'm about to turn 40 but look very young

[motherhood2019]

I'm about to turn 40 but I feel embarrassed to tell anyone as I look very young. I have always looked young so I'm fed up of the responses like "you don't look it", "I can't believe that" etc. They think they're being flattering but it really gets me down. I have a small face and generally petite. Any tips or advice?

It's tough being a teeny tiny. I would suggest carbs, sunbeds and fags. Reduce your water intake and try to get less sleep. Good luck

Be grateful you look young? And try not to worry about what others say so much.

🤣🤣

I get this. People used to tell me I had “a lovely figure” but she’s actually really underweight and struggling to gain, and I just want them to NOT comment. But they mean it very kindly and to be flattering, so you can only smile and change the subject I think.

You wouldn’t go up to someone and say, “gosh you’re only 40?! I would’ve guessed you’re 50! Incredible!” Or “you’re looking great - have you put on weight, you look so much chubbier than when I last ran into you!”

In the best possible way you have to remember people admire slim, youthful looks. Smile and nod and plan a MASSIVE celebration for your 40th!

Why are you embarrassed about looking young?

I can only second @naturesform's advice for looking older.

Do you need to tell anybody? Surely your actual friends know how old you are.

And yes the regular “I am 40 but don’t look a day over 12, people are always astonished to find out I am actually an adult and not a primary school child” posts are rather tiresome. Most 40 year olds look like they are in their 30s. Which they were, up until a week or two previously.

If you genuinely dress like a child, wear adult clothes instead of twee cutesy stuff, and put some makeup on, and you will instantly look like an adult again.

😂😭

🤣
Don't worry OP. All that natural looking Botox and filler that's around (according to posters on here), I'm sure no one really thinks you look young. Half the female population simply looks 'fresh'.

Is there some kind of problem that I'm not seeing?

Try to see it as a blessing.
Hopefully, (if perimenopause doesn’t shrivel you up. Believe me, it’s brutal), you will still look lovely and youthful in your older years.

This was me a few years ago. I'm now mid-40s and have aged a shit load in the last few years thanks kids. I don't suddenly look ancient but most people guess I'm late 30s ish, whereas in my late 30s I still looked mid-late 20s.
Enjoy it in case you go the same way.

Sane happened to me. Always told I looked younger in my 20’s and 30’s then got to 45 and perimenopause hit!

I would add a few cans of Soecial Brew daily as well.

What gets you down in particular? You haven’t said

Just to give you hope op, it all caught up with me at 45. Like running into a brick wall, ‘boom, there it is’.

@motherhood2019

Why are you telling so many people your age. No-one has asked my age, and I haven't told them - in 30 years! Apart from when I was 40 as I had a big party, (and a big holiday,) so people knew. Are you walking around saying 'guess how old I am, go on guess guess, go on, go on!'

Also, as has been said, it is really not that rare to be 39-40 and look much younger. I looked 27-30 at 40. I had a 40th birthday trip to NZ and Australia, and told people I had been away for my 40th, and some people I told were surprised as they thought I looked 10 years younger. I didn't look 16 though! No-one looks more than a decade younger than their age. No-one. Most people look their age within 3-5 years.

As has been said, make the most of it because once you hit menopause (probably late 40s) you will go from looking 33 to 53 in about 2 years. 😆

I went from looking mid 30s at 44, to being asked to an over-50s 'ladies group' when I was 46! I am still wounded from it! 😬

I had the same problem (!) until menopause hit. Make the most of it OP because at some point your face will explode and you'll look your age.

I’m 50 and everyone tells me I don’t look it, that I look younger. I couldn’t care less either way - I’m not being asked for ID in pubs! 😄

Why on earth are you bothered??

LOL

Now this is a lifestyle I can get into 😂

I was once at an event where the speaker who was an IP lawyer said before she started ‘to address the elephant in the room, I look young but I’m highly experienced and qualified to give this advice’ and I was so impressed with her. She was fabulous and clearly sick of not being taken seriously.

😂😂😂

Borrow some toddlers?

IRL most women I know look their age or a few years younger or older. Nobody looks two decades younger.

I wonder if this is the same poster who was worried about OLD because of how pretty she is.

😂