Pros and cons of looking younger vs. looking older

most people i meet think i'm ~ 20-23 yrs old. i am petite and this makes me appear younger as well, i suppose.

of course it's nice to appear younger.

sometimes people patronise me, which is a bit annoying, but for the most part it really doesn't bother me. firstly, because it works in my favour. i am shy when meeting new people, and if people presume i'm younger, there's less expectations, less pressure. secondly, i don't care much if people misjudge me; i know who i am.

Blackmountainside said:

most people i meet think i'm ~ 20-23 yrs old. i am petite and this makes me appear younger as well, i suppose.

of course it's nice to appear younger.

sometimes people patronise me, which is a bit annoying, but for the most part it really doesn't bother me. firstly, because it works in my favour. i am shy when meeting new people, and if people presume i'm younger, there's less expectations, less pressure. secondly, i don't care much if people misjudge me; i know who i am.

Click to expand...

How old are you really?

28 this year

I've already realized I'm a horrible judge of age, and the older I get the more irrelevant it becomes.

At least I get to joke to cashiers about being upset that they didn't card me. I just love the look on their faces.

I was hassled by a police officer who I presume was on security duty in a gas station last summer when I went to buy cigarettes and the cashier showed him my ID.
He thought it was fake. It was a strange encounter. I remember telling them: You look at IDs all day and you can't tell this is real? Maybe they were just messing with me. Which is strange as well.
But I quit smoking so it's all golden now!

When I was 16, I looked 19-20. Came in handy for buying beer. (Legal age was 19 then)
Now I am 50, (51 in April) and people quess me as being mid 40's. Just yesterday a coworker didn't believe I was aproaching 51.
I'm not sure what the advantage to looking younger now is other than finding it reassuring I don't look haggard.

I sometimes will see a picture of someone in the news and think they are 70. Then the reporter will say, " The 41 year old....."

at 15, some people will crave to look older.
at 30, some people will crave to look younger.

Cons: I get carded everytime, I'm often asked what highschool I go to, People can't seem to believe my age/or that I could possibly be attending college, and the UPS guy is always like wtf you can't sign for this kid.

Basically, I need my ID 24/7

I can't think of any real pros...

Guess I don't have to shave as often... meh. I can get away with being a bit more shy... I don't really know, all I can think of right now.


I'm obviously not biased from personal experience : P

Pro - People underestimate me

Con - People underestimate me

Older: The amount of money I spend on moisturizers, creams, oils, lotions, etc. to keep my skin from drying up and blowing away.

Younger: Thinking skin is something that lasts forever. I should have bought stock in moisturizers then.

My experience has been that I act young (immature, whatever that means) and run with a young crowd so people tend to think I am young (I think).

i've always looked younger than my age. it used to be an ego boost when i was in my forties, but now it's just kind of annoying when people say, wow you're 52? or you really have a teenage grandchild? (i have four grandchildren actually lol)

the past few years my face has started to show aging, not wrinkles but gravity doing it's thing. puffy eyes, jowls like my mom had lol. my body has changed as well. i weigh the same, but it's distributed differently. i'm beginning to look more middle age and i think i'm ok with it.

pros and cons? unless you're in career mode or looking for a partner i don't think there really are any distinct advantages or disadvantages to it.

Hmmm my situation might be unique. People say that I look young in my facial features and such but because of how I hold myself and the way I act I appear much older. When I was 19 people normally guessed my age around 23-25 and now they guess me about 25-28 when I am actually 21. The catch is that this is most of the time when I am dressed up in my normal clothes and talk how I normally talk but not when they look at pictures of me. When people look at pictures of me they normally guess my exact age or just slightly younger or if I actually dress in like shorts and a t-shirt.

The strengths of looking older is that I honestly am normally not I.D. when buying drinks and such. In fact I went two days after my birthday when I had just turned 21 and they did not ID me at the liquor store. Plus there is a little more respect, people don’t look at you like your just another college kid.
The negatives of looking older is that a lot of times you don’t fit in with your generation. There are plenty of others but I just will leave it at that.

Edit: Career wise, looking older has helped me out. I have been working at a publicly traded company since I was 18 where I am the youngest by about 10-12 years in my office. So being older is a necessary to be able to function within my career field. Of course they all thought I was older anyways and it is not legal to discriminate against age but it happens anyways. Nobody wants to hire a college kid to do an important job because we are all just lazy and entitled.

I look younger (according to most people) and that can be a good thing when I want to avoid responsibility or need something explained. It isn't so great when I'm trying to be taken seriously, especially by people who don't know me or people who are older and they assume I'm too young to know what I'm talking about.

I usually feel older than my age, based on life experience and the way I look at life. When I meet other people my age I assume they are younger (though occasionally there are ones I feel like are older.) I apparently sound young as well, but my manner of speaking is not. My medical records would say older as well. I take it for what it is most of the time.

I still get carded on occasion, though not often now.

I've been told by strangers that I look like I'm around 30.

When I was in my 20s people would sometimes mistake me for being a teenager ( I feel your pain [MENTION=4798]Endersgone[/MENTION] )

I'm pretty short too, so that kind of adds to my youthful appearance, I guess.

I regularly get mistaken for being 10, 15, and even 20+years younger than I actually am. It's mostly good, but occasionally it presents problems. A lot of men who I think find me attractive either think I'm way too young for them (I just turned 41), or they're in their 20's and think I am too. This creates misunderstandings that are hard to recover from. That being said, I'll take my young appearance--I've worked hard for it!

There were few advantages to appearing younger. All I can think of is the occasional cougar with an eye for young men, but they weren't my interest at the time.

Perhaps I'll change my mind when my flesh starts to sag and hairline ceases to exist. Until then.

When I was 15 people thought I was 18 to 21. At 15 it is awesome to look older. lol
Now, at 38 people think I look way younger! One person thought I was 25 about 6 months ago.
The best part is when I tell people I have a 19 year old - the look on their face is priceless!
Even better when people think my son and I are siblings or a couple! Hehe

Pros - always nice to be thought you are younger.
Cons - people don't always take me seriously and never think I have the discernment I possess.
"Wisdom comes from knowledge and experience regardless of age." ~ME! : )

I must say I don't feel my age either.
I do seem to relate better to a younger crowd; but that could be a whole other topic.