Looking younger in real life

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When people see pictures of me they generally think I'm my age or older unless I'm not wearing makeup. When people talk to me in real life they assume I'm in high school. They're surprised when I tell them I'm 19. I think this is either caused by social awkwardness or just selecting pictures I prefer. I tend to prefer pictures where I look older.

Interestingly, this seems to me a common trait amongst us - looking younger than our ages. I still get shocked looks when people find out how old I really am. Can you imagine that, just last year, I was being asked for my ID while trying to buy beer?

It's annoying when I get mistaken for a child

As redrobin62 here says, it does seem to be a common trait among us, I still get mistaken for being around 18, when I'm actually 27 now

I wonder though isn't it something to do with ther being a link between neoteny and autism? Also perhaps due to autism being a developmentally delaying condition?

I do look very young too. I'm 18 but look more like early teens.

I know that it's a common aspie trait to look younger. I'm still wondering if people notice a difference between real life and photos. I'm wondering if it's my appearance or mannerisms that make me look younger. I suspect my long hair makes me look younger. No one ever thought I looked young for my age when my hair was shorter.

That reminds me of when I did some work experience at a place that had butterfly's and reptiles. One of my jobs was to get the leaves out of a little pond and a person walked past and said 'don't play by the water'. I was embarrassed when I said 'I work here'.
I had to wear shorts and a plain t-shirt and that made me look younger as well.

I didn't realise that many aspies look younger then they actually are.

Never associate with looking younger then my age related to AS.
Just thought looking younger was just a part of me .

Interesting...

Anytime I clean shave, I look younger but when I was younger I could grow a beard and make myself look older. It got me to do stuff without needing an ID.

I have a pretty youthful appearance myself, but I'm not sure what exactly makes me look younger than my age sometimes.

I still appear to be 19 to some people even though it's more like 1015...

My theory about looking younger relates to autistic problems processing non-verbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions. To my mind, it stands to reason that a person who has problems processing such information, for example difficulties reading other people's facial expressions, then they likely also have problems communicating in the same manner, i.e. communicating non-verbally, expressing their emotions and feelings and conveying messages through facial expressions.

I think Aspies/people on the spectrum looking younger than their chronological age, especially as they get older, is because they don't acquire so many of the wrinkles and age markers that NTs do. A lot of wrinkles are associated with facial expressions, crows feet relate to laughing and smiling, frown lines are self explanatory.

So I think the difficulties relating to facial expressions is a two-way thing, and the inability or developmental delay to learn or actively acquire those skills means that Aspies don't make the facial expressions as often or to the extent NTs do, which means they don't look as wrinkled, and therefore look younger.

Of course, there might (also) be some biological/physiological reason relating to skin elasticity or something dermatological, but my theory is that it's a physical manifestation/side effect of those underlying communication problems.

There's another forum post that discusses the same topic. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=79098

It does seem to be a trait, but I'd take it with a grain of salt NT's can look young too. One of my roommates, whose twenty-two, got asked by a woman when we were at an open house what the local middle schools was like. I'm 31 and still get carded...but no one has ever thought I was still in eighth grade after I got out of high school.