Do autistic adults tend to look younger than neurotypicals?

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I believe i always looked about my actual age. Some people have told me that i look like a doll rather than a human at times though.

I looked older than I was teenage years, but have been read as younger most of my life. I suspect that was due to good fitness from lots of cycling and never marrying or having children meaning a ton of stress avoided.

Interesting thing is I have always felt younger and need to remind myself I turned 50 rather than 20 the other year

I think girls (Aspie or not) tend to look younger if they don't wear any make-up or don't style their hair, or even how they dress. Aspie boys can be the same depending on how they dress on how they have their hair and how they shave.

Maybe they're used to seeing old, gray haired, or balding people who are near their age all the time, and then when they finally see a young person, they think of them as good-looking. Who knows.

I know a lot of people I know look younger and I look a lot younger than my age. I've heard people telling them that they look a lot younger too. It probably depends on the person though. I was also hearing a lot of people talking about this. Often when I tell people how old I am, they say, "you look so young." I've been asked if I was in middle school one time. Maybe I will appreciate it when I'm older. I've been told it's a complement but sometimes I feel like people take me less seriously when they find out my actual age. I feel it's hard enough being that I'm very awkward.

That's interesting about the facial expressions. That could have some influence on it.

I dunno, but people consistently underestimate my age by 5-10 years, even with plainly visible gray hair (comes early in my family). From what we're seeing in this thread there may be a bit of a correlation.

I tend to age slowly. I always have looked a few years younger than I am. When I was 16, I looked about 12, and I'm 22 now and look about 17 or 18. My mom says it will be a good thing someday.

I got carded for cigarettes 3 days ago, the cashier said I look like a teenager, I'm 37.

I look much younger than most NTs do that are my age. People usually think around 15 or 16 and I'm 21. Once I ordered a cider at a restaurant, and the waiter said "Cider? You mean like with alcohol?" and I once got kicked out of a wine bar being told that "minors aren't allowed in here". Where I live, thr drinking age is 19 but a lot of people (even those under 19 who are buying alcohol illegally don't get IDed).

Once a lady at a store who I got chatting with was very concerned that I was working during the summer because she was worried about how I would do in my grade 11 (an important year here) and thought I should focus on they rather than work.

Also, people are always asking me about school and what grade I'm in. This is annoying because I didn't like high school very much and it just reminds me of high school.

I think my face has somewhat fewer wrinkles than some, probably differences in expressions. I learned to "mask" fairly early, like later childhood, have been reading that a lot of females do that -- though I definitely wasn't good at it when younger. It's kinda integrated into how I function, I'm only now learning how I feel when I am not doing it when talking to a person.

I wonder if the expressions made while "masking" use the same muscles as NT expressions? I read somewhere that the "crows feet" muscles are how one tells, with certain emotions, if the person is feeling that "authentically" among NTs. (Feels weird because I do have emotions, and as I got older I learned better to integrate the "mask" with what I really wish to communicate... brains are complicated. )

Not mentioned so far ....

We likely stay indoors more, so we receive less sun damage.

^ that's a good point. It holds true for me, always has. I've never been much of an outdoorsy type.

Or it could be for some of us, our growth has been stunted.