Why do we look younger?

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At 46, I'm only starting to show my age with some crows feet around my eyes which are only really visible when I squint. I have a full head of thick hair and only in the last year or so has a couple strands of gray appeared around my temples. I was baby faced when I was younger and my beard and chest hair didn't come in all the way until I was in my middle twenties. Used to bother me a lot because I always wanted to look more macho at that age.

Don't know if there is a true connection between maturing slowly and Aspergers/autism though.

I'm 17, but people who don't know me often mistake me as a freshman in high school or younger. An exact quote that was given to me by someone at my job was that I have a "baby face".

When I don't shave for a couple days, people ask me when I started growing facial hair.

I think that this may be due to the lower body temperature brought up in an above post. With our physical discreprency, some of us tend not to exercise as much which results in slower metabolism and body temperature (Our body heat is generated by our muscle contractions). This also results in a plumper and smoother face as most of the lipids we eat are turned into adipose tissue and sebaccious oil instead of being burned. With the extra oils on our skin, we are more prone to pimples, which also makes us look younger.

~Saiyan

I used to look younger than my age, but I recently grew a beard.

Reduced body heat? I feel cold constantly, even in the summer (I live in Florida).
I wonder if there is a link. I don't have a thermometer though.

I am 40 and most believe I am about 25-27...My husband is 37 and everyone has always believed he is at least 5-7 years older than me...

I have also read many of us look younger.

My sister is only one year older than me and throughout our lives, especially in our 20s, it was hard because most guys would not talk to me or ask me out, but would ask her out because they thought I was 5-6 years younger than I actually was...

I think you often find in books about autistic/AS that we have 'softer' or 'rounder' features. This probably helps us to look younger. I am 20 and am regularly mistaken for a 12 year old! Oh well, guess I shouldn't complain...

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Good question.

I don't know of any hard evidence to support "Aspies look younger", but it sure does seem that way.

It could be, as one poster suggested, a lack of facial expressions. We don't wrinkle our face as much, so we don't wear it out.

But it's noticeable in younger Aspies too - teens who look 4 or 5 years younger than their real age.

It could be "neoteny"; some anthropologists claim that humans mature slower than other primates in order to spend more time acquiring knowledge and skills. Desmond Morris, in his book The Naked Ape, talks about this.

So maybe Aspies are genetically programmed for an ever greater degree of neoteny than NT's.

Finally, it could be because Aspies tend to eat less and be generally underweight. A low caloric intake has been recently tied to longevity and slower aging.

I think it has do more with genetics than with autism. I have always looked younger. I definitely don't look seventeen even though I am. Students at my school will often guess I'm a freshman or sophmore based on looks when they first meet me. I have never been guessed as a senior. However, as time goes on, they guess I'm older based on maturity.

Justt 10 minutes ago, a guy refused to sell me cigarettes (genuinely for my mum as she's house bound) as I didn't have I.D...He looked younger than my real age of 24! Luckily my dad was with me and so I was able to get them for her.

...I suppose it was a compliment, but still frustrating that I have to carry my passport around with me when I want to get age restricted products. (its the only ID I have)

I frequently shock people when I tell them my age. Just the other day I told a couple of people my age (40) during a conversation about aging. They flipped and said I looked like I'm 28. I get this all the time.

Once, after college, a friend of my neighbor asked me if I was a freshman or a sophomore at the high school. I told her I'd been out of college for nearly a year, and she thought I was putting her on! She actually argued with me about it until my neighbor came over and vouched for me.

I have big round eyes and a round baby face. The extra baby fat in my cheeks just started to disappear a couple of years ago, but there is still nothing angular about my face.

I have always felt much younger, and still do. Just now, at 40, I'm starting to do and understand things that NTs (I guess) usually accomplish in their early 20s. At the same time, I've felt much older in some ways too. The aspie intellectual/emotional discrepancy perhaps. Once in high school someone told me quite matter-of-factly that I'd never seemed like a teenager, and that I was like a woman-child instead.

Still trying to figure out if I should be insulted by that one...

Ahm pretty
*Ahm pretty*
Ahm prettier
*Ahm prettier*
No ahm prettier!
*No ahm prettier!*
(jumps up and down) I am!
*I am!*
You're dumb!
*You're dumb!*
I know you are but what am I?
*I know you are but what am I?*
Oh he's good...

Just thought I'd type that. It's from Johnny Bravo when what he says echo's.

People have routinely guessed my age at around 30 ever since I was around 19. I always thought that this was interesting, since I could barely even grow facial hair at that age. I always attributed this to the fact that I didn't take very good care of my body around that age.

I find the body temperature corelation to be interesting. Mine has rarely hit 98.6, even when I am sick. I usually hover around 97.