Does every aspie look younger?

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I've been told that I've been looking younger over the past few years. One person hadn't seen me in 9 years and said I looked younger. I think it may be due to weight loss: my face had gotten a little plump.

About a year ago I did a poll on this on another online Aspie forum.

To the question, "Do people think you look younger than you are?", 77% voted yes, 23% no.

Without going back to check, I would say that most of those who voted "no" were in their late teens and were being taken for being maybe 2 or 3 years older.

When I was 15 I got served in bars no bother (legal drinking age of 18 ). By the time I was 21 I was regularly being asked for ID, and being offered half fares on public transport. Now I'm 41 and people think I'm in my late twenties or early thirties. Recently a woman who's know me for almost a year expressed surprise when she found out my age. I had the presence of mind to ask her how old she thought I was, and she said she thought I was about 30.

I'm not on the Spectrum, although I'm yet again thinking about maybe going for an assessment.

My parents both look younger that they are so good genes at play as well, as some else said earlier on this thread.

What gets me about it is - I have loads of gray hair, and my face is pretty expressive and I do definately have wrinkles, especially at the outside corners of my eyes. It seems to be not so much my actual physical appearance which makes people think I'm younger, as something about my demeanour.

I seem to have some kind of air of youthful naivaity or something. I don't know. *shrug*

That's weird, I do look younger than 18. More like 15.
I'm short though. But my face looks quite young as well.

I've had that before. Some people have asked me what grade in high school I am in, and when I tell them I'm really in college, they are usually surprised because I look much younger than I really am.

I would say the majority do, especially teenagers and those of us in our 20s

I looked younger than I am so far. Most people think I'm 15 or so.

I look much younger than I am. I am 26 years young but I look like 15-18, somewhere in that range. But I feel older, like 500 million years young!

I'm 21 and a cop stopped me on the street last month because he thought I was skipping school. When I told him my age, he chuckled and said "Oh, you must just have a babyface."

I got my haircut yesterday and thought it looked pretty suave and sophisticated and chic until my coworker told me that it made me look younger. I said, "Oh yes, THATS just what I need!"

yes it has been posted in the past. And at least i look younger. This seems to be a trend with most aspies.

I recently read in a book on AS that most aspies look younger than their actual age.

I had always attributed my looks to other things -- the fact that I felt loved for the past ten years, and therefore had a good self-esteem; the fact that I didn't do much sun-tanning, that I love milk, didn't ever give birth, ate a more or less healthy diet for the past four years, used Estée Lauder skincare products since the age of 22, don't drink booze, don't smoke, dress younger than is the norm for my age, wear hardly any make-up, and act like a teenager in social situations. (Not in business -- then I fake being an NT businesswoman, but only as much as I need to.)

Since I read that book, I guess being aspie may have something to do with me looking younger too.

In night clubs I now generally get taken for somewhere between 29 and 35 (even by sober people!). I am 44. I am also the most energetic dancer anywhere I go, and once I get into a state of what I would call 'overdrive', I can keep dancing for longer than other people (having ADHD helps, I guess).

This has led to some amusing situations, such as this one which happened a few years ago: http://tania.co.za/collective/blog.nsf/ ... 27_dancing (scroll down to the subheading on Age).

I am divorced now, I was married for 17 years, and some people thought my husband was my father. He was only 9 years my senior, which is usually not enough to have spawned a kid!

Once, when I was about 23, I had my hair in pigtails and was wearing shorts and bobby socks as I was out walking our dog. A man was leaving a nearby house, and when he saw me with our unusually large Great Dane, he started chatting to me about the dog in that sweet, patronising and simplified manner that some people use to talk to young children. I knew he thought I was a child, and although I saw it coming, I did not know how to turn the conversation to save him from the embarassing thing that happened to him next. My husband came along and caught up to me, and the man asked, with a friendly and animated facial expression, "And is this your daddy?" and I replied (feeling really awful for the stranger), "No, this is my husband." He apologised profusely, pure man. I didn't want him to feel bad.

I'm 22 but everyone seems to think I'm about 17 or 18. I still don't have much facial hair either. If I wasn't 6'2" I would probably look younger.

You know what though maybe we look younger bc we don't worry about age or something? Bc you know in tribes people think they were cursed or something and then a few days later they die.. or when i lady wants to be pregnant and then starts to think she is she gets all the symptoms of being pregnant but she's not really. If you think you're older then you probably will age quicker too.

I'll say, that often I've been thought of as being around the 19yr old range but, I'm actually 35.More over many social and mental characteristics probably give other people this notion.I've heard that many people in the spectrum tend to have a fondness or liking of things that tend to be of a much younger age.I'll go on the record to say, I like comics and in some ways still have a fondness of things relating to an earlier time but, I realise not to become entangled where I forget how old I am and all.. Anyways, I've found this observation to be interesting not to be seen as unplesant..

People thought I was eight years younger than I really was, last time this subject came up...

I'll be 25 tommorrow, most people think I look 17-18 though.

it'd be interesting to find out. (guess that would be hard to measure objectively though: "does subject appear younger than s/he is?)

i'm still self-diagnosed at this point (NLD with aspie traits.) but yes--people have generally said i look much younger. when i was in my late teens, early /20's, i HATED it. (people thought i was about 14.)

now i'm in my '40's, and people still often call me "young lady," etc. sometimes it's nice--i think i can get away a little more easily with "eccentric" clothing and general identity confusion. on the other hand---try be taken seriously when you have to deal with mechanics, cars sales people, contractors, financial institutions and the like. aside from my general gullibility, i think they're even more inclined to try to take me for a ride. at least--that seems to happen fairly often. i think something is a really great deal, but NT's will say: "no. it's happened again. don't do business with that person anymore."

sigh...