There ARE people who look younger than their age!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People don’t comment when they think you look older. So all you hear is from people who think you look younger.

Very few people actually look that much younger. It is just flattery and puff.

But it works!

I’m still recounting how I was mistaken for a high school student a few years ago. I was arriving late for a last minute sub assignment on the first day of school. I parked in the front staff lot and immediately saw security motion for me to roll down my window - saying, “no student parking here.” I rolled down my window, raised my eyebrow at him. He apologized immediately but I told him he made my day - even though he likely couldn’t see my face and assumed due to my cheap car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I am mid-40s with a kid and people always assume I'm 5-10 years younger than I am. It is partly because of my kid's age (I had her when I was late 30s) but there are also lots of older moms around her so it's not just that -- I have had moms at my kid's school who are my exact age assume I am 10 years younger than they are.

I'm not bragging and I don't think it even matters. I've always looked young for my age even when it was not advantageous at all (ie looking 15 when you are 25 is not useful in your first job at all). There are still situation where I would prefer to look my age or older because I still get dismissed as young at work or socially because people assume I am a lot younger than I am. I have also realized that there are situation where if I ACT my age it will rub people the wrong way because they will think I am acting more experienced than I actually am. But I'm not -- I'm a middle aged woman with a lot of work and life experience but I just happen to look a lot younger than that.

Yep- this is me, too! It affects my executive presence but I recently decided I don’t want to be old and serious, executive presence be damned!