Looking a lot younger?

[Hadassah]

Does anyone else have this? I have read that it is an Asperger trait! Is it a curse or a blessing?

I look 10 years younger (and act like one -I was stuck with a teenage mentality for 15 years..) and people are shocked when they hear my age. I do appreciate my looks, but I hate it when their face drops and they're like, "wow, that old"? Lol. Yeah, I'm 31 and look like 21. My two female AS friends also look and act 10 years younger (other is 37 and other 43)! :wub:

 

[melame]

I'm 33 and people rarely believe me. Most people assume I'm about 25. It really throws them when they find out that I have a 15 year old son.

 

[Hadassah]

Heeh, cool xD Actually no-one ever believed that I was my mothers daughter either.

 

[Soup]

Add me to that list! I went to see a dermatologist because of an irritation on one arm that keeps going away & returning at random intervals. He thought I was 25. When he looked at my medicare card, he was in shock to learn how old I am (48). I'm short & thin without a single line, wrinkle, sag or bag. He then forgot why I was there & began poking at my face (!!!AAAUUGGHH!!!) to check for signs of Botox & dermal fillers. Um....no. I don't know whether I act like a 48 yr old because I'm not sure how a 48 year old typically behaves. I don't think I'm particularly immature, but I know I don't wear stuffy dowdy 'older woman' clothing. Nothing made for a typical 'mature woman' even comes in my size! At J Crew, I fit a children's size 14. In their grown ups section I need xxs. At Victoria's secret, it's xs. I don't try to look for teenage or uber-trendy stuff, I just wear what is comfortable, what I like, what is easy to clean & maintain, what fits well & what works for the occasion. To avoid complicated closet moments, I wear a lot of black, charcoal, grey & other tonal shades so that whatever I grab out of the closet will look okay together.

 

[umbrellabeach]

People can't believe it when I tell them I'm 19 because they all think I'm around 16. I'm fine with this. I wonder how old (or young) I'll look when I'm 30 or 40.

 

[Explosition_Rooster]

Not quite sure about this one, but nearly every female that I've made friends with call me cute. I don't say anything, but I'd like to at least be called manly.

 

[ptogrph17]

Same thing with me, I'm 19 and people regularly think I'm still in high-school. I guess it's a good thing to look younger than you actually are, especially when you get "older". I wonder if Aspies live longer then NTs do?

 

[King_Oni]

Most people are totally in the blue when it comes to my age.

I don't dress my age anyway... at least, judging on what people my age dress and look like. And having a more "alternative" look with piercings and all, and I guess in general not that entire "I'm grown up and all formal" thing going on.

People don't assume I'm in my teens anymore, so I guess that's good. But at some point I feel I didn't really age anymore phsyically. And I'm stuck in that halfway 20's look. People don't give me my 30 years of age. At best people guess I'm 25 or so.

My behaviour probably isn't in line with a 30 year old either. There I'm probably more leaning towards late teens, early 20's... with a serious lack of being "adult" with anything. At best I'm probably "juvenile" and have, what some might call juvenile hobbies and interests as well. And with some things people might even consider juvenile to be an overstatement.

My behaviour also throws people off from time to time when I actually say stuff that actually makes a lot of sense and sounds like I'm coming from experience. And people end up asking me "how old are you again?" since it doesn't sound right for someone that acts like a 20 year old.

So yes... I look younger, but not by a far margin... for some reason I didn't really age a lot in the past 10 years physically.

 

[Hadassah]

Yes, I also behave and dress younger. Not on purpose though. Before knowing about AS I really was hard on myself (and my family too ) about it, why I never could act my age.. Now finally I think it's a gift!!

 

[Soup]

@Hadassah: I agree that it is a gift. After all, look at the extreme lengths people all over the world are resorting to in order to stave off aging, reverse it & appear a few years younger. We get it as a free bonus!

 

[Ste11aeres]

Not quite sure about this one, but nearly every female that I've made friends with call me cute. I don't say anything, but I'd like to at least be called manly.

I've considered most of the guys I had crushes on to be "cute". So maybe that appellation is not so undesirable after all.

 

[Hadassah]

Yes indeed <3 I've always felt like I "lose" to "normal" women but actually I think I won't since I will always look younger. Hope that didn't sound rude, though. It's just that my problems (which now have a name) have really always made me think I'm inferior to other women.

 

[Sparticus]

I'm always told I look younger than others my age. I wonder why those with Aspergers/autism would look younger?

 

[Mellotron]

Yea I have always looked younger than I am. Thats a nice thing as I get older though, I used to hate it.

 

[King_Oni]

I do wonder if looking younger is purely a physical thing in sense of dressing up a certain way. If so, it might explain why some of us might look younger since some of us just don't give a hoot about social etiquette to dress the way their age should dictate them.

Add in some general quirkiness and you might just as well come across as younger.

It would be interesting though if there's actually something genetic to this and that people on the spectrum, by genes, will just look younger in general. Even if you leave clothes out of the equation.

 

[Explosition_Rooster]

You may be onto something, Oni, as it may be a combination of Autism, clothing choices and interests that may combine together, causing us to have a 'youthful' look about us.

 

[Sparticus]

As a kid I saw when my father had a bad job-how angry & unhappy he was. In the back of my mind I must of said I'll try to get a job I like.
When I got older I started noticing a lot of older adults seemed to become an inflexible unhappy person. I never wanted to be like that. Maybe some of us took a trail less used...maybe its our attitude that makes us young.

 

[nightmarehippiegirl]

I can relate to this. I too look much younger than my chronological age. I'm 43 and many people assume I'm in my 20's. It is nice to age so gracefully, however it is also a curse. In the professional world I have a difficult time because (in addition to the other issues of AS) people don't take me seriously or question my knowledge because they think I'm too young to know what I'm talking about. Back when I actually bothered to try to date, this was a barrier as well since I tend to attract men who are much younger than I and seldom those who are older.

 

[Craig]

My body has been ruined by 12 years of Chronic Insomnia, and an aversion/phobia of water has caused severe skin damage. I'm 24 (25 in six days) and most people think I'm about 30, however most neural typicals in my position look about 20 years older than they are.

Though even as a child, I had always been the tallest and bulkiest in my year, which naturally made me seem older a couple of years. When I was second year, I was always the go to guy for buying alcohol for the 14-16 year old children who looked like 14-16 year old children. Most importantly though, I've always acted older than I was, the straight faced droopy eyes of an Aspie gives the strong impression of a young man who's stressed after a long days work and needs to get hammered.

I have read that it is an Asperger trait! Is it a curse or a blessing?

It is an Autistic trait, but it doesn't always manifest itself in every person with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. That is to say, that while you may have Autism or Asperger's Syndrome, you might just be naturally appealing and/or beautiful by yourself, and your Autism is merely a coincidence.

As for trait itself, it tends to make your face more rounded, often quoted as being more child like and naturally innocent. Many Researchers believe that this is an evolutionary development by the autistic spectrum in a bid to make adults more sympathetic towards us, keeping the maternal fires burning and appearing less threatening to otherwise dominant males.

That may seem somewhat pointless in our current society, but if ever there was a great cataclysm the forced mankind back to the stone age. Just how many Autistic children do you believe would successfully make it through childhood and go on to reproduce if wasn't for traits like the one above. Mankind may have a natural inclination to look after it's own, but it also has a herd mentality, if one person is slowing everyone down, then (especially in the stone age) they will be left behind.

 

[epath13]

If I take my skin color and type, stress level, all the illnesses I have had, kids I still think I look exactly my age. I had hard time to recognize people's age when I was younger, but I became a little bit better at it. So far I've never met anyone who looked significantly younger. People might seem younger, but if you look closer there're always going to be indicators of an actual age. I've met people who looked healthier for their age. People who take care of themselves, have no serious illnesses, or simply belong to certain racial group or mixtures or groups may appear younger but the closer you look the better you see that it's not really true. I had 2 friends, one was 100% (more or less ) Korean and another obviously had some Asian or native blood in her. They both seemed young for their age (one of the reasons was, they were trying to present themselves as younger people, so they dressed and behaved accordingly) but if you looked closer you would be able to see signs of aging appropriate for their skin and body type, etc., so in the end they pretty much looked their age. And I don't think it is an "Autistic trait" or "Asperger trait", because I just don't see any evidence proving it and I think judgement depends on personal expectations of how people suppose to look like at certain age, people have different expectations so what looks "young" to one may not look the same to another. So I don't really see how it can be a trait. But then again, we have to specify what we're talking about, are we talking about an image a person presents or actual physical appearance?

I remember I watched one crazy show some time ago... something about dressing up people appropriately. There's a woman once, who dressed like a teenager. She claimed people thought she was 15, 16 or something like that, don't remember exactly. She actually was in her late 30s or 40s, I couldn't understand what she's talking about, to me she looked like a 40 years old dressed up in a 12 years old clothes. It all depends on what people pay attention to: image or actual physical appearance.