Aspies For Freedom

For me, they think I look older!

Yes. People are always surprised when I tell them I'm 27...

My little sister looks younger than her age as well. I think she looks about 18, when she's 24. My mum also looks younger than her age. People are always surprised she has four children, with the oldest 30. My mum is 49.

Ditto !  

Not me- but that's because I'm still young. Last year I got asked by one of those annoying salespeople who hover around in shopping centres if I was over 18.

I was 13 at the time.

My facial features are quite young. However everyone who I have met recently thinks i'm at least 18 (i'm 16). This is very handy for going out drinking
I'm very happy that i'm going to stay looking young for ages *crosses fingers*.
I've been meeting lots of people on the spectrum recently and I like how we all look roughly the same age because there is no age barrier for getting to know other people.

My theory for the reason we look younger than we are for longer is because of evolution. Autism is genetic so similar genes are passed on with it.

People on the spectrum tend to be very good and pissing others off. Also we tend to resist growing up, prefuring to stay younger for longer.
(note the use of the word tend, I am generalising which you should know is inaccurate and I do not mean to offend)
Therefore only those who kept their youthful features (which illicit care giving) were looked after long enough and found mates despite being odd and not always realising when being irritating. Those that didn't keep the youthful features weren't cared for long enough to reproduce and had trouble finding mates and so autistic people whose appearances aged quicker couldn't pass on their genes. Therefore looking young is a trait amongst autistics.

I find it interesting in genetics that it doesn't matter how useful a gene is, if it doesn't increase the possibility of mating that it is not kept (e.g intelligence in regards to the common chav)

An interesting thought has arose from reading this thread, do autistics look older at a younger age (around teenage years) but then age slower after that?

I don't think good skin really has anything to do with the young thing though, since I have terrible skin and people think I'm younger.  I'm really fair so I freckle easily and also burn easily, which means my face is a little pinkish (probably also due to the Irish in me).  I get breakouts a bit too.

On the young thing, I think it's more to do with personality and how autistics tend to hold themselves, than to do with actual physical characteristics. For instance (and I may be generalising here) but I think people on the spectrum are more likely to get really excited and bouncy about something.  The other thing is that the tendency for nervousness, shyness or fidgeting also makes people look younger.

I am 15 but have always been thought to be younger than my age the youngest was when my sisters friend asked how old I was I told him I was 15 and he said he thought I was 12!!!!

apart from the beer belly i'm working on i look about 18-19, so i often get id'd for cigarettes and people are shocked when i say i'm 25! lol x

I get all the time

I'm 21 and people automaticly assume that I am 15 D: Jeebus

In Oz, I understand school kids wear hats to school, to minimize their UV exposure, so maybe staying indoors is a good idea, at least down under.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_hole

I saw an ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation) movie about The Sky is on Fire... about wandering ozone holes... that is quite a concept.  Would it be possible as depicted to kill people in an hour or two?

Yes, I'm eighteen and people always mistake me for being around fourteen.  They ask, 'are you the youngest?' when faced with my sister who is fourteen but looks like she's older and me.  I don't always know how to take it, sometimes I accept other times I'm fairly indignant.

At our family reunion it was par for the course like Desert Storm suiting up in chem warfare gear I thought

Our family motto at the reunion was Always Close to the Finnish Line, and we had two or three cases of sunburn* out of 23, except for two fetuses well protected.

* Even me.  I was certain on the rafting trip I rolled up by shorts, put on sunscreen, and put my shorts down, but I still got burned there.

praise the Lord and please pass the SPF 50