Aspies For Freedom

Is funny, being carded.  I'm 37 and I never get carded any more.  People tell me my hair is turning gray, maybe that's it.

I looked younger than my age.  I determined it was due to having fat cheeks.  Alas by the time I hit 40, that pudgy faced youthful look was lost.

I've always felt that I look younger than I am. I think I'm finally starting to "age" at 26. It helps to have my kids around, that will date you. Though some people probably think I just had my first at 16... she is really big for her age though- looks seven and turns five on Sunday. But because I was pregnant at 21, which is young, but because I must have looked more like 17 I learned rather quickly as how to show as older. Got a more mommy-looking haircut... conservative outfits rather than the "artsy" stuff I guess. Not that I was ever really big into trendy clothes, but I can manage. I don't really go anywhere so I wouldn't know anything about being carded.

what is "carding"?

also,i keep getting asked when i finish school,and if i'm doing my GCSEs this year ¬_¬
im in college,doing a diploma...

Carding is when the cashier asks to see your photo ID if you look too young to be buying cigarettes, alcohol, porn, some OTC medicines, spraypaint, even lighters. I get carded all the time, because I think people always believe I'm about 15 years old. Whenever I go somewhere with my younger sister (she's 17), they always think she's the older one.

ah,gotcha.
i dont buy any of the above :p
only thing i buy which MIGHT require it is PCGamer,which always has an 18 rating nowadays...funny,isnt it,that video games are supposed to be corrupting,but the age restrictions arnt inforced on them...?

Oh yes, the you-couldn't-have-written-that reaction.  I was accused of plagiarism by a college English teacher because she couldn't believe that my quirky, awkward, wide-eyed, semi-mute self could have written such a good research paper.  I told her I was hyperlexic, and she insisted there was "no such thing."

Today I went out to lunch with my mom and I was offered a children's menu (I'm a college student).

This is why I grew a beard, and why I am loathe to shave often.

I definitely can't afford any kind of voice coaching, so that's not an option for me.  I am thinking now that my problem really isn't appearing chronologically younger; it's appearing childlike.  Two nights ago I was out with a group, and they all guessed I was chronologically older than I was (although I was semi-dressed-up and it was dark, so that might make a difference).  But I was still pushed into the childlike role of the performing prodigy.  And I was hit on by one of the creepy older men. (I truly don't mean to denigrate older men, or older men who are attracted to younger women, or age-gap couples, or anything like that.  These *particular* men are men who are sexually attracted to traits they view as childlike.  That's what makes them creepy and semi-pedophiliac, to me.)  

I haven't found any particular pattern of behavior to ameliorate this childlike appearance.  If I talk more, I sound like a child prodigy participating in adult conversation.  If I talk less, I sound like a mute child.  If I wear makeup, I look like a little girl wearing her mom's makeup.  And so forth.  Maybe it's my eyes?  I really can't figure it out.  Even when people overestimate my chronological age (most people guess 2-4 years older), they still treat me as if I were 10 years younger.

^Yetti....that might fall under TMI

I have the same issue with looking younger than my chronological age - I'm 28 in a few days, and I still get carded for alcohol  - and the occasional R-rated movie (!)

Part of it's genetic - my mother's whole family is deceptively young-looking. My mother is in her 60s and gets mistaken for being 15-20 years younger. Depending on your point of view, the looking-younger-business could be a good thing once you hit the age when most others are getting wrinkly and gray. Personally I never thought there was anything wrong with looking your age, but I may change that opinion once I start getting there.

Aspies might have a "younger" (childLIKE, not childISH) demeanor as well and therefore seem younger to others who've lost that, especially if your interests aren't like "most other people's" - which I would bet applies to most of the people on this board.  Again, depending on point of view, this is an asset - it's helped me when I've worked with kids, because I can relate to them better than some other adults can.

As far as the "scuzzy old men" business goes: IMHO maybe you can let leering go, but you don't have to put up with any comments or physical contact.  I've had the occasional being-hit-on-by-scuzzy-old-drunk!-guy and found that telling them to back off - loudly enough so that it gets the attention of others around you - did the trick.

(Now WHY are these the only kind of guys who ever hit on me??  *sigh*)

i'm part of a girl scout troup and the other girls cant seem to get ther head around the fact that i'm older then they are,they talk down to me.consistently. how do i "gently" remind them to treat me with respect?And one the "leader"  of the girls of the group, tend to dis regard anything i or my friend Miss(the one who kiss me on the cheek during an outing with said girls) have to say.

this is me too.