Ha. I'm glad I'm not the only one with that problem. I'm 27 and the other day someone asked me if I was over 18 (apparently you have to be over 18 to get a library card in New Orleans.) I've also been carded for rated R movies. I find it annoying.
most recently it was from an uws (white) woman asking what teeny-bopper magazines i reaD <-PRESENT tense as she wanted to buy some for her 12-year-old daughter who was going to go to camp.
I'm 52 and occasionally am mistaken for being in my early to mid 30's (which engenders amusing reactions when I point out the eldest of my offspring is 27).
I have to admit, though, that I do have friend who I originally thought was an intellectually precocious 16 or 17 year old who turned out to be a 23 year old grad student, and I've mistaken intellectually precocious 16 year olds for being much older. The best one on record is thinking a 14 year old was 25 - and she's now 22 and she looks pretty much the same as she did at 14.
I suspect that people have a wide set of criteria they use for guessing age, none of which - including looking at a drivers license - are always reliable measures. If you pick up on the wrong criteria for one person, you may be way off, but the same criteria for someone else might be dead on.
Of course, I try to treat everyone who might be over 13 as an adult as much as possible.
(reposted for correcting embarassing grammatical errors)
Enter my story about being mistaken for a foreign (non-English speaking) under 15 boy (talk about mis-judgements...) I was headed back to my college after one spring break, I was 20, so not quite the mid-twenties that I now enter, but definately not under 15. The plane was a tiny prop out of LaGuardia and only held like 20 people. My ticket sat me next to someone in an emergency exit row, where you have to be at least 16 to sit. My hair was down to my ears, my glasses were wire rimmed, and I was wearing my wool sailors cap I picked up in Germany, because despite it being Spring Break, there was over a foot of snow on the ground in NYC. Jess had commented that the hat made me look like a tweenage Israeli boy, the curls looking a bit like peyas. So first, the flight attendant comes up to me and reminds me that I must be at least 16 to sit in that row. I gave her a blank stare, confused that she might mistake me for being under 16 (I was a mere four months away from being 21, afterall) and then nodded. She then said that because the flight was nerely empty I could sit somewhere else and not next to anyone. Note that she said this to me and not to the guy next to me, who despite having a small goattee I found out later was YOUNGER than I. It was early in the morning, I was reading a book, a bit slow on the uptake you could say, and gradually started gathering my things. She then asked me if I understood English. I stood up, scowled, and shouted at her: "I'm not a 12 year old Israeli boy!" Her reply? "I'm sorry sir, please take a seat."
UGH.
Moral of the story: people are bad at guessing when people look "ambiguous". I don't know why she thought I didn't speak English (I was reading a friggin book in English), but I have large boobs. I think, too, that people assume that you either grow out of acne or get it treated, and so if you don't give a shit and have acne as an adult, you get mistaken for being much younger. Frustrating.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-07-24 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-24 11:51 pm (UTC)annoying is a very good term.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 01:10 am (UTC)i find it annoying.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 03:26 am (UTC)ummmm.
they don't print sassy.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 02:54 am (UTC)I have to admit, though, that I do have friend who I originally thought was an intellectually precocious 16 or 17 year old who turned out to be a 23 year old grad student, and I've mistaken intellectually precocious 16 year olds for being much older. The best one on record is thinking a 14 year old was 25 - and she's now 22 and she looks pretty much the same as she did at 14.
I suspect that people have a wide set of criteria they use for guessing age, none of which - including looking at a drivers license - are always reliable measures. If you pick up on the wrong criteria for one person, you may be way off, but the same criteria for someone else might be dead on.
Of course, I try to treat everyone who might be over 13 as an adult as much as possible.
(reposted for correcting embarassing grammatical errors)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 03:27 am (UTC)maybe the moral of the story is that people suck at guessing other people's ages.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-26 03:08 am (UTC)I was headed back to my college after one spring break, I was 20, so not quite the mid-twenties that I now enter, but definately not under 15. The plane was a tiny prop out of LaGuardia and only held like 20 people. My ticket sat me next to someone in an emergency exit row, where you have to be at least 16 to sit. My hair was down to my ears, my glasses were wire rimmed, and I was wearing my wool sailors cap I picked up in Germany, because despite it being Spring Break, there was over a foot of snow on the ground in NYC. Jess had commented that the hat made me look like a tweenage Israeli boy, the curls looking a bit like peyas.
So first, the flight attendant comes up to me and reminds me that I must be at least 16 to sit in that row. I gave her a blank stare, confused that she might mistake me for being under 16 (I was a mere four months away from being 21, afterall) and then nodded.
She then said that because the flight was nerely empty I could sit somewhere else and not next to anyone. Note that she said this to me and not to the guy next to me, who despite having a small goattee I found out later was YOUNGER than I. It was early in the morning, I was reading a book, a bit slow on the uptake you could say, and gradually started gathering my things.
She then asked me if I understood English.
I stood up, scowled, and shouted at her: "I'm not a 12 year old Israeli boy!"
Her reply?
"I'm sorry sir, please take a seat."
UGH.
Moral of the story: people are bad at guessing when people look "ambiguous". I don't know why she thought I didn't speak English (I was reading a friggin book in English), but I have large boobs. I think, too, that people assume that you either grow out of acne or get it treated, and so if you don't give a shit and have acne as an adult, you get mistaken for being much younger. Frustrating.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-27 04:19 am (UTC)but never have i (knowing) been mistaken for an israeli boy/man.
then again, i can't even pull off drag all that well and i have minimal boobage.
but, i have to agree. the acne thing is a mistaken attribute of young-ness.
as is (lack of) height.