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{{trope}}{{Cleanup|Many of the examples in the Real Life section are firmly nailed to a year somewhere in the 2000s. Specific ages should be replaced where possible with the {{tl|Age}} template so that they auto-update.}}
{{quote|"
|'''Chris Rock'''|"No Sex (in the Champagne Room)"}}
Some characters are [[Older Than They Look]]
Other times there may be a young adult with the appearance of a middle aged or even older man. Gray hair, a prematurely receding hairline, generally cause someone to look older. Certain types of facial hair also can make a younger man seem older.
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Subtropes include [[Older Alter Ego]], a magical ability for younger kids to temporarily turn into adults and back, and [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up]], the same permanently.
Similar, but not to be confused with [[Artistic Age]], where this is due to art rather than in-story causes. If, in live-action, their age is surprising to the viewer but not anyone in story, it's a bad side-effect of [[Dawson Casting]]. An effort to ''force'' this trope into being upon a child actor and the character they play will result in [[Not Allowed to Grow Up]].
Compare [[Compulsory School Age]], [[Mistaken Age]], [[Age-Inappropriate Dress]]. In extreme cases you get [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]
Contrast [[Animation Anatomy Aging]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* It is revealed that Maria in ''[[
** Specifically, she keeps saying "I'm 17-years-old" with increasing irritation. It's also a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Kikuko Inoue]].
* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' has Seira, a baby that looks and acts about ten.
*
* The manga adaptation of ''[[Battle Royale]]'' has bizarre character designs; a small amount of the characters look their age, while the rest look much, ''much'' older. [[The Vamp|Mitsuko]] and [[The Stoic|Shogo]] come to mind.
* Zelgadis the chimera of ''[[Slayers]]'' is twenty at the start of the [[Light Novel]] series, and his appearance appropriately matches his age. In the anime, his age is bumped down to sixteen (a [[Word of God]] statement in a film book), making him fall under this trope. It doesn't help that his voice is noticably deep, especially in [[Crispin Freeman|the English version.]] More often than not, Gourry (who's older and taller than Zelgadiss is; in the anime, he's the only protagonist who's in his twenties) is referred to as a ''boy.''
* Just about everyone in ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]'' fits this trope. They're middle school students. Or high school students. Really.
** Lampshaded more or less often. Specially in the case of Tezuka and Sanada, who happen to be [[Wise Beyond Their Years]] as well.
* In ''[[Excel Saga (
** Well, when the episode is titled "[[Dude, Not Funny|Going Too Far]]", what did you expect?
* Harumi in ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'' appears to be in her mid-twenties, but viewers who have a quick enough eye to catch her character stats just before the commercial breaks will be surprised to realize that she's only ''three years old''. {{spoiler|Of course, it turns out that she's an android, so don't worry too much about it.}}
** A more mundane example in the same show would be Dr. Kitaguchi, a thirty three year-old doctor who looks like he's somewhere in his fifties. Of course if his self-proclaimed thirty-year drinking habit isn't an exaggeration, you can probably figure out why.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' has Professor Banner, who looks like he's in his mid-20's, but he's actually 18. {{spoiler|It's because that at 18, he contracted a terminal disease while doing alchemy research, so he made a second body to continue research and stop the funder of his research, Kagemaru.}}
** Also, Sartorius, the [[Big Bad]] of the second season, is only 17/18 years old, though he looks like a full-grown adult.
** The original series gives us Pegasus. All fan estimates peg him at in his mid 40's due to the grey hair. He's 24.
* Yuki Nagato and her associates in ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' appear to be about fifteen, but {{spoiler|as constructs of the Data Overmind, their physical bodies at least are only up to three}} years old. It's somewhat debatable since it isn't known how the whole system works, but with {{spoiler|Nagato getting trapped in a time loop for hundreds of years (and mentally aging, as she alone retains full memories of the repetitions)}} the fifth novel {{spoiler|inverts this and makes her [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]}}.
** An alternate theory mentioned in the show is that {{spoiler|the whole universe was recreated three years earlier, so * everyone* who thinks they're older than three is actually ''
* Yoko in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is actually 14, the same age as Simon. However, since humans had been living underground for generations, without a sun or anything, they probably couldn't tell time as accurately, so who knows.
* In ''[[Planetes]]'', a minor character is twelve years old, but since she grew up on the Moon with it's lower gravity, her size makes her look like she's in her early twenties. This causes the twenty-something main character to be ''really'' uncomfortable when he discovers her true age... especially since he'd been hitting on her.
* In ''[[Bludgeoning Angel
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', two of the [[Huge Schoolgirl
** There's [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Chachamaru]], who has been built two and a half years ago, but looks like a teenager.
* Jet of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' looks like he could be in his fourties or fifties, but is only thirty-six. This is lampshaded in the preview for "Waltz for Venus" where he tells us this, and says you shouldn't judge people by how they look, or how much hair they have.
* Most of the cast of ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' qualifies, but the one that takes the cake is Rikiya Gaoh: He's two meters tall (6'7"), square-jawed, musclebound, capable of bench-pressing over 200
** All the "manly" (which is most of the cast) football players of ''Eyeshield 21'' look like more pro-football players in their 20s and 30s rather then a bunch of high schoolers playing youth football. Though it does explain how they manage to get away with gambling, smoking, and drinking when they aren't even 20 yet.
** That's not even getting into Atsushi Munakata of the Amino Cyborgs, whose tremendous musculature and broad, dashingly handsome face make him look over ''30'', a fact that is actually commented upon. One Omake chapter shows that he actually looks exactly like his father... ''and'' his mother.
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** In ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]'', there is an extreme case of this in the Shadow Dragons, who, though mature as any other Dragonball villains, are, by technicality, newborns, spawned from the dragonballs' misuse.
* Yasutora "Chad" Sado from ''[[Bleach]]'' is in ''high'' school but looks like he's in his late twenties ([[Artistic Age|which is even older than his friends look]]). At one point Kyoraku asks him to give up their fight and have a drink with him. Chad refuses - "It's illegal for minors to drink."
* ''[[Trigun]]'''s main character Vash starts out in
** However, {{spoiler|Wolfwood}} in the manga ''does'' have a [[Lampshaded]] case; {{spoiler|The experimental treatments his [[Evil Mentor]] used to give him superhuman capabilities and [[Healing Factor]] also caused him to age faster;}} while he looks in his mid-to-late 20s, he's probably sixteen or so when we meet him. {{spoiler|His former guardian at the orphanage doesn't recognize him until Livio's about to kill him.}}
* Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'' should be in his mid to late twenties, but because of extreme amount of physical and mental stress looks to be about 30 or 40.
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** Arf is another example. She looks to be in her mid twenties or so, but in reality is probably only three or four years old tops considering Fate created her, and Fate herself is a another example as a clone with a copy of the memories from the girl she was cloned from.
*** By extension, this trope applies to {{spoiler|Erio and Zest}} for the same reasons as Fate.
** Sette looks like an adult woman, but is the last of the Numbers to have been activated, and thus younger than any of the others (particularly [[Token
* Occurs with the all young girls in Junko Mizuno's ''[[Pure Trance]]'' manga; they appear to be about three when they're born, and one quickly ages about 16 years in a matter of months due to her ability to ''shed her skin like a snake''.
* The silpelits from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' Age at about double the rate of normal humans. Nana looks 14-15 and is really around seven years old. Similarly, Mariko is really somewhere around three years old.
* ''[[Naruto]]'''s Tsunade manages to be both
** Also, Kimimaro is thought by many to be a young-adult man, mostly due to his [[Perpetual Frowner|looks]], his [[The Stoic|personality]], and his [[Incurable Cough of Death|condition]]. Yet [[Word of God|official databooks]] reveal he was only 15.
** This applies the Sound Four who were all only 14. It was probably deliberate so their progressively unmerciful deaths didn't disturb readers.
* Hana-chan in ''[[Ojamajo Doremi|Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan]]'' having aged herself magically from a baby to a tween.
* [[Emotionless Girl|Primula]] from ''[[
* Another [[Artificial Human]] example of this trope is [[Onmyodo|Abe no Yasuaki]] of ''[[Harukanaru Toki no Naka
* Isabella from ''[[Paradise Kiss]]'' is high school age, but dressing like a middle-aged Victorian lady makes her look remarkably older. Her very mature and composed attitude only add to it, as do her [[
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', 15 year old Lambo (after being shot with the 10 year into the future bazooka)... really does ''not'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20090207231907/http://www.onemanga.com/Katekyo_Hitman_Reborn/97/12/ look 15].
** Neither does [http://www.mangareader.net/284-20337-4/katekyo-hitman-reborn/chapter-116.html Mukuro.]
* ''[[Mahoromatic]]'', being about [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|androids]], has an alien android who poses as a school teacher. When asked over the course of the series about age-related issues, such as if he would go drinking with a group of other teachers, he always replies, " That would be illegal, as I am only three years old." [[Weirdness Censor|For some reason, nobody bothers to question him on this]].
* ''[[
* Ling Yao of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is a mild case. He's 15, but he looks like a fully-grown adult. This is used for both a joke about him being much taller than [[The Napoleon|Ed]] (who is slightly older) and a plot point when he's arrested as [[The Illegal|an illegal immigrant]] and the authorities don't believe he's really a minor.
* ''[[Hibiki no Mahou]]'' has Asuma, a wizard who ages much more quickly than normal as a price for using magic. In reality, he's probably at least in his late teens, but he looks to be about in his late 20's/early 30's.
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*** On the other hand, {{spoiler|there's no evidence the clones haven't been growing at a normal, human rate, so physically they could all be 14.}} It all depends on how you interpret what counts for age: {{spoiler|mind, body, or soul? How much are Rei I, II, & III the same person?}}
* Some, if not all, ''[[Sekirei]]'' fall under this. Apart from 00/01, the absolute eldest is 20 years old. While some Sekirei do appear to be teens or younger, the majority look like fully mature adults, and not teenagers like they should be. An example would be Kazehana and Matsu, who ''do not look 20''.
* Yukio Oikawa of ''[[
* Masaru and Touma of ''[[
* Most people assume ''[[Baccano
* ''[[
* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Usagi and the Inner
* A [https://web.archive.org/web/20120123102756/http://www.pokemopolis.net/frames/jailbait.htm favorite topic] on the ''[[Pokémon (
** Professor Oak fits as well. Sure he looks super super old, but in the animeverse he can't be much older than 50. Which means he became a grandfather around 40.
** According to [[Word of God]]: Brock, who looks like a 18 year old, is actually 12 and Misty, who looks 15, is actually 10. Oh, and Jessie and James, who look to be in their 20s, are 15. [[Your Head Asplode|Your head may now explode]].
** The dub changes it around apparently to make more sense: Misty is 12, Brock is 15, and Jessie and James are 17.
** It seems like there's no two sources that say the same thing about characters' ages. Some official Japanese sites have different characters listed as different ages within the same site. Jessie and James are usually the most ambiguous, and often are listed as being around 22 years old, especially if one goes by the timeline established in the CD dramas.
* Pinoko of ''[[
* [[Badass Longcoat|Stiyl Magnus]] of ''[[
** Kanzaki and Oriana also looks around 20-25 when they're both only 18.
* George of ''[[Dragon Crisis]]'', despite looking about thirty, actually turns out to be 19.
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* ''[[Akagi]]'': Shigeru is only 13 pre-[[Time Skip]] but looks considerably older in the anime (he's more plausible in the manga). A line referring to his age was even changed from "Yeah, you look it too" to "Really? You don't look it" in the adaptation.
* Leorio from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' looks like a businessman in his thirties or early forties. He's nineteen. It was even [[Lampshaded]] when he tells Gon and Killua, who are more than shocked.
* [[Little Miss Badass|Lady Kayura]] in ''[[Ronin Warriors]]/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers'' is physically 12 years old despite having lived for centuries and appearing to be in her late teens.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has an early joke about
** Kuwabara falls into this a little, too. He doesn't look fourteen. Then again, he doesn't look Japanese.
** Really, the entire middle school system in the story acts more like a high school system, what with it's various gangs and all.
* Shinonome Nano from ''[[Nichijou]]'' looks and acts like a high schooler but she is actually only a year old at the beginning of the show. Of course, she's a robot (with a wind-up key, natch).
* ''[[
* [[Saint Seiya]]: Ok, [[You Should Know This Already|so we know already about the main characters]] but when you think that the Silver Saint are in their teens while looking like 30-somethings it start to get weird.
** Aioros died when he was 14-years old and he was already ''taller'' than a 20-year-old Aioria. [[Beyond the Impossible|And don't make me start with that flashback of Shura in the anime.]]
* Sanada North High's Student Council Vice-President's case of [[Face of a Thug]] may make him look like in the thirties, but he's aged like any [[Second Year Protagonist]] in the series.
* One story of ''Himitsu Kichi'' has the protagonist dating a 6th grader who looks like he could be in college. He's taller than her and stands out around his classmates.. He does have childish antics though.
* The protagonist of ''[[Accel World]]'' is 13 years old but looks at least 2 years older.
* Kyouichi from the first chapter of ''Himitsu Kichi'' [http://mangafox.me/manga/himitsu_kichi/v01/c001/10.html looks like a 20 year old] when he's no older than 10 or 11.
* Jewelry Bonnie in ''[[One Piece]]''. While only ten years old when she first debuted, her Devil Fruit power lets her manipulate a person's age, including her own, and usually chooses to appear as a young woman. Post time skip, she is about twelve. In hindsight, this explains a lot about her, as she has always seemed selfish and immature (such as how she tends to eat greedily with no regard for table manners), acting more like an atypical [[Pirate Girl]] than most female characters, though also clearly [[Wise Beyond Her Years]].
== Comic Books ==
* Many comic book characters get this, usually when a character transfers to a more respectable team. For example when Alex from [[Power Pack]] joined the New Warriors he was drawn like he was in his late teens despite being around thirteen.
* Many X-men are susceptible to this, Iceman when just starting out was sixteen but looked identical to his teammates.
* Magneto is old enough to have lived through the
* Sometimes characters are drawn older to reflect new roles, In the second New Mutants series Dani Moonstar becomes a teacher and is depicted like she's in her mid to late twenties despite only being twenty one. Everything from her hair style to her posture to her personality is changed to reflect her being older, she even adopts Elixir who is only six years younger. However in the third series all this is scrapped, she's a student again and is drawn around her age.
* Bart Allen (aka Impulse, then Kid Flash, then [[The Flash]]) in [[The DCU]] aged unusually quickly for the first few years of his life due to an exceptionally fast metabolism. The reverse is true for his [[Evil Twin]] Inertia, who took over 50 years to develop to the physical age of 15.
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* {{spoiler|Victor Mancha}} of ''[[Runaways]]''. {{spoiler|He's a cyborg implanted with false memories. He was built as a teenager, so he's approximately 15 years younger than he looks. Molly even comments that she forgot that he's younger than her.}}
* Representative Joshua Freeh, of ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'', is {{spoiler|the product of a "Bastard Farm" given a wetware upgrade so he has full higher brain functions, created so the [[Big Bad]] would have a running mate with a clean-slate past}}.
{{quote|
* Both [[Captain Marvel]] and Mary Marvel, thanks to [[Older Alter Ego]]. Lampshaded in ''Formerly Known as the Justice League''. At one point Captain Marvel had to break up with the teenaged superhero Stargirl because even though they were the same age, it just looked really creepy.
** It used to be even more extreme; Billy and Mary had the exact same superhero forms when they were pre-teens. Though [[Comic Book Time]] makes this a ''very'' slow process, they're narrowing the age gap with their alter-egos. Given Black Adam's example, eventually they'll be [[Older Than They Look]], as their Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel forms don't age at all.
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* [[Marvel Comics]] hero Rage was about 14 when he started his superhero career, but looked like he was at least 30 due to his gargantuan size and muscles. Of course, prior to getting his powers he looked like a regular kid. In any case, this gives him the distinction of being the youngest Avenger ever - so young that when the team discovered his true age they sent him to the New Warriors and told him to come back when he was 18.
* When Helen goes on her first date with [[Atomic Robo]] in ''The Deadly Art of Science'', she does not react well to the discovery that Robo is only seven years old.
{{quote|
'''Helen:''' I need... [[I Need a Freaking Drink|I think what I need is a drink]]. And what'd going to the movies have to do with solving this case anyway?
'''Robo:''' Well, sometimes it helps to step away from a problem.
'''Helen:''' And sometimes you realize your boyfriend is ''eight years old.''
'''Robo:''' Seven. But, hey! Now "robot" isn't the weirdest part of our relationship. }}
* Master Splinter, the [[Old Master|aged]] [[The Obi-Wan|mentor]] of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]], is younger than you'd think. Rats generally live less than three years (five is ''exceptional'', and seven is the record). When the series begins (about fifteen years after his mutation) he'd still be less than twenty years old.
** Taken even farther in the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW
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** ''Peluca'', the short film on which Napoleon Dynamite is based, has this scene as part of its central plot. The lottery scratcher gives the characters just enough money to {{spoiler|buy a wig for another character who had shaved his head.}}
* ''[[The Island]]'' has clones that appear to be various ages, from thirties up to their sixties. It turns out that oldest ones are no more than four years old.
* One horror example exists in ''[[Warlock (comics)|Warlock]]'', in which the title character curses the female protagonist to age 10 or 20 years for each night that passes. She remarks to Redfern, "This is worse than death", to which he replies, "That's what he had in mind."
* ''[[Seeing Double]]'' had clones of S Club and various other celebrities that were artificially aged so they could take their places, but kept in a childlike state.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'':
** The clones are altered to grow twice as fast in order to be battle-ready sooner. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] features a Jedi being confused because she senses a child in the Force, but sees a grown man.
** In Episode III, the soon-to-be-Emperor Palpatine ages a few centuries in a matter of seconds. The [[Expanded Universe]] came up with the idea that it was his normal appearance (after years of Dark Side corruption), but he was disguised in some way, and the stress of his battle with Windu broke that beyond repair.
** Padme in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' is a [[A Child Shall Lead Them|fourteen year old]] queen wears a lot of ceremonial makeup and elaborate costumes, apparently to disguise the fact that she's so young. Even still, she's actually the elected leader, so the people must be well aware of her age.
** There was a point in the Clone Wars where some Separatists were cloning Nikto, presumably to supplement the droids. The facility was discovered and went under seige, and the cloners decided to respond by bumping up the growth rate to get as many new adults as possible. This didn't work out too well in the end.
* The titular character of ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'', who starts life looking as an old man and dies as a baby, so as a child looks like a small eighty-year-old. He even says to another character early in the movie, "Seven. But I look a lot olda."
* J F Sebastian in ''[[Blade Runner]]'' is in his twenties, but he looks around fifty due to an aging disease (most likely Werner's syndrome). The Replicants are ''created'' as young adults and have a four year lifespan.
* [[Tom Hanks]]'s character in ''[[
* In ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]'', 16-year-old Frank Abagnale is played by 28-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio. This is justified by the fact that the real-life Abagnale also looked much older than he was, and in fact, his deceptive looks were a key part of how he was able to pull off his scams.
* Martin Brundle in ''[[The Fly]] II'' grows to physical adulthood by age five due to the fly DNA he inherited from [[The Fly|Seth Brundle]]. Then his condition takes a turn for the [[Body Horror|much, much worse]].
* Maruti in ''[[The Return of Hanuman]]'' grows to be a primary school student by the age of 3... ''months''.
* ''[[Animal House]]'': "I'm only thirteen!"
* Ree's mother in ''[[
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Brave New World (
* Somewhat subverted in ''[[
* Ever see the [http://img50.imageshack.us/i/coraline.jpg/ original illustrations] in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Coraline (
* The "old man" in ''A Descent Into the Maelstrom'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] is this as well as [[Locked Into Strangeness]].
* Wilbur Whateley of [[
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Green Mile]]'', a supposedly elderly couple turned out to watch {{spoiler|John Coffey's execution}}. They turn out to be the 30-something parents of the two dead girls that drove the story.
* One character in [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s ''[[Haunted
* In ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (
* [[The Good Chancellor|Phereniq Kala]] and Augon Hunnamek in ''[[Indigo|Infanta]]'' are supposed to be of an age. However, Phereniq's [[Love Martyr|work to further Augon's ambitions]] has aged her before her time.
* In [[Mary Renault]]'s The King Must Die, Theseus says he is 19 because he worries that people will think 16 is too young for a king.
* Played with in the ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' books. In order to get Sam to leave her alone, Lirael lies and tells him she's a very young-looking 30. She's 19. He believes her.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'':
** Although it's not emphasized as much in the books (and is dispelled somewhat by the later novels), the popular image of Severus Snape falls into this trope. Partly due to [[Adaptation Displacement]] by the much older [[Alan Rickman]]'s brilliant performance as Snape in [[The Film of the Book|the movies]], partly due to his being a peer to much older characters like Dumbledore and McGonagall, and partly due simply to Snape's own scowling personality, it's very easy to forget that he was barely in his thirties when the series began.
*** Same with Lily and James (and the rest of the Marauders). It's very easy to forget Lily and James were only 20 when they had Harry and 21 when they died. Of course, the films didn't help this; the flashback clips of Lily and James look more like a couple in their 30's or 40's. That wasn't really the fault of the movie makers, though, as their ages weren't given until the seventh book, six years after the first movie had been made.
** Although Lupin is prematurely lined and greying (implied to be a side effect of his lycanthropy), he still apparently looks his age, somehow:
{{quote|
* In ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'', Xy, the son of Burgoyne and Selar, is the chief science officer of the ''Excalibur''...at 5 years old. He's cursed to rapidly age and die very young thanks to the intermingling of Hermat and Vulcan DNA {{spoiler|until his mother gives her life to find him a life-extending drug.}}
* In another ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel, "Immortal Coil", Rhea McAdams becomes the new security officer of the ''Enterprise''...despite {{spoiler|being a barely two-week old android}}.
* Of all places, Thomas Hardy's ''[[
* In ''[[Twilight (
* In ''Teacher Trouble'' by Alexander McCall Smith, the 12-year-old heroine looks so mature for her age that on her first day of high school she is mistaken for a teacher and left in charge of a class.
* In ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (
* There's a curious version in Ansen Dibell's ''Summerfair'' (third of a trilogy). Sualiche, Sua for short, is ten years old, but her mother is of a rapidly-maturing [[Human Aliens|species]]<ref>Originally nonhuman but genetically-engineered to be capable of reproducing with humans, although most of them aren't interested.</ref>. Sua's one of quintuplets; three of her sisters are maturing at the human rate, another '''looks''' like a ten-year-old but is in emotional terms much more developed, and Sua is both physically and emotionally equivalent to a late-teens human.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Little House
* ''[[The Electric Company]]'': In the original 1970s incarnation, the members of The Short Circus, the show's quintet of youths, were teenagers playing (or intended to play) 8-10 year-old children. June Angela, the lone member of the cast who lasted all six seasons (known by all as "Julie," a name Angela picked to pay homage to Julie Andrews), was 16 when the last shows were taped in early 1977, and could still pass for 12 due to her tiny size. In addition, each of the adult characters have played children in various one-off and recurring skits, with Rita Moreno's Pandora
* ''[[
* Elizabeth, the half-human half-alien "starchild" from the Sci-Fi series ''V'' (
* In ''[[The 4400]]'', {{spoiler|Isabelle Tyler, the toddler daughter of two adult characters, ages herself to an adult, killing her mother in the process. As a three-year-old in the body of a twenty-something, she seduces a male character, has a sexual relationship with him and then blackmails him into staying when he threatens to leave her, because she's psychotic and murderous in addition to being ''really three years old''}}. [[Squick
* Luke Smith, who is grown in an alien laboratory, from ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' is born in the first episode ("Invasion of the Bane") as 13/14-ish year old boy who is as capable as your average teen... in fact more. But he acts [[No Social Skills|naive]] and innocent as he has no life experience.
* In the TV adaptation of 10ThingsIHateAboutYou, the character of Patrick Verona looked like he was around
* ''[[Doctor Who]]''
** One episode ({{spoiler|"The Doctor's Daughter"}}) has a planet where everyone is born as an adult and with all the knowledge they need downloaded into them. {{spoiler|The titular daughter, Jenny, is an example.}}
** The Sontarans, a mass-produced clone race engaged in an unending war, are similar:
{{quote|
* Dawn from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', who is created fully formed at age 14. On the other hand, she is also the Key, which is nearly as old as the universe.
* Kes in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' looks like a 20-something... but she's not human; she's actually about 2 years old when she joins up. Her species has an average lifespan of about 9 years, with the idea of making it to twelve being shocking.
** Also, 20-25ish year old Seven of Nine has the emotional age of six when she joins the series, thanks to living as a Borg drone since that age. Her initial mannerisms and speech don't suggest it, {{spoiler|but especially once you get to "The Raven", it's clear just how badly assimilation hurt her and how she hasn't been able to move on}}.
** The Jem'Hadar of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' are able to fight within hours of being born from their test tubes. While no maximum age is
*** Many Vorta, being clones, are also younger than they look. Consider Weyoun, who has a propention for getting killed (often). Many of the Weyoun clones are merely months or even weeks old when we meet them, and *some* have lifespans shorter than a year.
* Another case of magical (or [[Magic From Technology|close enough]]) rapid aging is Adria from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', born from a regular character and aged into her apparent 20s in a matter of days.
* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', [[Robot Girl|Cameron]] can easily pass herself off as a teenager or twenty-something, but she is nowhere near as old, having been modeled to {{spoiler|assassinate John Connor in the future by assuming the form of a woman he knows.}}
* The In Vitroes of ''[[Space: Above and Beyond]]'' are decanted from their [[People Jars|tanks]] with the apparent physical age of 18. Cooper Hawkes is just six years old at the beginning of the series, with T.C. McQueen being considerably older, but still younger than his middle-aged appearance would indicate.
* Liam Kincaid, one of the revolving door protagonists of ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'', is born at the beginning of Season 2 and almost immediately grows to adulthood, both physically ''and'' mentally.
** With the memories of all three parents, including the show's [[Magnificent Bastard]].
* Mackenzie Hartford from ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' looks like a 17-year-old when he first appears. Later in the series, he is revealed to be a 2-year-old android, which makes him the youngest ranger, even younger than Justin Stewart from Turbo.
* On ''[[Malcolm in
* An episode of ''[[
* Similar, but slightly [[Squick
** Also, Heath's sister...does not look 15, much to Beaver's dismay when he hit on her during Parents' Week. Although you do have to [[Take Our Word for It]]...
* An episode of ''[[The Inbetweeners]]'' had a mechanic who was really fifteen but looked to be in his mid-thirties.
* The Brother Cavil/Number One model of Cylon in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'': Orkans are born looking old and grow younger looking as they age, so when they're old they look like babies. [[Jonathan Winters]] plays M&M's son in later seasons.
* A ''[[Law and Order]]'' episode had two fashion models, one the [[Victim of the Week]] and her "workmate" who both had a few racy photoshoots. The victim was 14 and her acquaintence is in the eighth grade.
* In an early episode of ''[[Hannah Montana]]'', a boy had a crush on Miley. The boy looked like he was around 13 or 14, which at the time was the same age as Miley. Eventually, he invites her to his birthday party, which to her shock had balloons and other party accessories like confetti. The boy was ''11''.
* In ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'', Spencer (Teddy's boyfriend) is supposed to be a high school sophomore (young junior in the later episodes), but looks at least 17 or 18. The actor who plays him, Shane Harper, actually ''is'' 18, and still looked roughly the same in the early episodes, when he was 16. How many people [https://ibb.co/HzDDPqj really look like this] at 16? It doesn't help that Teddy's actress actually looks (at least) her character's age.
* ''[[
* Jan and Peter Brady went from looking their ages (14 and 15) in the fourth season of ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' to looking 18, just a year later.
* All the original ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' were supposed to be in high school, but all of them, especially the guys, looked like college students. Strangely, some of the actors actually were in their late teens during the filming of the first season, with Austin St. John being the only one still high school aged at 18. While high school students can be fairly close to college, what makes this trope stand is that the characters were supposed to be ''15 year-old freshmen''.
** Bulk and Skull were the worst; they both looked to be around 22-23, but were implied to be the same age as the rangers.
* A B-story on an episode of ''[[CHiPs]]'' contains Ponch becoming fixated over a model on a billboard. By the end of the episode his fellow officers finally give him a chance to meet the young woman, who turns out to be ''very'' young - 14 to be exact.
* The ''[[New Girl]]'' episode "Kids" contains Jess taking care of her boyfriend's 14-year-old daughter, who is also one of her pupils, and begins to fall hard for Nick. Meanwhile Nick himself brings home a woman he meets in an art museum, and we later find, she isn't that much older than the little girl Jess is taking care of.
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* The Greco-Roman goddess Athena/Minerva was born fully grown (most images depict her as being in her mid-twenties at the time of her birth). It's very telling that this is one of the ''less'' incredible aspects of her birth story.
** Of course, she's doesn't age, so it quickly turned into a case of [[Older Than They Look]].
* The ''[[
== Radio ==
* ''[[
== Video Games ==
* Dizzy from the ''[[
** Also, {{spoiler|Ky's son}} Sin... who is probably at maximum, five years old. At minimum, two.
* Teira, one of the female companion choices in the ''Shadowlords'' series (fan-made expansion for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'') is nineteen. Due to the side effects of a dangerous spell she was forced to use to escape a prison before the game begins, she looks like she is twenty-five or thirty.
* Similarly, the [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/PhantasyStar4/Update%205/96-Phantasy-Star-4277.jpg Numan] Rika in ''[[Phantasy Star]] IV'' looks to be in her late teens/early twenties, but is really only a year old. Nei and Neifirst from ''[[Phantasy Star]] II'' also fit into this category only having existed for one and two years respectively.
* Amoretta the Homunculus of ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'' measures her lifespan in days (about 3 months), despite having the body of a young woman.
* {{spoiler|Jack}} in ''[[
** You find an audio diary describing the progress of an accelerated growth treatment, but you may not immediately realize who the unnamed test subject is.
* Auron of ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' could easily pass for someone in his late forties or fifties, despite only being 35. This could be [[Justified Trope|justified]] when it is revealed that he's actually {{spoiler|[[Dead All Along]]}}, except for the fact that {{spoiler|other Unsent, such as Seymour or Yunalesca don't seem to be similarly affected. Yunalesca in fact has kept the same [[Ms. Fanservice|lithe]] figure despite being dead for a thousand years.}}
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** [[Big Bad|Van]] comes off as a middle-aged man, at least in the English version, but according to his bio he's only 27. It doesn't help that his hair color makes it look as though his hair is graying.
*** It's suggested that he invoked this trope in the skit "Brother And Sister", as Tear tells Luke that he grew a beard to seem older in response to other members of the Order being jealous of his rising so high so quickly.
* Tiesel Bonne in ''[[
* Solid Snake in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' is in his early forties, but looks like he's in his eighties {{spoiler|because he was genetically altered to age prematurely and die as a form of planned obsolescence}}. To rub it in that much more, his codename on his final mission is "Old Snake", though no one ever vocalizes the "Old" part.
** Meryl does, as an insult. It even makes his Psyche gauge drop.
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** His younger brother, Solidus, looked a lot older than him in MGS2.
* Oswin in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Blazing Swords'', as his B Support with Hector summed it up:
{{quote|
'''Oswin:''' ''Not that I'm correcting you, but I'm only in my thirties... I would say that 'Ill-hearted Gentleman' is more appropriate.'' }}
** Wallace from the same game also counts. He's completely bald, but his supports with Renault confirm that he's only about 40.
* Team Galactic leader Cyrus in ''[[
** This is likely due to the extreme degree of overwork and stress he's put himself through since he was a child, as his grandfather explains.
** The player characters could qualify too, since they're supposed to be 10, but could pass as teens.
*** Subverted in ''[[
* [[Artificial Human|Fulgore]], in the first ''[[
* Would you believe that, according to the official tie-in manga, Samus Aran is only 17 years old during the events of the first ''[[Metroid]]'' game?
* Rouge the Bat from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' is only eighteen years old. She neither looks nor acts like an 18 year old.
* {{spoiler|The main character Vayne}} of ''[[Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al
* Angela Orosco from ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' is only 19, but looks at least in her 30s. {{spoiler|This was done intentionally by the animators, to show how her past of sexual abuse and killing her abusive father has prematurely aged her and taken a physical, as well as emotional, toll on her. It was also done to separate her from young and supposedly innocent characters, like Laura, and to emphasize that she isn't to be sexualized in any way, as much of the symbolism in the game places emphasis on sexuality. Originally, the character was conceptualized as 15 or 16, but the voice actress chosen to portray her gave her an older-sounding voice, and the design team changed her accordingly.}}
* Chuck Downfield of ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Football]]'' looks like he's in his 20s. His age? ''9''. He just knows the game so well and dresses like an adult.
* ''[[Fate/stay
* ''[[Tsukihime]]'': While the 800 year old Arcueid only looks like she's in her late teens to early twenties {{spoiler|she may well be much younger than that, mentally, as she was put into sleep mode when she wasn't killing Fallen True Ancestors, and after the True Ancestors died out, whenever Roa's incarnations were inactive.}}
* The vat-grown people from ''[[
* Ramon Salazar of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' looks like a man in his seventies, but is actually only twenty years old.
** [[Unreliable Narrator|By his own accounts]].
* Ryu in ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV'' is LITERALLY a newborn...who looks to be in his late teens. Justified as he's a [[Literal Split Personality]] of a god that was split in two and temporally displaced to boot (split six hundred years across time and space, at that) thanks to a botched summoning. (The ''other'' half of the god in question, Fou-lu, is not only a case of [[Older Than They Look]] but is [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] to boot.)
** And for much of his life (until he went into torpor for 600 years and became the Fou Empire's [[King in
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has Grunt, who is within a week old when you "recruit" him. Despite him looking like he's weathered at least a few years of life, or maybe a couple of month's worth of battling. (Still, compared to other Krogan, he's pretty "smooth-as-a-baby's-behind" material.)
* In ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'', Alistair is around 19 at the beginning of the game, and 20 at the end, even though he looks to be around the age of 25.
* Technically, while the other Nobodies may be [[Older Than They Look]], Roxas, due to his amnesia and lack of connection with his other, is about a week or two old at the beginning of ''[[Kingdom Hearts|Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days]]''.
* Astaroth, the hulking bruiser of the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series? 7 years old in Soulcalibur II; not much older in more recent games.
* Adult Link. In both ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
** Made even worse in ''OoT'' by the fact that he's actually a 10 year old who's been asleep for seven years.
** It was also a little bit inaccurate to make him 17 in the first place, as he has the title of 'Adult' Link. It would have made more sense if they actually listed his official age as around 20, regardless of how he looked. It would not only be more believable to those who look at him, but also in context.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* In ''[[
* Arthur from ''[[Ghosts
* Super Macho Man in ''[[Punch
* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has [[The Big Guy|Kanji Tatsumi]]. He's the tallest and appears to be the oldest of the group. However, he's a first-year student and (once you [[All There in the Manual|look up the characters' birthdays]]) actually the ''youngest'' of the human characters on the Investigation Team.
* ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'''s incarnation of [[Date Masamune]] looks like he's well into his twenties...when he's actually 19. To a lesser extent Sanada Yukimura as well, who is only 17, but looks older in most of his ''Basara'' incarnations.
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'''s Jak, from [[Jak II Renegade|the second game]] on. According to his bio on the official ''Jak X'' site, the [[Jak 3
* Kaine of ''[[
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] looks around 40 years old, but the ages of other characters would put his age closer to 20.
* Kreia from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' looks to be in her 70s. However, according to her creator, [[Chris Avellone]], she's only around 50. The reason for her older appearance is likely due to her heavy use of Dark Side powers since the Mandalorian Wars.
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
* Molly the Peanut Butter Monster in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has yet to celebrate her first birthday. Her recently generated sister Galatea is even younger.
* One could make a case for Gordito from ''[[
* [http://twokinds.net/?p=78 Page 78] ''Two Kinds'' shows this trope with a whole ''race''. Flora, one of the main characters, who looks and acts as if she is in her early twenties, is only 11 years old. However, {{spoiler|her kind only DO live into their early twenties. Late twenties at best.}}
* Dr. Schtein from ''[[String Theory]]'' is apparently only 34 despite the lines on his face and his completely white hair.
* In ''[[Nectar of the Gods]]'', Bacchus' father, Apollo, is MUCH younger than he looks, he has the goatee, the benjamin franklin hairdo, the old man glasses, the wrinkles and near white hair to make it almost obvious he's in his mid 70s.... he's actually 46
* Kit from ''[[Fey Winds]]'' has this. she's a fox turned girl and fox age doesn't equal human age so she looks early 20's but is actually not anywhere near that. she acts accordingly though with a childish but quirky personality and can be very naive. She basically looks like an adult, age wise is a child but has the mentality of a girl in her mid to late teens, albeit a clueless one. Though the author of the comic has said she likes us to not think about how old the character actually is.
* Cole Richards from ''[[PvP (
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** One of the school psychiatrists at the Whateley Academy is in his mid-thirties (or so, based on author descriptions) but looks like Dr. Bellows from "I Dream of Jeannie", so he appears to be 55 or 60. One protagonist has even researched the psychiatrist, and has [[Lampshaded]] this.
** Fifteen-year-old Chou Lee (Bladedancer) apparently looks like Zhang Ziyi.
** {{spoiler|Belpheobe}} is a clone of {{spoiler|Jobe's ideal girlfriend}} with the memories of {{spoiler|Belphegor. Pheobe is then legally entered as Jobe and Belphegors' daughter, with Jobe the mother (as he is turning into his ideal drow girlfriend. Pheobe is therefore "0 going on 16"}}
* [[Scary Black Man|Robert "Bobby"]] [[Anti-Villain|Jacks]], [[Anti-Hero|Adam Dodd]], and [[Hot Librarian|Nicole Husher]] from ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' are all teenagers, yet they look like young adults. Bobby is a large, muscular, professional boxer who has spent almost his entire life devoted to the sport, causing him to look much older; Dodd had always looked a bit older than he actually was, but the horrors of the first game added a great deal to that; Nicole, meanwhile, developed very quickly due to an early onset of puberty, causing her to appear to be a few years older than she actually is, with [[Reality Ensues|predictable results]] when she reached middle school-age.
* In ''[[Super Stories]]'', {{spoiler|Veldron's robot duplicates are always built to look older and less attractive than him. This is because, when given the opportunity to make a false image, most people would assume the opposite. }}
* In ''[[
** Neku looks and acts like a seventeen year old but is six.
** Snow looks and acts like a twenty year old but is the same age as Neku.
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** Ice looks and acts like like a thirty two year old. He is the same age as Sabre 9.
** Walter "Wally" O'Pierce looks and acts like a thirty four year old. He is ten.
* Now much [[Older Than They Look]], [[
* From the same website, [[The Rap Critic]] was born in ''1992'' and is the youngest of the [[That Guy With
== Western Animation ==
* [[Robot Girl]] Jenny of ''[[My Life
{{quote|
'''Jenny:''' Yes, I was ''made'' five years ago, but I was designed as a teenager. I belong with other teenagers, in high school. }}
* Ms. Censordoll from ''[[Moral Orel]]'' looks like she could easily be in her seventies or eighties, but when someone calls her a senior citizen she shows her ID and it turns out she just turned ''forty''. It's heavily implied and confirmed by [[Word of God]] that this and her obsession with eggs comes from her mother having her ovaries removed at a young age.
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** Before [[Flanderization]], Mr. Burns was only 81, but looked older because he went bald during his college years, according to the Season 2 episode "Simpson and Delilah". The later episodes have Mr. Burns as somewhere in the 100s ("Homer the Smithers" confirmed that he was 104; "Goo Goo Gai Pan" had him as 109). That said, in "The Regina Monologues" it's learned he uses his age as his ATM code. Which has four digits...
*** 0109?
* Thailog, of ''[[
* Sparky from ''[[Atomic Betty]]'' sounds like an adult, making him look like a short adult to some viewers, but he's actually a kid like Betty. Not knowing he's a kid may result in [[Squick]] for some viewers when they see him hitting on girls around his own age.
* In an episode of ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'', "Fake Dad", a six-foot-tall, overweight convicted criminal with hairy arms and 5 O'Clock shadow, who calls himself Kowalski, is 10 years old.
* Joseph Gribble in ''[[King of the Hill]]''. He hit extreme growth-spurt puberty before turning 13, before Bobby gets a chance and he's older (despite being late-bloomer). He was given an adult menu at a restaurant and even assumed of wanting a beer like the parents.
* In ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender
** Zuko too, to some extent. He's really 16-17, but appears about 19-20.
*** Katara as well looks alot older and more beautiful than 14, which is one of the contributing factors to the popularity of [[Fan-Preferred Couple|"Zutara".]]
* Superboy in ''[[Young Justice (
** Also Captain Marvel who is actually an eight year old kid with his powers helping him to appear like an adult.
* Smurfette in ''[[The Smurfs]]'', despite being an adult Smurf, is really only about a few years old, being a magically-created Smurf.
* DJ, Alejandro, Sierra, Leshawna and Trent from ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' look like adults in their late twenties-mid thirties, despite their real age being 16-18.
** In ''Revenge of the Island'', Brick and Jo look older than their actual age of 16.
* Cheerilee from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* The principal in ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]] Meet The Wolfman''. Dave mistakes her for being over-fifty, when she's really only thirty. She still has her [[Hair of Gold]] though. Her ([[Informed Deformity|apparent]]) early aging is due to how stressful her job is; she's getting an early retirement.
* In the original 1985 ''[[
* In ''[[Pepper Ann]]'', P.A. befriends Effie Shrug, a new student who is exceedingly intelligent and taller than she is. The two get along well, although the viewers learn that Effie can be quite threatening to get what she wants. She's something of a Social Darwinist. Pepper Ann invites her over to her house, Moose sees Effie and is immediately horrified. Effie reveals that she was previously an {{spoiler|elementary school student. She'll be nine next month.}}
== Real Life ==
=== In General ===
Place information about specific people in the category below this one.
* In general, children who go into puberty at an early age can look older than they are, especially if those signs of puberty are visible, such as height and voice deepening (in both genders), muscle development (in male-bodied children) and breast growth (in female-bodied children).
* Hard living in general can make you look older. Homeless people often look middle-aged in their late twenties, due to poor health practices and chronic stress. Back when it was common practice for women to have 10 or more kids while living on a fairly poor diet, they aged pretty fast too. And people who do very hard labour that's risky to your health, such as coal mining, often end up
* Anyone born with [[wikipedia:Progeria|progeria]], a disease that causes rapid aging; sadly, sufferers never become As Old As They Look, rarely living past their teens. The disease was the basis for ''Jack'', as seen above.
** Also [[wikipedia:Werner syndrome|Werner Syndrome]].
* Some drugs in [[Real Life]] can do this, too. Heroin addicts in their early
** True for most drugs. Substance abuse is notorious for rapidly accelerating the accumulation of cellular damage and decay we normally identify as "aging".
* This is generally true for most people in extremely stressful jobs. Most American Presidents seem to age around a decade for each term. Just look at pictures of [[George W. Bush]] before and after his term. Hell, look at pictures of [[Barack Obama]] before his term and during his term.
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* The stress from playing a role in Military Command (i.e. sending hundreds of soldiers to their deaths) will age you majorly.
** It ages those involved ''psychologically'' - so their facial expression changes in regards to this, they adopt nasty little habits which are a trademark of old men, and so on. But military men are bodily very fit, in many cases stronger and quicker than men of the same age or younger.
* Most college (and in some cases, high school) athletes tend to look at least
** A great example of this would be Greg Oden of the Portland Trail Blazers, who looks like he's in his 30s despite being just 24 years old.
* Teenagers or pre-teens who develop early can easily be mistaken for a young adult, depending on where they are, what they're doing, and what they're wearing. (For instance, a 14-year-old wearing a nice shirt and a backpack walking through a college campus will likely be thought to be a student.)
* Some people with [
=== Specific People ===
* [[Mila Kunis]] got her first major role playing Jackie on ''[[That '70s Show]]'' when she was just 14, even though everyone auditioning was required to be 18 or older. When Mila was asked if she was 18, she said that she would be, [[Loophole Abuse|but didn't specify when]]. Eventually she was found out, but was still considered the best fit for the part.
* There's a 1979 WPIX (CW affiliate in [[New York City]]) clip on [[YouTube]] of their newscast where one of the anchors is a man named Bill Jorgensen. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4qvUtF7vQ8 Watch the clip] and try to guess how old he is. {{spoiler|He's 52 in the clip, which would make him around
* Hollywood lore has it that three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan's career took off after he lost his teeth in a fight and found that without them he could play old men.
* Florence Thompson, the woman in this [[wikipedia:File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg|famous photograph]] by Dorothea Lange was '''thirty-two''' when it was taken. It showed the devastating effects of [[The Great Depression]] more than words possibly could.
* [[wikipedia:File:Sharbat Gula.jpg|The famous picture of the Afghan girl]] from ''National Geographic'' has many people wondering if she's really a "girl". She was ''12 years old'' when the picture was taken, but because of the stress of being a refugee, she
** And when the photographer (Steve McCurry) met her again, [http://artisticthings.com/the-afghan-girls-escalation-say-hello-to-sharbat/ this] is how she looked at 35 years of age.
* In 1970, the much-older-looking [[wikipedia:Mary Ann Vecchio|Mary Ann Vecchio]] was, in fact, a 14-year-old runaway. Jon Filo's photograph of her crying over Jeffry Miller, who'd been killed in the Kent State shootings, won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1971.
* [[David Gregory]] of [[MSNBC]]
* Nobody could tell how old Michael Jackson was in his later years, mainly because he [https://web.archive.org/web/20120317210716/http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2008/10/23-End/michael-jackson-neverland.jpg barely looked human.] When he was young, however (Thriller and before), he looked a bit old for his age, particularly when he was a kid, looking to be around 11 or 12 when he was just 8 or 9.
** Oh, and [http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1561/31776140.jpg look at this photo.]{{dead link}} Take a good look at it. He was ''not yet twenty.''
* Michael Gross (Steven Keaton from ''[[Family Ties]]'') shares the same birthdate with Meredith Baxter (Elyse), but while Baxter looked her age when she was cast for the series, Gross looked about
* At the age of 15, Traci Lords claimed to be 20, used a fake ID, and started appearing in porn magazines and films. Authorities only caught on three years later.
** Some rumors claim that she tipped off the authorities herself to force the issue so she could get out of the business without having her work follow her. Since she only did one film after she was 18, everything else is illegal in the US.
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* This is Antonin Artaud, surrealist, [http://www.mchampetier.com/sitephp/images/1hucleuxaout051.jpg not yet fifty years old].
* Metal singer Ivan Moody, vocalist for Five Finger Death Punch. Take a good long look at [http://www.blogcdn.com/www.noisecreep.com/media/2011/03/fivefingerdeathpunch.jpg this photo.] [http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/708397/708397,1299273106,18/stock-photo-colorado-springs-co-september-vocalist-ivan-moody-of-the-heavy-metal-band-five-finger-72455557.jpg And this one.] He's only 31. He looks at least 15 years older than that. This is especially strange because he was 27 when his band's first album released, and looked that age.
* Ritchie Valens practically ''defines'' this trope. He died when he was just 17 years old. [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/images/2009/01/27/ritchie_valens_color_crop.jpg Seriously, look at this dude.] Who the fuck looks like that at ''17''?!! Twice that age, ''maybe''.
* [[R. Lee Ermey]] looked to be a mid-50s gunnery sergeant in ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''. He was only 42 when the film was shot. His look
** Ditto for [[Tommy Lee Jones]]; he falls squarely into the trope due to his signature craggy facial skin which appears to make him look older than he is. To put this in perspective, the ages of the four leads in ''[[Space Cowboys]]'': [[Clint Eastwood]] (70 during the film's shooting), James Garner (72), Donald Sutherland (65), and Tommy Lee Jones (54). Jones is
* [[John Carpenter]] was only 51 [[wikipedia:File:JohnCarpenter01.jpg|when this picture was taken]]. He looks some 20 years older than that.
* Sir [[Patrick Stewart]] started going bald when he was nineteen and was Younger Than He Looked for much of his life.<ref>
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCl3f-F4uNY&feature=player_embedded Zara]{{dead link}} is a 13 year old girl from England, yet she looks she's pushing 60. That's because she has a rare condition know as [http://www.manbir-online.com/diseases/lipodys-conge.htm Congenital Generalized Lipodistrophy], which causes the supporting fatty tissue under the skin to crumble while the skin continues to grow, making her appear older.
* Ryan Clark, the lead singer for the heavy metal band [[Demon Hunter]]. The music video for his band's 'Infected' was shot in 2002, when he was just 23. But due to the large beard he had and his lack of hair (not to mention he's a little fat), he looked to be around 10 years older or so. He's now at the age of 32 and looks that age, though.
* Whitman Mayo was only 40 when he portrayed Grady Wilson on ''[[Sanford and Son]]''.
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** [[George Clooney]] had a full head of grey hair before he hit the half-century age in 2011.
* [[wikipedia:Maria Goretti|Maria Teresa Goretti]] had the bad luck of being a [[Huge Schoolgirl]] [[Never Learned to Read|without the "school" part]], looking at least 14 years old when she was just 12. Due to this, she caught the eye of the local [[Jerkass]] Alessandro Serenelli, who first started making lewd jokes around her, then became a [[Crazy Jealous Guy]]... and stabbed poor Maria to death when she refused him for the last time.
* [http://mg.co.za/article/2011-06-06-die-antwoord-collaborator-leon-botha-dies-age-26/ Leon Botha], who had the aforementioned genetic disease [http://en.wikipedia.org/progeria Progeria]{{Dead link}}, lived to be 26, but looked like he was over 100 years old. Sadly, he was the oldest person on record to have had the disease.
* Some of the people on ''[[Intervention]]'' who are hard into drugs may be in their early 20s, but look like they're an average 30 something.
* Stephanie Cole has specialized in playing women much older than she is. She was the elderly Mrs. Featherstone in ''[[Open All Hours]]'' in her 40s, and the retiree Diana Trent from ''[[Waiting for God]]'' when she was in her 50s (opposite Graham Crowden, who was born 20 years earlier).
* [[John Thaw]] would have been between 33 and 37 when he played [http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=17011 Jack Regan] in ''[[The Sweeney]]'', but looks well into his forties- partly reinforced by the way he acts as well. Thaw himself apparently said "I was born looking 50".
* On a lighter note, [[Saoirse Ronan]]
* Dioxin poisoning causes serious acne problems, which causes rapid aging. Victor Yushchenko, then in his late 40s, underwent this during a bitter campaign for presidency of the Ukraine, as seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20070407022414/http://blog.kievukraine.info/uploaded_images/2968-714119.jpg here]
* [[Seth Rogen]] especially in his earlier films looked like he could easily be in his mid thirties.
** In ''[[Superbad]]'', He looked like he was well into his
** It's also worth mentioning that Rogen is pretty well aware of his "old" looks. He occasionally jokes about it in interviews.
* While we're at it, [[Bill Hader]] in some of his films (namely ''Superbad'' and ''Forgetting Sarah Marshall'') looks considerably older than he really is.
* Ditto to [[Jason Segel]]. Awww, hell. Pretty much all of Apatow's "stock actors" (with the possible exception of [[Jonah Hill]]) look older than they really are.
** This is especially odd to see in ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' which famously averted
* When jazz saxophonist [[Charlie Parker]] died at age 34 due to heavy substance abuse, the coroner mistakenly estimated his age at between
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111210080120/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/GeoreOrwell.jpg This photo] of [[George Orwell]] had been taken when he was 30 years old. He could have been anywhere from 45 to 60 by looks only. [http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09_01/georgeorwellDM0309_468x353.jpg 7 years later] he still looked like a grandpa. [http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/2/24/1298551370244/George-Orwell-1945-007.jpg 12 years later] and suffering from tuberculosis, he was still unchanged, so it could not be blamed on poor living conditions only.
* [[John Lennon]] looked around his age right before his death, but the beard he had in his mid-to-late 20's made him look at least 10 years older.
* Frank Oz, famous for voicing Yoda from [[Star Wars]], Grover from ''[[
* Many of the WWE wrestlers. For example, [[Wade Barrett]] is only 31. He looks more like he's in his early-40's.
** [[Stephanie McMahon]], after her voice went through a radical change in 2002-2003 (most likely due to all the screaming she was doing before then), definitely ''sounded'' much older than she really was.
▲* George Michael seemed to have aged rapidly since he hit his 40s.
* [[Top Gear|Jeremy Clarkson]] has consistently looked at least ten years older than his real age for some time now. It's a little hard to believe he's only nine years older than Richard Hammond.
* The late [[Robin Williams]]
** Williams was into drugs and heavy drinking during his early career, which could have contributed to this.
* [[Max Von Sydow]] has looked about 75 since the day he was born. When he did ''[[
* Ernie Pyle, American journalist and World War II soldier was 44 when he died. When he died he looked like he was in his 60s or 70s.
*
* Austin St. John (a.k.a. [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|The Red Ranger]]) was only 18 years old when he first started playing Jason Lee Scott. He looked more like he was about 20-22. It didn't help that his character was supposed to be 15. He sometimes looked age appropriate, but his build made him seem older.
* [[Adele]] was in her early-mid-twenties when she hit it big. Some photos at the time made her look at least 30.
* Dutch footballer Arjen Robben [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Arjen_Robben_travel.jpg looks far older in this photo] than his actual age of 28 (he's {{age|1984|1|23}} now). He looks like he's about 35 in that photo, while most other photos from the same era make him look about 40.▼
▲* Dutch footballer Arjen Robben [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Arjen_Robben_travel.jpg looks far older] than 28. He looks like he's about 35 in that photo, while most photos make him look about 40.
* Wilford Brimley (the "diabeetus" guy), for years, was a shining example of this trope. To wit: He was only 50 years old when he was cast in ''[[Cocoon]]'', but was able to portray a convincing elderly man with just his hair whitened. And [http://waltons.steve-p.org/pix/54B_00253100.jpg this] is how he looked when he was in ''[[The Waltons]]''. He was in his early 40s at the time.
* It's amazing how many people are shocked to discover that swimsuit model Kate Upton [http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/02/the-25-hottest-women-under-21#1
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[[Category:Aging Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
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