Younger Than They Look: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''If a girl says she's 20, and looks 16, she's ''12''.''"|'''Chris Rock''', "No Sex (in the Champagne Room)" [[hottip:*:The following line is "[[Older Than They Look|If she tells you she's 26, and LOOKS 26.. she's damn near 40"]]}}

 

 

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.

 

 

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]].

Many people will contest that this is a [[Truth in Television]].

 

 

Contrast [[Animation Anatomy Aging]].

== Anime and Manga ==

* It is revealed that Maria in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' is only 17, but she is incredibly mature and everybody mistakes her for a beautiful woman in her mid-to-late-20s, leading Hayate to believe that he likes older women. It also becomes a [[Running Gag]] that Maria is irritated when people mention "young girls" as if she doesn't fit into that group.

* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' has Seira, a baby that looks and acts about ten.

* Mildly subverted in ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'': given how long ago sexaroids were labeled as illegal by the series start, we get the implication that while Sylvie and Anri may not be as old as they look (Sylvie appears in her mid-twenties while Anri looks to be the loli model), they're not single digit ages.

* One of the students in ''[[Doki Doki School Hours]]'' looks and acts like a middle-aged man even though he's still in high school. They even call him "Oyaji" (i.e. "Geezer" or "Pops").

* In ''[[Slam Dunk]]'', Shinichi Maki, the captain of Kainan team, looks like he was over 35 but he is only 17. After learning it, Hanamichi immediately nicknames him "Middle-aged Man" and never calls him by his real name. Maki retaliates by pointing out that Akagi, Shohoku's captain, looks even ''older''. And later on in the series, Uozumi (whose the same age as Akagi), is mistaken for Akagi's father.

** 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.

* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', 15 year old Lambo (after being shot with the 10 year into the future bazooka)... really does ''not'' [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.]

* ''[[Otaku no Musume San|Otaku no Musume-san]]'': Taeko, a high school student who also happens to be a landlady, often is assumed to be a lady cosplaying as a high school student (mostly because the tenants are generally otakus themselves, so it's not a big leap). Amusingly, her [[Younger Than They Look|mother]] actually ''works'' at a [[Cosplay Cafe]] and was mistaken for Taeko's friend when she turned up in her work uniform. '''The combination of the two tropes lead to Taeko looking older than her mother.'''

* 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.

* 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 19-21 years old, but was actually a high school junior. The actor who played him was only slightly older than he looked, being 22-23 when the series was shot. Walter even points this out to Kat, calling him her 'friend with the disturbingly deep voice who looks much older than 17.'

** 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:

* 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* ''[[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.

* 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.

** 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 ''[[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.

 

 

* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Azula]], the [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent bitch]] [[The Vamp|vamp]] could easily pass for a girl of 17 or 18 years old. Her actual age? ''14''.

** Zuko too, to some extent. He's really 16-17, but appears about 19-20.

* Superboy in ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'', having the appearance and mentality of a sixteen year old, but is actually sixteen weeks old having been born in a test tube.

** Also Captain Marvel who is actually an eight year old kid with his powers helping him to appear like an adult.

* 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 [[Younger Than They Look]] as well.

* Some drugs in [[Real Life]] can do this, too. Heroin addicts in their early 20's can easily appear 35-40 years old.

** True for most drugs. Substance abuse is notorious for rapidly accelerating the accumulation of cellular damage and decay we normally identify as "aging".

* Anorexia can cause this-the starvation causes muscle to waste away and skin to become looser, creating wrinkles. The lack of nutrients also thin the hair, making it look older. Marya Hornbacher talks about this in her memoir ''Wasted''-in her late teens/early twenties, a barman guessed her age at thirty-six because the wrinkles made her look much older than she really was.

* Heavy smoking can also cause skin and hair to age by both drying them out and by restricting the amount of oxygen they get by constricting blood vessels with nicotine and by blocking oxygen transport with carbon monoxide. This makes hair brittle and likely to gray sooner, and it makes skin lose its elasticity, causing it to wrinkle early. (Not to mention its effects on how "young" you are on the inside!)

* 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 81-82 right now (Jorgensen's still alive as far as I know)}}

* 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.

** 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.

* [[David Gregory]] of [[MSNBC]] appears to be in his early 50s, mostly because of his silvery hair and slightly aged face, but he's almost 40.

* Nobody could tell how old Michael Jackson was in his later years, mainly because he [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.

* [[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 has changed incredibly little since then.

** 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 11 years younger than Sutherland and nearly 20 to the others, yet he is portrayed as being around the same age as his co-stars in a film where a running gag is that many of their peers from their training days decades ago are all dead from old age (and Jones was ''fifty-four!'').

* Sir [[Patrick Stewart]] started going bald when he was nineteen and was Younger Than He Looked for much of his life.<ref> He was forty-six when he started filming ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'': Jean-Luc Picard was 59.</ref> Nowadays he's [[Older Than He Looks]].

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCl3f-F4uNY&feature=player_embedded Zara] 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.

* [[Steve Martin]]'s hair began to grey at an early age. Because of this, even in his twenties, he looked like he was much older.

** [[George Clooney]] had a full head of grey hair before he hit the half-century age in 2011.

* [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], 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.

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]

[[Category:Younger Than They Look]]