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The clothes they wear and the emphasis on actually trying to look older. I saw a picture of my girlfriend from her homecoming when she was in high school and no bull shit she looked like she was 25.
Like I still remember when I was homeless and working the corner meeting one of the other girls.
She looked like 16 in reality she is like 30 like me. Like the only give away being her teeth which were/are as bad my teeth. Which look like something straight out of Victorian England with a couple missing and others falling apart…
I believe that there was a lot more smoking going on back then. That definitely ages you early. The use of plastic surgery was not used like today. I can’t speak for everyone’s family, but I never saw my mother or aunts use any makeup at all. They weren’t eating tons of preservatives in their food.
A lot of it is style and personal perception based on your own age, but cutting smoke and pollution inhalation and upping sun protection does wonders for aging and a lot of places have gotten increasingly better at both in the last century (with some concerning recent dips, which may be why todays 20s folks look a little older than millennials did in their 20s due to vaping. We basically had one generation kick nicotine and then thought…but what if we try it all over again??).
Apparently a big part of it is actually hydration. The bottled water industry boom in the last 20 years has meant people are drinking much more water compared to coffee, sodas, or alcohol than previous generations. Combine that with better diets, medicines and less smoking and the overall aging process has slowed dramatically.
I was 20 in 2001, so 2 decades ago, not one but still applies I guess. I looked 12. I remember being 23, going to the pharmacy because I was sick and the clerk asked if I was above the age of 15 for a certain medication he was gonna sell me.
As someone in their 30s I think 20s year olds today look much older than 20 year olds from a decade ago. In my mind 20 year olds today would only look “12” because 12 year olds today now look like they are in their 20s (specifically the girls).
The make up, fashion, etc has been getting more adult for younger girls due to social media, leading to increase societal pressure and just plainly having better technique due to instructional videos. So girls from a younger age look more similar to young/adult women, because that is what society finds “beautiful”.
As for the boys I actually believe the teenage boys current styling makes them look like they are in their mid-30s with the mustache and mullet trends… (similar to the 80s)
However this all comes down to perception. The age people are perceived is highly dictated by trends. If I look at middle schoolers from my generation they look like middle schoolers to me because the trends (clothing, make-up, hair cuts, etc) remind me of being a middle schooler. However the trends I correlate with being a middle schooler do not align with the trends of a current day middle schooler, so someone from a different decade would not perceive those same trends tied to that age level, but instead would most likely tie those trends to the generation that it came from, which is in fact older.
In Australia there was a $4000 baby bonus that started up for a while cause the prime minister at the time wanted to boost the economy…. So all sorts were reproducing just for the money, young, old, those who really didn’t have capacity in different ways etc and this is partly the result
A lot of people say hairstyles are the main and only reason but I disagree, im 39 I look about 15 years younger than my mother or grandmother did at my age. When I was 20 -25 my mother bitterly drilled into me that at 25 your skin starts to rapidly age and sag. She was furious when it didn’t happen. Hasnt happened to any of my friends either.
There was a news article not so long ago that reported ‘Millenials are aging slower’ if this is true I belive it is down to us knowing how to take care of our skin better, we know not to drink too much or smoke, get enough sleep and healthy food is more accessible to our generation (the only salmon my grandmother tasted was tinned, as a child i tasted fresh salmon on Christmas day once, it was deemed too expensive to have at home, my kids, husband and I regularly enjoy smoked salmon and avocado, more vegetables and fresh fruit and importantly better cooked.
We also have more labour saving devices than in the 70’s and 80’s and the division of labour while not perfect is actually there.
Probably because millennials were the last generation to smoke heavily and use tanning bed heavily. Vaping, though unhealthy, doesn’t create free radicals (if operating correctly which is a big if with such little regulation).
There’s definitely some environmental factors (smoking, drinking, sun exposure and diet can age you a ton)
combined with style (hairstyles, makeup and clothes are big markers of decades that can age you pretty quickly if you stick to your older styles- and a lot of us do).
We’ve gone through more stress inducing life than them with multiple recessions, housing crisis, corona, the towers we’ve lived through some heavily stress inducing lives would be my guess.
While those now didn’t really get that impact they got to avoid it.
Your perception. Fashion’s and hairstyles change. By default everything that looks young and fresh to you today will look like old people stuff in 10 years to younger people. As it’s always been.
Nah, this is a distorted perception. Whenever I look at my parents’ old photo albums (the 70s and 80s, so they were teens and 20-somethings), I think how young and innocent they looked, but their hairstyle and overly serious outfits made them look 10 years older.
I don’t think that people today are eating any healthier food or drinking healthier juices, especially in the USA. And our parents’ generation was more physically active than we are today.
Meanwhile, when I look at my 16-year old nephew and his friends, they look kinda rough. The only thing that gives away their age are their hairstyles and teenage pimples
I think its growing up on a screen vs not. Their eyes look aged and so does the skin around their eyes. My bf’s brother who is 14 looks mid 40’s Compared to his older brother.
A lot of it is stress, and constant screen time.
Not playing outside and growing up without a yard or sports in the city.
The food has drastically changed and so has technology.
Also this kid went to school mostly online.
I think it’s a mix of lack of social interaction and lack of sleep due to technology rising.
And he is also not the only one that looks like this.
Consider nicotine popularity at the age people are most likely to try it and get addicted. A lot of millennials were probably in the dip between cigarettes and fruity, easily concealed vapes.
It could be a mix of factors, like lifestyle changes, diet, and the way we take care of our skin. Social media and better skincare routines might make younger people appear more youthful. Plus, fashion and cultural trends today often embrace a more youthful look, which might influence how we perceive age.
Twenty years ago, a 20-year old looked 20. Today they wear the same types of clothes, so 40 year olds today have a certain look. Now when you look back at photos of them in their 20s, you think they look 40 because they still have that style and you are more familiar with 40 year olds today dressing like that.
They didn’t? 20 year olds haven’t looked like 40 year olds since the 80s
A lot of it has to do with trends though. Specific teen clothing didn’t exist until the 90s. So teens were dressed the same as adults. I guess 10 years ago there was a return to older and classic styles with hipster culture, making people look older.
Trends right now are to have a strong individual style, plus some grungy 90s stuff. Both of which are very obvious young person styles
The truth is yes, a topic that has intrigued me for years, the new generations look younger every time, I thought it was a matter of food, but from the comments I see that I was wrong.
I’m normally on the side of perception. But in this case there is scientific evidence pointing to testosterone being like 20% lower than in the 1980s. If you look at trans timelines even without makeup you can see that they often look years younger after a few years of hormone therapy. And they often start as adults. Its not hard to imagine lower testosterone can make men as a whole look significantly younger. Although that’s simply a hypothesis not a fact
This is actually a phenomenon. Generally speaking, looking at older than you generations in their youth appear to look older, while younger generations appear to look younger. Your generation appears to look “normal”.
For me, I started going gray around 12-13 years old. Buy the time I graduated high school at 18, I was full salt and pepper. I had a bit of a baby face though, so people never really know how old I actually was.
But in general, a lot us us GenXers were exposed to a lot of sunlight without protection and indoor smoking. That’ll age you pretty quick.
Early 20s today are a lot more sheltered than we were in our 20s (42f here) we lived in a time where we were let loose to fend for ourselves and had to take care of ourselves but you’ll find most in their 20s now had more restrictive parents and a lot more sheltering on top of being glued to the internet instead of running around outside getting sunburns and tans or getting into partying we probably shouldn’t have done but did
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lack of maturity
The clothes they wear and the emphasis on actually trying to look older. I saw a picture of my girlfriend from her homecoming when she was in high school and no bull shit she looked like she was 25.
You’re just getting older
Because you’re a decade older and your perception has changed
Lol, baby’s first rage-bait post🥰 we should get you a Christmas ornament to mark the occasion😂
Because you were younger
Actually this isn’t true. If you compare 20 year olds between gen z and millennials then you’ll notice how much younger millennials look.
Gen z are aging horribly
Diet probably has something to do with it. Increasingly, people are health conscious and less likely to drink/smoke in huge quantities
Lack of sun
Yeah, all the cops, and most doctors, now look like they aren’t even old enough to drive.
Because it’s become far too expensive to move out, smoke, drink and party?!?
Because the 40 year olds now are still pretty much wearing the same style of clothing they did when 20.
It’s why also the boomer generation look much older in their younger photos as the same principle their style of clothing and looks.
In 20 years time, the toddlers now will be saying the same thing about people who are 20 now.
I guess it would be Nakhon and cloths like in full makeup and a nice outfit I look at least five years younger,
But looking at fashion over the years like it use to be way longer skies less makeup more baggy cloths etc as opposed to today.
Fashion is a major part and as you age younger people look even younger
Like I still remember when I was homeless and working the corner meeting one of the other girls.
She looked like 16 in reality she is like 30 like me. Like the only give away being her teeth which were/are as bad my teeth. Which look like something straight out of Victorian England with a couple missing and others falling apart…
The style of their hair and clothes, different nutrition, and probably a lack of sunscreen.
Perception
I believe that there was a lot more smoking going on back then. That definitely ages you early. The use of plastic surgery was not used like today. I can’t speak for everyone’s family, but I never saw my mother or aunts use any makeup at all. They weren’t eating tons of preservatives in their food.
they’ve never been out side for starters, think of veal LMAO
A lot of it is style and personal perception based on your own age, but cutting smoke and pollution inhalation and upping sun protection does wonders for aging and a lot of places have gotten increasingly better at both in the last century (with some concerning recent dips, which may be why todays 20s folks look a little older than millennials did in their 20s due to vaping. We basically had one generation kick nicotine and then thought…but what if we try it all over again??).
You’re probably chatting with the feds… don’t get us involved in this…
Apparently a big part of it is actually hydration. The bottled water industry boom in the last 20 years has meant people are drinking much more water compared to coffee, sodas, or alcohol than previous generations. Combine that with better diets, medicines and less smoking and the overall aging process has slowed dramatically.
I think one reason is there is a lot less cigarette smoke exposure and overall healthier lifestyles.
20 yo olds from a decade ago did not look 40.
I was 20 in 2001, so 2 decades ago, not one but still applies I guess. I looked 12. I remember being 23, going to the pharmacy because I was sick and the clerk asked if I was above the age of 15 for a certain medication he was gonna sell me.
I think the opposite. 20 year olds today look 40
Excuse tf out of you, I do not look 40 lmao. Fuck, I can’t believe I was 20 a decade ago…
It’s too early to deal with that much math.
Clothes
Sunscreen. Nuff said
[deleted]
No because we were forced to grow up
In atmosphere full off cigarette smoke.
As someone in their 30s I think 20s year olds today look much older than 20 year olds from a decade ago. In my mind 20 year olds today would only look “12” because 12 year olds today now look like they are in their 20s (specifically the girls).
The make up, fashion, etc has been getting more adult for younger girls due to social media, leading to increase societal pressure and just plainly having better technique due to instructional videos. So girls from a younger age look more similar to young/adult women, because that is what society finds “beautiful”.
As for the boys I actually believe the teenage boys current styling makes them look like they are in their mid-30s with the mustache and mullet trends… (similar to the 80s)
However this all comes down to perception. The age people are perceived is highly dictated by trends. If I look at middle schoolers from my generation they look like middle schoolers to me because the trends (clothing, make-up, hair cuts, etc) remind me of being a middle schooler. However the trends I correlate with being a middle schooler do not align with the trends of a current day middle schooler, so someone from a different decade would not perceive those same trends tied to that age level, but instead would most likely tie those trends to the generation that it came from, which is in fact older.
The older you are, the younger they look.
You associate the hairstyles, makeup, clothing, etc. as belonging to a previous generation, so your mind fills in the age.
In Australia there was a $4000 baby bonus that started up for a while cause the prime minister at the time wanted to boost the economy…. So all sorts were reproducing just for the money, young, old, those who really didn’t have capacity in different ways etc and this is partly the result
Why No One Grows Up Anymore
A lot of people say hairstyles are the main and only reason but I disagree, im 39 I look about 15 years younger than my mother or grandmother did at my age. When I was 20 -25 my mother bitterly drilled into me that at 25 your skin starts to rapidly age and sag. She was furious when it didn’t happen. Hasnt happened to any of my friends either.
There was a news article not so long ago that reported ‘Millenials are aging slower’ if this is true I belive it is down to us knowing how to take care of our skin better, we know not to drink too much or smoke, get enough sleep and healthy food is more accessible to our generation (the only salmon my grandmother tasted was tinned, as a child i tasted fresh salmon on Christmas day once, it was deemed too expensive to have at home, my kids, husband and I regularly enjoy smoked salmon and avocado, more vegetables and fresh fruit and importantly better cooked.
We also have more labour saving devices than in the 70’s and 80’s and the division of labour while not perfect is actually there.
It’s in the food, the air, the makeup
Probably because millennials were the last generation to smoke heavily and use tanning bed heavily. Vaping, though unhealthy, doesn’t create free radicals (if operating correctly which is a big if with such little regulation).
There’s a famous youtube video about the phenomenon
tl;dr,
George Costanza is canonically (and literally) 29 in the first season of Seinfeld.
We’ve gone through more stress inducing life than them with multiple recessions, housing crisis, corona, the towers we’ve lived through some heavily stress inducing lives would be my guess.
While those now didn’t really get that impact they got to avoid it.
Testosterone levels have declined significantly, people are more sedentary and get less sunlight.
Hard work
Your perception. Fashion’s and hairstyles change. By default everything that looks young and fresh to you today will look like old people stuff in 10 years to younger people. As it’s always been.
Nah, this is a distorted perception. Whenever I look at my parents’ old photo albums (the 70s and 80s, so they were teens and 20-somethings), I think how young and innocent they looked, but their hairstyle and overly serious outfits made them look 10 years older.
I don’t think that people today are eating any healthier food or drinking healthier juices, especially in the USA. And our parents’ generation was more physically active than we are today.
Meanwhile, when I look at my 16-year old nephew and his friends, they look kinda rough. The only thing that gives away their age are their hairstyles and teenage pimples
Honestly, 20 year olds really do be looking older. However, 30 year olds today look younger than Seinfeld era 30s.
I think its growing up on a screen vs not. Their eyes look aged and so does the skin around their eyes. My bf’s brother who is 14 looks mid 40’s Compared to his older brother.
A lot of it is stress, and constant screen time.
Not playing outside and growing up without a yard or sports in the city.
The food has drastically changed and so has technology.
Also this kid went to school mostly online.
I think it’s a mix of lack of social interaction and lack of sleep due to technology rising.
And he is also not the only one that looks like this.
You’ll get a lot of people claiming to know the answer but they have no evidence. Their claims about hairstyles and clothes are false.
It’s like with say, peanut allergies tripling in the 80s until now, they really have no fucking idea. It scares them so they make stuff up I guess.
I was 20 two decades ago and I definitely feel 40.
Less drinking. Less smoking.
Fashion choices, photography quality
I was 20 in 1997. I look back at pictures of myself and I looked like a child. It’s strange how grown I felt then.
Because you yourself are older. Someone 30 to me looks 20. And it’s probably because I’m way older than 30 so everyone to me looks like “kids”
Might have something to do with 100x more photos we take now.
Consider nicotine popularity at the age people are most likely to try it and get addicted. A lot of millennials were probably in the dip between cigarettes and fruity, easily concealed vapes.
Sun screen and less smokers
It could be a mix of factors, like lifestyle changes, diet, and the way we take care of our skin. Social media and better skincare routines might make younger people appear more youthful. Plus, fashion and cultural trends today often embrace a more youthful look, which might influence how we perceive age.
20 year olds from a decade ago don’t look 40. Maybe you think they look older based on how they dress?
Because style changes.
Twenty years ago, a 20-year old looked 20. Today they wear the same types of clothes, so 40 year olds today have a certain look. Now when you look back at photos of them in their 20s, you think they look 40 because they still have that style and you are more familiar with 40 year olds today dressing like that.
They didn’t? 20 year olds haven’t looked like 40 year olds since the 80s
A lot of it has to do with trends though. Specific teen clothing didn’t exist until the 90s. So teens were dressed the same as adults. I guess 10 years ago there was a return to older and classic styles with hipster culture, making people look older.
Trends right now are to have a strong individual style, plus some grungy 90s stuff. Both of which are very obvious young person styles
The truth is yes, a topic that has intrigued me for years, the new generations look younger every time, I thought it was a matter of food, but from the comments I see that I was wrong.
20 years olds these days absolutely do not look 12.
Maybe a few years ago they did but now they look 40.
I’m normally on the side of perception. But in this case there is scientific evidence pointing to testosterone being like 20% lower than in the 1980s. If you look at trans timelines even without makeup you can see that they often look years younger after a few years of hormone therapy. And they often start as adults. Its not hard to imagine lower testosterone can make men as a whole look significantly younger. Although that’s simply a hypothesis not a fact
This is actually a phenomenon. Generally speaking, looking at older than you generations in their youth appear to look older, while younger generations appear to look younger. Your generation appears to look “normal”.
Do they? The more sophisticated techniques of application hardly look more juvenile. If anything, the opposite is true.
Sunscreen
Most people say I look 24 or 25
I was 20 years old 15 years ago and I assure you none of us looked 40. If you’re talking about older shows and stuff those were significantly older
For me, I started going gray around 12-13 years old. Buy the time I graduated high school at 18, I was full salt and pepper. I had a bit of a baby face though, so people never really know how old I actually was.
But in general, a lot us us GenXers were exposed to a lot of sunlight without protection and indoor smoking. That’ll age you pretty quick.
30-40 years ago they maybe did but definitely not 10.
20yo today look like 40yo… you got the numbers wrong
I feel like it’s the other way around. Many Zoomers look older than Millennials.
Early 20s today are a lot more sheltered than we were in our 20s (42f here) we lived in a time where we were let loose to fend for ourselves and had to take care of ourselves but you’ll find most in their 20s now had more restrictive parents and a lot more sheltering on top of being glued to the internet instead of running around outside getting sunburns and tans or getting into partying we probably shouldn’t have done but did