Most people will be flattered when others thought they look a lot younger than their age. I was flattered too at first. But now that I am in my 50's and people still thought I am around 30's I become annoyed.
Why am I annoyed?
One thing for sure it is difficult to win someone's trust by just looking at my appearance especially if he/she doesn't know me. People would always think I am still a junior and inexperience. Career wise, looking young might not be an advantage.
I encountered many incidences when my students hesitated to call me Puan or Cik even when I already have five children some time 10 years ago. Another time when I attended a workshop as a person of reference, the course participants looked bewildered when I took the allocated seat. Once they found out, they admitted that the trust was not presence during the first meet.
I still remember there was this one incident when the cashiers at the leading supermarket bet among themselves about my relationship between my daughter and I. Sisters or mother and daughter. A Chinese salesman once asked me if I got married at 15 when he saw my second daughter beside me many years ago. Another time during my trip to Bandung with my other daughter, people who joined the trip thought we were colleagues. One more incident when I brought my son for massage at a reflexology center, the receptionist called out the therapists and informing that we were husband and wife and I had to correct her saying that the man is my son. There are a lot of other incidences alike that I do not wish to put them in writing.
So now that I am in my 50's I no longer enjoy people say I look young. I prefer to look my age, not older and not younger. So that I get the due respect from the first glance.
