This troper, then fifteen, played an eight-year-old CreepyChild in a video for French class (by necessity -- she was working alone on the project, and couldn't find a little girl to play her character), and her appearance wasn't very convincing (largely because she kind of slapped together a costume which emphasized her HartmanHips by accident).

This troper once played little orphan Annie at age 13.

This troper is 26. He's still sometimes mistaken for a high school student. (Being 5'4'' probably has a lot to do with it.)

This troper is 20. Most people put her age at around 14. I've been told this will benefit me in later years, but it is ''really hard'' to get people to take me seriously as an adult.

The reverse, as a result of DawsonCasting... this troper lost out on the role of 15 year old Kim in a production of Bye Bye Birdie because it was decided that she was too young-- at age 16.

Proof that this trope is affecting people's perceptions of real life: this troper was on a field trip to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with his (college) biology class, when we were asked by one of the landscapers what {{high school}} we were from. We told her "college," and then joked around with her about watching too much ''GossipGirl''.

One of my female friends is 5'3" and has a very childish face. She also acts like a little child, she's always hyper and she has a short attention span. Most people think she's 13 or 14. She's 17. (And extraordinarily brilliant.)

This troper routinely gets asked for ID at bars and such, which is fine, clean-shaven there's no way he looks 18. It gets slightly harder to stomach when he gets asked for ID when attempting to buy games or [=DVDs=] rated 15. FYI, he's 21.

I wouldn't call that Dawson Casting. People who are in the business of checking ID often err on the side of caution, which is why many establishments post signs that they check ID for anyone who looks under 30. I don't know so much about video games, but a bar can get in a lot of trouble for serving underage drinkers.

It depends where you are. In most of the United States, that's true. In certain parts of Canada, however (like Quebec, where the drinking age is often considered "just a suggestion") it's not such a huge deal. So you went to the bar at 17 rather than 18. Who cares?

This troper's friend is a professional dancer who, at 28 years old, still looks young enough that she got an audition for the UK national tour of ''HighSchoolMusical'' - as one of the kids!

This troper frequently gets carded by the proctors at the high school where she teaches! I'm frequently mistaken for a student. I can't blame them, though, as I have been stopped by a cop who thought I was a sixteen year-old truant. I'm 33 and barely 5'2, by the way.

This troper has always looked younger than he is, a family trait. Both of my parents are in their 70's, and look at least 20 years younger. I'm 40 and still get mistaken for being in my mid-20s... even moreso when I shave off my goatee and mustache.

This Troper is a 19 year old, who was once mistaken for an 11 year old. People think her tall 15 year old sister is older than her.

This troper is 21. But her young face, small chest, and height of 5'5" cause many people to believe she's about 16.

This troper, at 21, doubled as Fleance (12-ish) and Young Macduff (maybe 5 or 6) in a production of {{Macbeth}}. True, she was the youngest in the cast, but she was also the ''tallest''. She wound up spending the whole murder-of-the-Macduffs scene sitting on the floor.

A girl I know expressed irritation at this trope, she was rejected at an audition for looking too young for the parts they were casting, even though she was the same age as the characters.

I've experienced the inverse of this. Wear the right clothes, carry around the right attitude, and a 20-year-old can convince the guy at the counter he doesn't need to be carded.

This troper is kind of an odd example. When I had been at my job a year, one of my coworkers asked how old I was and was surprised when I said 22: "I thought you were seventeen at the most!" But when I was actually underage (around 13/14, to be exact), I was thought to be much older than I was due to being tall for my age and being more developed than the average middle schooler.

This Troper, despite being seventeen and taller than her fourteen-year-old sister, is often mistaken for a twelve-year-old while said sister is thought to be at least sixteen.

My friend has looked like she belongs in fifth grade since she was in seventh grade. She's seventeen. People ask her what elementary school she's in. Obviously, she always tries out for the little kid parts in drama. The trope was horribly inverted when my friend was extremely excited to try out for Gavroche (the little boy) in Les Miserables. The part was given to a fifth grade boy because the drama teacher thought that no older student even wanted the part.

Technically that is horribly ''averted'' because Gavroche '''is''' supposed to be a child (though 13 when he dies). Inverted would be if he was supposed to be an older teenager and this happened.

In this troper's area, a "child" on the buses is from 6 up to 16, though people try to buy them afterwards. I managed it for about a year before being foiled by facial hair. Rumours abound of people trying it on at 18 or 19. My mother supposedly managed it until she was ''23''.

I've often have the reverse of this, when I was fourteen my neighbor had asked me how old I was. I naturally replied "Fourteen", the neighbor went "What? I thought you were at least sixteen or seventeen!". Also, the first year I started high school, countless people thought that I was either a junior or a senior. I have also been mistaken for a store clerk and also someone working in a hair store in the mall. Parents say it's because of my "personality/maturity", I say otherwise.

A friend of this troper is a recent graduate in her early 20s who's played kids almost half her age onstage, due to being about 5'2" and babyfaced with the figure of 13-year-old.

This troper, at almost 20 and a sophomore in college, was assumed to be a sophomore in high school.

I am currently 43 years old, and am playing Artie Straus in ''Compulsion'', based on the Leopold & Loeb murder case. Artie is the Loeb character - age 18. "He barely even shaves yet!"

This troper's 15 and STILL gets asked if she wants a kids' menu at resteraunts.

This troper often feels Dawson Cast in his own life: he's ''barely'' 20, but is always taken for being in his mid- to late twenties.

I'm 40, above-average height, buxom, and I really do have some grey hairs mixed in with the light brown. Most people guess my age at between 23-25, and a couple people have even guessed 20. One professor teased me about having a fake ID after he found out my real age, and another used me as backup in our history class when we reached events that I could remember. Funny thing about the second- a girl in class got very indignant over my "claim" to be older than the professor, and the usually deadpan professor was smirking as he confirmed that, actually, I was.

I'm an 18 year old college freshman and I was watching the movie ''Remember the Titans'' with my younger brother and he commented that all of the high school characters in the movie were younger than me but they looked way older. I had to explain this trope to him. His response, because he is quite snarky, was "You're just mad because you look young". While I admit that I am younger looking than a lot of guys my age, even the older looking guys my age don't look as old as the actors in that movie.

This troper has tried ''excessively'' to get cast as younger girls in plays (only a year or two younger than my age) but is always rejected for being "too old and tall"... okay, maybe 5'8 is tall for a fourteen year old but still! Then when I try out for 17-22 year old girls I'm not cast because I'm "too young". I just can't win!!!!!!!

My grandpa played that nerd who stabbed Brenda in Scary Movie. But he was credited as "young man in theatre."

My high school is putting on {{Urinetown}} as a play, and Little Sally is being played by a teenage girl. It's very disconcerting to see The sweet little Sally driving home after rehearsals.

Last year, I was in a homeschool production of ''CheaperByTheDozen''. We had a few aversions... but the boy playing Jackie, who is supposed to be the youngest (not counting the babies, who were mentioned, but unseen in the play), was in 7th or 8th grade at the time (I can't remember), and in an inversion, the mother and father were played by a junior and senior in high school, respectively. This was particularly awkward when there was a line near the end about Mr. Gilbreth being in his 50s, which was referring to how he was having heart trouble. Also, one 7th or 8th grader (I can't remember that detail either) played three characters, two of who were supposed to be in high school, and another who was the family doctor. I was actually one of the aversions, playing Frank, Jr., who, while not the oldest child, was the oldest boy. I was 17 at the time. In another inversion, the girl playing Anne was, again, in either 7th or 8th grade (I really can't remember any of those...).

Not a Dawson Casting example, but an example of how Dawson Casting ruined my ability to tell how old people are at first glance, especially women. Women in general love this, because I've mistaken a 40 year old for 22, but this also has a downside, I often also mistake high school girls for being around 20, and that could land me in a heap of trouble if I'd never find out the girl's age and pursue a relationship with her.

Some years ago at a library I wanted to take out a video but the librarian said I needed to have a parent sign a form saying that I understood the rules about being careful with them and would return them on time, etc. "Can my husband sign instead? I'm 25," I told him. Also, a teacher refused to let me into a school where I was substitute teaching during lunch period, because she thought I was an elementary school student when I was 23. Finally, I was hit by a snowball when I was walking into another school where I was substituting. The boy who threw it wailed to the principal, "I wouldn't have thrown it if I'd known she was a teacher!" (They had a no snowballs policy, though.) The fact that I'm five feet tall probably has something to do with all of this.