This troper. At 14 he was given the alcohol menu at a restaurant. He gets this often at his college nowadays, people mistake me for a 23-25 year old when I'm only 16.

This troper is eighteen years old, but is constantly mistaken for someone in her mid twenties. This troper does not bother to correct this assumption if waiters offer her the wine list at restaurants. Hey, why not?

When this same troper's friend went to her older sister's wedding a few years ago, many guests assumed that her youngest sister was actually her daughter. This troper's friend was barely fifteen at the time, and her youngest sister was nine. Whoops.

This troper is 17, but, is often mistaken for at least a decade older than that. Correcting somebody after they mistake you for your 42 year old mother's husband is awkward, to say the least...

This troper used to work at a store that sold knives and various other weapons. It was her dad's, so she often helped for less pay. She got asked out by two older (40ish)if she wanted to go to a bar later. She was 13. They though she was mid-20s. This troper has also been mistaken for her sisters' (9&10) mom, at 15. Other times, however, it's the opposite.

This Troper. People always seem to assume I'm between the ages of twenty and twenty-three. I'm seventeen. Men have tried to pick me up and buy me drinks at restaurants, I often get asked what my major is or what I do for a living... It's flattering, but rather awkward most of the time.

This Troper is also constantly mistaken for her mother on the phone. Annoying as hell, but occasionally quite useful...

This troper got offered a JOB at 14, could pass for an adult on the phone, her friend got hit on by waiters and the like at the same age (cue "oh, god I'm a pervert" look when they found out) and she and said friend could get into bars for +18 year-olds. Seeing someone older than you (yeah, he was pretty short)be asked to leave; akward.

This troper now ''always'' makes sure she's of appropriate age.

She hangs around his 18-22 yrs olds friends all the time, this troper ganders her from afar, and mentions her when one of his friends oh-so- innocently wonders if "...[I] knew she is ''thirteen years old'', right?" And no, nothing happened, and yes, This Troper drained a couple of kegs that night.

This teenaged troper has been mistaken for her eleven-year-old half-sister's ''mother''.

And more recently, she was mistaken for her late-forties father's ''wife''. D:

As this troper mentioned on TroperTales/RelativeError, he used to be mistaken for his 12-years-younger sister's father.

This troper took her eighteen-year-old friend to the DMV to take her written driving exam, and the guy behind the counter thought I was her mother. I was ''twenty-five'' at the time. Then again, when I was fourteen and went out to a nice restaurant with my extended family, the waitress asked me what kind of wine I wanted with dinner.

This troper went to school with someone who had a full beard and was almost 6 feet tall in eighth grade.

This troper WAS someone who had a full beard and was almost six feet tall in eighth grade.

This troper is someone who is 6'1" in 8th grade and has a 34DD chest.

This troper's stepbrother was already hairy on the chin by grade 6, with a moustache the following year. As he takes after his hirstute father, his name is now 'Sasquatch Jr.'

This Troper has had a beard since he was 16, and was regularly mistaken for being in his 20s. One woman once thought he was 25 (although the woman in question wasn't terribly bright).

The same Troper was also quite startled recently to discover than a cute girl he thought was 13 or 14 at youngest turned out to be 11. His jaw nearly hit the floor.

This troper is 17 years old, 6'3", 225 pounds, and has a voice deeper than that of Jamieson Prince. He is frequently mistaken to be in his mid 20's.

This troper was six feet tall and had a noticable moustache in the seventh grade to that his middle school added a rule about facial hair primarily because of him (it had never come up before). Noticeably jarring as the men in his family don't grow much facial hair and his father didn't shave until college.

This troper didn't have any classes with him (I don't think we were even in the same grade), but there was a boy at her middle school who had a moustache. He still looked his age, though, just with inexplicable facial hair.

This troper was told, at the age of sixteen, that she could easily pass for twenty-five. Come to think of it, she was first called a "lady" by a mother talking to her child (as in, "let the nice lady go first") at thirteen.

A girl in my class at primary (elementary) school was rather ... well-endowed, and also extremely mature-looking and -acting compared to the rest of us 12-year-olds. I point her out in the class photo, "oh, and that's our teacher, Miss X" and ''no-one'' has said anything. She's also got engaged at 19 (''extremely'' rare in my country, average age of marriage 29-ish), so here's hoping she's not a withered crone at 30.

This troper has gone through this trope and out the other side: she was a HugeSchoolgirl up until she suddenly stopped growing at fourteen, and a fairly well-endowed one at that. Therefore, she was regularly mistaken for being 2-4 years older than her actual age.

Ditto for this troper, who spent her school years being Younger Than She Looked (being tall definitely helps) and is now in college and Older Than She Looks (since height no longer counts, and she's babyfaced).

It's a bit of a subversion with me. People say I sound like I'm 40 on the phone, when I'm only 17.

Same here. Those telemarketers always seem to think I'm the head of the household. The conversation will oftten sound like this: #QUOTE#'''Caller''': Hi, I'm calling to talk to you about (product goes here). #QUOTE#'''Troper''': Hold on, let me get my mom on the phone. #QUOTE#'''Caller''': I'm sorry, how old are you? #QUOTE#'''Troper''': Sixteen. #QUOTE#'''Caller''': Oh wow! #QUOTE#'''Troper''':*sighs*

This troper has suffered from the same problem! About a year ago I had to phone my dad's work about something and when one his co-workers was told I wanted to speak to my dad he said "Hey Doug some guy wants to speak to you" Very odd Considering i am younger then I look in person.

This troper had something similar happen...when she was about 14, she was somehow mistaken by her great aunt to be her grandmother when she answered the phone at her house. What the hell.

Someone from this troper's mother's Rotary Club once asked "so, did you come back to help your mom out?" while she and this troper were cleaning tables at the local ribfest (referring to how she is in university). This troper replied "I'm only in grade 11." There have been several other similar occasions where people seem to think she's older than she is. She doesn't even think she ''looks'' that old. Nowadays, however, she's being mistaken for being younger than she is, but this is justified in that she's come back for a 5th year of high school.

This troper is friends with a someone who looks like she's in her late 30's or 40's (the fact that she's a teacher makes her seem even older), but is really [[spoiler:24]].

This troper had a full beard and stood six feet tall at 16; he started shaving at 13. He regularly trounced the age-guessing guys at carnivals (one of them said 28). He's grown into his height, and these days won't shave his mustache for fear of OlderThanTheyLook.

This troper, despite being shorter than average, is frequently taken to be older than his actual age of 16, especially when wearing his PMA jacket. He is completely mystified as to why.

This troper's twin sister is frequently assumed to be older than she looks, while her twin is the exact opposite. A perfect example of this is when both of them were at a wedding reception, and the waitress poured said sister a glass of wine. What did this troper get? A coke. Both of them had just turned 15.

This troper is usually Older Than She Looks, but occasionally she has been mistaken for a mother at some of her 11-year-old sister's events (it's only 8 years, people!), and when she was 14, she play with her high school jazz band at a local university's jazz festival. The band played in a brand-new auditorium--so new, in fact, that a news crew showed up and filmed part of this festival, so said troper ended up on the evening news. A few people she knew at the time told her they saw her on TV and one of them, an elderly woman, said it looked like this troper, but the girl on TV looked at least 25.

This troper's parents, when he was a kid (specifically, in the single digits), regarded him as looking older than he really was, and took advantage of this to let him play at an age-restricted arcade by himself. (Said arcade had a rule stating that children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.) Similarly, up until recently, his friend would, despite being at least 18, get away with paying youth (5-17) fare on buses.

At age... I'm not sure, either 12/13, I was told that I sound like I'm 20, it was over voice chat on Pokemon though, so it was probably just the poor microphone quality. Although some guy thought I was old enough to have a cigarette, and other people have commented that I seem older then I really am. Damnit.

Once, at a place where those 15 or under had a reduced price, the ticket person refused to believe the tall and bearded 15 year old cousin of this troper was even under 18. She kept saying "nice try." and since he couldn't prove it he had to pay the adult price. This troper's sister at 17 (in the US) was served alcohol after the lady asked "Are you old enough?" but then laughed and poured it without waiting for an answer. This troper isn't as extreme, though he was barely 17 entering college but passed as 18 with no doubts.

Well, this same troper just got a guess age of 25 at facestat.com and he's still 17. It must be the goatee.

Hey, the beard never fails. This troper (age: 17) visited his cousin (age: 20) and was called out by her friends for being intimidatingly mature (perceived age: >23).

This troper is 16 and in law school, where the average age is around 25. He doesn't get any questions.

This troper used know a woman at his fencer's club who always acted surprisingly immature. She would often throw small temper tantrums after losing a bout against someone smaller than she was (which was a lot of people, since she was very tall for a woman.) Eventually, after asking around for a while, I discovered that she was really a twelve-year-old girl.

This troper managed to buy wine in bars and restaurants at age 17 without ever being asked for an ID. Once an acquaintance fifteen years older than the troper suddenly realized that we were not of the same age.

This troper's sister was always tall and sensible and mature for her age. This led to things like not getting the 12-and-under discount ''at age 9'' and being asked, as a 14-year-old babysitter providing some extra help at a 6-year-old's birthday party, "Which one's yours?"

This troper looked like she was in her early 20s from the age of about 13 onwards, and was never asked for ID as a teenager. She is now 21 and people have thought she was in her FORTIES before!

This troper has been the physical embodiment of this trope practically since birth, when as a baby, mistaken for his older sister's twin (to be fair, she was only 1, but that's still a massive gap at that age).

It continued as time went on; by the age of 5, this troper was a full head and shoulders above his new classmates; by the age of 9 was mistaken for being over 12 (to get into some places that only allowed teens but not little kids); at 11, when starting secondary school, being mistaken for a 16yo sixth-former; by 16, being mistaken for a late-20s/early-30s TEACHER by fellow students, and is now occasionally mistaken for his own father's SLIGHTLY YOUNGER BROTHER (in reality, a 30 year age-gap from his parents). He's also been mistaken for his mother's older boyfriend, and for his sister's *much* older boyfriend on different occasions....

This troper's actual age is 26.

This troper is accustomed to people going "wtf?!" when learning that he's only 18. He constantly asks people to guess his age and goes "WRONG-O!" when they guess 24. I am, in fact, NOT my sister's twin, as she likes telling the general populace occasionally.

This troper's father took this troper's sister to pick up her birthday cake one year. As they were coming out of the store, he noticed a carful of boys looking her over, obviously liking what they saw. He claims it took all of his strength not to go over there and calmly tell them: "Guys... she's ''thirteen''."

This troper has been mistaken for her father, mother and YOUNGER brother on the phone. She has been confused for a teacher by student and adult alike. Alternatively, one of her friends looks very much sixteen/seventeen but is really twenty. Her friend attributes it to her Irish and Puerto Rican blood.

People keep mistaking me for a university student when I'm still 17. Woohoo.

This troper ''is'' a university student when he's still 17 (since he was sixteen, and looked older than some classmates who were ''returning'' to school). He has been mistaken for a professor (not a student teacher, ''a professor''). For the last few years looked at least half over again his real age, or more if he wasn't sleeping well. On the plus side, he gets to stay in restaurant/bars even after the kitchen closes.

Bryans}} My local library has a librarian who looks like he's in his mid-30s, when he's really double that age. Could be a {{Hot Librarian}} if he didn't go on about his aches and pains all the time.

Dude, that's the opposite trope.

It was only an online thing for this troper. She was mistaken for 18 when she was 13 on a gaming site, and even after it being confirmed by her older brother that she was just a pint-sized teenager, friends were surprised.

This troper was mistaken for 19 from since when he was 14. In his country the drinking age is 18...

This troper frequently gets mistaken for a teenager, most likely due to still dressing and acting like one. This was realised when a group of co-workers demanded he produce ID because they were positive he was 18. At the time, he was 22. (And at the time of troping, as well. 01/2009, for reference.)

Chiming in with this. This troper is only twenty, but once he was going to see his professor and she thought he was a postdoc.

They develop fast in Georgia. More than once I've found out the girl I spent the night with was uncomfortably young, potentially felonious if I weren't underage myself at the time. I thought I would be safer in college, and I guess I was because the last time I was in that situation, the girl was at least 17.

This troper usually hangs out with either an otaku group (ages ranging from 18 to 29) or a literary geek group (ages ranging from... 25 to 50, or something). Especially the latter ones didn't believe her when she said she was 15... after giving them her 500-page manuscript to beta.

This troper has been repeatedly mistaken for being five or six years older than he is ever since the end of elementary school. While at Margaritaville, the bartender was shocked that this 16-year-old ordered a non-alcoholic drink. Funny enough, the girl he likes is a freshman in high school but looks 16.

hello... tear from tales of the abyss, there is no freaking ways that she's 16 years old.

This troper was in a B-cup in fifth grade. She was mistaken for sixteen from the ages of twelve through ''twenty-eight'', for some inexplicable reason, making the interesting transition from YoungerThanTheyLook to OlderThanTheyLook.

To give one specific example: I was attending a surprise party for my grandfather, and one woman (for unexplained reasons) was taking notes on who was there before he arrived. She asked me if I knew anyone else who was coming; I replied that my husband had gone to pick up my little sister, who was then 17. #QUOTE#'''Woman:''' ''*fawning voice*'' Your husband. Oh, you're so young to be married! #QUOTE#'''Me:''' ''*confused*'' I'm twenty-five. #QUOTE#'''Woman:''' I thought you were sixteen!

This troper got to 21 when he was 12. I'm 13 now and easily racking up 17-18. As a bonus, I've been mistaken for my 21 year old brother. By my mom. What's worst? He's been mistaken for me by my mom, too.

This 15-year-old troper is usually mistaken for anywhere from 18-22, despite having an A cup and not much of a feminine figure.

This 14-year-old female troper actually ''does'' look her age, but there was this one incident at a party on New Year's Eve where a 25-year-old guy came up to her and shamelessly hit on her with the line "Soooo... wanna come with me and get some champagne?". This troper hopes that this guy thought she was older than she looked, because otherwise...

Whenever she goes to a restaurant with her friends, this troper is always given the wine list. No one in the group is anywhere near the age of 21. The next time this happens, this troper has half a mind to ask "and who do you think is 21 here, anyway?" because the answer has become a hotly contested debate amongst her friends.

This female troper has been mistaken for her younger brother's ''younger sister.'' And her father has once been mistaken to be her boyfriend.

My 15 year old friend constantly gets hit on by middle aged men. Which is creepy, but useful, because they usually buy her stuff and then run like hell when she tells them how old she is. She's gotten into some good shows that way, and she's not even trying.

At age 11, this troper came along when her parents went to vote in an election, and was asked if she was voting. Not patronisingly, either, the guy actually believed she was 18. She was already her full adult height and a C-cup at that stage.

This troper is always mistaken for a college student,she is only in high school, but when she is visting local college town, both students and highschoolers check her out, her mom says is because she looks older and acts more age wise, she even has made friends with a guy who is a almuni of her school.

This Troper was once mistaken for my 12 year old sister's mother when she was 15. A lady working at Borders asked if I was her mom. I was tempted to read all my favorite manga and not pay for it. Mwahahahaha! To be fair, I was wearing a freaking Eskimo sized jacket at the time, wore no makeup, and had no girly purse with me at the time.

For this troper, when he was 23, he had to show ID to buy {{Mortal Kombat}}: Armageddon. That was annoying. Otherwise, many don't believe my age right away. Many people are in awe when they here my current age(being 25 in this case).

@/DesertDragon enjoyed this boon in his teenage years. He reached 6 feet at 12, and looked like he was in his early 20's when he was 15-16. That stopped being fun when he started going gray at 17. This has thankfully stabilized a bit; now 24, people actually guess the correct age most of the time.

Less humorously, he volunteered at a homeless shelter once and was distressed at how the men there looked ''way'' older than their [=IDs=] indicated. Some were around his mother's age (mid-40's) and looked like their early 60's.

This troper is usually mistaken for being around 25, and has been mistaken as such since he was around 16. This troper has enjoyed being mistaken for a grad student previously (although that won't be a mistake in around four months' time).

@/{{Killby}} has often been mistaken for a 16 year old (at 13), what with his large stature and facial hair. Combine this with {{Wise Beyond Their Years}} and it becomes hard to tell for anyone (and hard for him to explain, every time).

This Troper has had a Wine list Handed to her before she turned eighteen!

This Troper was mistaken for a twelve-year-old at age six. In fourth grade, after transferring to a new school in the middle of the year, the students in her new class refused to believe she wasn't a substitute teacher until the real teacher showed up to set them straight. At fourteen, strangers started to assume she was her nine-year-old sister's mother. Oddly enough, she herself has been tricked into thinking that she was four in a picture that was actually taken when she was one-and-a-half.

This troper, at 14, has often been mistaken for anything from 16 to 23. It's not always the looks, though; I was told that it was because of my maturity in speech.

This troper was once asked out by a college student. The troper was in eighth grade. The only response he could muster through his shock was "Sorry, I've got curfew." *{{Facepalm}}

This troper has been mistaken to be two or three years older than her actual age due to her figure and maturity. She was once offered a job at an animal shelter when she was ''thirteen years old''.

I have been told by many a person that I look to be 25-30, even though I only turned 21 a couple months ago. That's not much of a problem for me. However, I was once mistaken to be the husband (and new dad) of my 35 year-old coworker, who was pregnant at the time. I just let that remark (given by a 50 year-old customer) sink in for a while.

This 20-year-old troper, at an anime convention, came across a particularly cute cosplayer and got to meet her. At first, he thought she was in the 18-20 range. However, said cosplayer said she was a junior in high school, implying that she's 16 or 17, much to his dismay.

This barely 18-year-old troper is frequently mistaken for her mother (her dad still teases her about the time time she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror out of the corner of her eye and made that same mistake herself), has taken occasional classes at the local university since her sophomore year in high school with barely anyone suspecting she wasn't a regular college student, and has occasionally been offered alcoholic drinks. Once, as a sophomore in high school, she was even mistaken for a teacher. The really bizarre thing is every so often someone places her age a few years ''younger'' than she actually is. Her favorite story, however, is when someone thought her and her mum were both her dad's daughters (and her parents are less than three months apart).

In addition, she has a friend four years younger than she is who she could've sworn was the same age as her. When two other friends of hers first met, they each pegged the other at about 15. One was 12 and the other 17.

This fifteen-year-old troper never had a problem with age until she joined Renaissance Fair at age 13. The patrons assumed her to be roughly 17 then, and it's only gotten worse since then. Add the fact that she started 13 with a C-cup and has gained a cup size a year since then...

I once had to replace a library card that I had lost. The librarian explained to me that she needed to see some form of identification, and asked for my driver's license. I was thirteen at the time.

My mother once thought she could sneak me into Yoga classes for people 16 and over. I'm 13. I've also been mistaken for ''my father's wife'' about a year ago.

One of the kids who went to my church when he was 8 someone mistook him for 12, to me he looked his age and he certainly didn't act older either.

This Troper was first "Ma'amed" at fourteen, by a boy who she thought was older than her. But she can't blame him, when she was twelve the average guess of her age was 18-21.

This troper was guessed to be much older all thoughhout his childhood. At age 13, somebody guessed him to be 16 - " Yeah, I wish." ( The average 'accepted' age to have sex in my country is 16. Among people of that age, of course - the law says 18.) -, and when he was actually 16, somebody ( A freaking professor at his school, mind you) asked me if I was ''another teacher'' ("... or the janitor?") when I entered his class. I took to shaving my beard after that - not that it helped any. I'm from a family of big men, and this combined with my bulky frame, well, yeah. Worked in my favour more than once, though - " Of course you can sell me a White Light... Can't you see I'm obviously 21?" " Of course sir, sorry."

This troper used to love the carnival games where they'd have to guess your age because she always won huge prizes due to their wrong answers. They usually got about 3-4 years off. She currently is 24 and looks about 16 or 17 depending on the day.

This Troper was 4'2" in Kindergarten. She reached her adult height of 5'4" in seventh grade. She also hit puberty early, and was pretty old by the time she was 11. When she was in fifth grade, at her cousin's graduation, one of his friends and classmates hit on her and ran away terrified when her mother told him how old she was. One of her internet friends, upon first speaking to her on the phone, told her she sounded 25 (at 16). That's when she started raising her voice artificially. Now she's transitioned to Older Than She Looks, being 22 and mistaken for 16-18. Clearly she hasn't aged since she was 14 or so. How does that work?

This troper's brother is 13 and often gets asked if he'd like a ''beer'' in restaurants.

This troper knows a girl who is 15 but looks like a college student.

This 15 year old troper can pass easily for 18 and has done for a year or two now. This is largely as a result of her height, endowments, and voice, which is pretty low for a girl. When going out, she frequently has to bluff that she is straight edge, as not only does she in fact not like drinking anyway, she doesn't want to risk getting carded. From what her mother has told her, this may have flipped to {{Older Than They Look}} in a decade.

This troper's mother, during her mid-to-late 20s, was still short enough and sounded like she was still in her teens. This was made evident when she decided she wanted to help out at a convention by working with the First Aid department (or with the food, I forget which), and was told that she couldn't help out unless she had a driver's license. Thankfully, that misunderstanding was cleared up in short order.

When this 15-year-old troper tells people his age, they're usually shocked. Of course, he's rather tall and has facial hair, so this is understandable.

When this troper was 19, some guy on the bus started talking to her and was surprised when she revealed her age. He thought she was 27.

When this troper was 13, an old man he was helping across the street asked him if he had 'just finished [his] A levels?' Although, in his defence, he was 3/4 blind.

It's not a big gap but this troper was thought to be 16 when I was 13-14. I might be the fact that I'm pretty mature and that I'm pretty curvy. A better example was in a picture of my guy friend during the Changing of the Wreath in D.C. (wearing a formal suit during it). People told him that he looked 18 or 21 years old in the picture. He was 13 then. I even think he looks like he's 15-18 when he's only 14. He's really mature for his age and it doesn't help when he has a mustache and refuses to shave it off.

This troper has a friend who's taller than her. She thought she's already thirteen. Until a few days later, it's her 13th birthday! And possibly happened to everyone taller than her.

One of this troper's friends is a HuskyRusskie who already had a mighty beard freshman year. This troper is six months older than him.

This troper, despite being on the short side and having big, round "moeblob" (as her friends deem them) eyes, has been continually mistaken for about four or five years older than her actual age... more or less ever since she went through puberty, if not before. She's nineteen, yet people's guesses as to her age are typically around the twenty-two to twenty-three mark.

By 8th grade, I had a bit of stubble, and I could usually make people think I was a year or three older than I really was (skipping a few grades helped too).

At one point I started growing a faint moustache and armpit hair, by then I was already quite hairy, tall and deep-voiced for my age. I was twelve.

This troper is 19 years old and has a moustache, of which he is quite proud for no sensible reason. As a result of it and his black trilby, he keeps being accosted by people on the street for charity projects requiring one to be 21 or over.

This Troper's story is quickly told. Starting around 8-9, I've been mistaken as my sister's twin, who is actually 2 years older than me. (Both of us had something wrong. I'm a boy, so my sister was thought a boy.) At 11, even with proofs, I wouldn't pass as even 13 years old. At 15, I definitely looked like an adult for most people, albeit a young one (maybe 20) (And the twin stuff didn't work anymore, since she became more feminine and I well, masculine). And ever since I turned 18 (legal majority age), well {{It Got Worse}}. At 18, I would be thought of 25. At 20, I could pass as 27-28 to most people, or over 30 for Japanese (though in this case, it is Justified because it seems to be frequent). Now, at 24, nobody except those who know my real age from fact would ever guess I'm younger than 30. And if I let myself have a beard, add 5-10 years to all figures given. I easily pass as my father's (55 years old) ''brother''. If it isn't enough, ever since I've been chatting online, I have been consistently thought of being at least 30, if not more. Even when I was 13. If that isn't {{Younger Than They Look}}, what is it.

This troper, 19, has been mistaken to be ''in his thirties''. He's looked that way since he was 15.

Johnson Viandas in Nick The Swing's stories and Evershadow Genesis. YES, he is fifteen. And also yes, he is also 6'2 and has the looks of a man at least 200 pounds of pure muscle. Might be the reason why a ''thirty five year old woman'' posted a comic on deviantart saying she would, in her own words, "fuck him if given the opportunity." Given Johnson's past both Nick and I entered an UnstoppableRage.

This troper , of 19, acts more mature than most students his age, as well as being of prodigious height and sensible attire. He was getting along wonderfully with a fellow student, who appeared to be the same age, until it came up that she was a postgrad doing my course for the extra prestige, and effectively left secondary school at about the time this troper started. Yet we both thought the other was the same age as ourselves. Cue major embarrassment on both sides as this troper thinks "Oh crud, she's way out of my league!" and from the expression on her face, she thinks "Oh crud, I was nearly a pedo!". She has avoided this troper since...

This troper gets asked if she wants to sit at the bar a lot at resturaunts. She is fifteen, which is not so bad, but the first time it happened she was eleven.

This troper once got mistaken for 25 when I'm really only 17. Having a full beard probably helps.

Alasdair}} This troper met a guy over the weekend who (having not seen him before) I assumed was the sixteen year old middle son of some family friends. Having talked to him for a while, I was certain of it. I later found out he was the year old youngest son of said family friends. No amount of soul scrubbing can make up for thinking he was cute.

This Troper Was asked for a driver's license at 13, first offered alcohol at 16, and asked her ''maiden name'' at ''14''. Also, I was once referred to as my (3-years younger) brother's mother, but that was more a slip of the tongue than an actual mistake. (Everyone else in line was parents with teenagers.) It's especially amusing since I started college at 17. "Wait, do we have anyone here who's underage?" "Yeah, I'm seventeen..." I miss being able to say that.

This troper lives in the US, where the drinking age is 21. I've been buying alcohol since I was 17. Not many people think to ask the extremely deep-voiced guy with a goatee for ID. I just turned 21 and got carded once in the past week of drinking. The bartender was shocked I was only 21 since she'd figured me for 26.

This troper's sister is 14, but she looks older than her (who is almost 18). She recently was hit on by a dude at a theme park who fell victim to this trope. Said dude was 17. My sister went along with it.

My older brother would most certainly be confused for my Dad if it weren't for his personality.

I'm not sure how, but I (at age 17) was once mistaken to be an 8 year old's mother. I was shocked speechless and stupid for a minute.

One of the employees at a Cold Stone was asking customers to guess his age. Since I am terrible at guessing ages (I tend to think people are younger than they actually are), I decided to wing it and picked 35. The guy exploded and asked me where the hell I got my answer since he was in his early twenties. His friend was cracking up so hard he gave me a discount.

This teenager Troper gets regularly mistaken as twenty-something by most of the people. Having tattoos, goth clothes and heavy make-up certainly doesn't help it...

This troper- who has never been more than a B cup- was mistaken for 17-18 when she was 11, 21 when she was 14, and has been able to pass as a college student while wearing a college t-shirt/sweatshirt since 14 or 15. (It's leveling out now, though, since she ''will'' be a college student in fall 2010.) Discounting looks, she's had internet friends she's known since she was about 14-15 forget she wasn't in college already.

This troper was mistaken for a high school student during middle school and then a college student during high school. Now that she's in college people actually believe her.

This Sixteen Year Old Male Troper has been accused of being ages seventeen to twenty three. When he started High School, and asking for directions, he was always greeting with confusion. "Dude, you're like a senior? What do you mean you don't know where the class is?" To where this Troper would reply with, "I'm fourteen bro." And would seemingly always receive a loud "BULLSHIT!" in answer. This Most likely has something to do with at that time being six feet tall, two hundred twenty pounds, having a full beard and long shaggy hair. When this Troper shaved he gains years of his life back. By the age of sixteen, the beard is fuller, the hair is longer and shaggier, but weight has been lost and no progress in height has been made. This Troper is constantly being confused for a man in his twenties, and often fear from girls who do know him. This seriously hampers the Chivalrous Pervert's Game. To quote a nurse at the Doctor's Office this troper went to for a polio shot, "What are you doing here with your mom, and why are you seeing us?". To which I replied. "I'm sixteen, I'm not legally an adult, and I don't have a license to drive." Which was greeted with being stared at by ''every nurse'' in the building, and have them scrambling to look at my chart to see my birthdate. Blessed with suck indeed.

This troper, who is 16 years old, 5'11 and has a full mustache, is often mistaken for a college student. The fact that he's had a mustache ''since seventh grade'' doesn't help.

On the topic of college, the same troper recently got into a college party aimed at '''''18-21 year olds'''''.

This troper has lived with this for many years. At age 10 I did most of puberty over two months. That includes a foot of height and about 50lbs of weight, body hair and voice change, all over the summer between grade 4 and 5. This would have been less of an issue if I hadn't already been the tallest kid at elementary school before this. Starting grade 5 I was 5'9" and taller than the teaching staff, and often mistaken for a high school student lurking on the grounds. Zip forward a couple years to Starting High School at grade 8, now 6'2" a THIN 200lbs, and getting placed with the seniors who all think I'm grad ing with them (not shaving often when you have to also helps). By age 16, it is assumed by anyone who doesn't know me I'm in early 20's. This Fortunately has slowly edged the other way, Oldest I was ever Guessed to be is 25, and now that I'm on the other side of that age, I have apparently gone to older then they look, which considering the facial hair, means if I ever shave, I will finally start to get I.D.'d.

When this troper was in her later years at high school, she was mistaken for a middle-schooler. She is now nineteen and was mistaken as a thirty-year-old woman once (a fellow passenger on the subway asked where she worked). This troper was also mistaken as the wife of a man old enough to be her father. That last one is more justified though, since it's quite possible for an older man to take a younger wife.

This troper has been mistaken for a 40 year old and has blended seamlessly into a group of people bordering 30 as well. This troper is 18. Needless to say, he's also single.

On this Troper's first day at a new school after a move across the country he was mistaken for a Substitute teacher. He is sixteen, six foot flat, and at the time had shoulder length shaggy hair, and a full beard.

This troper's cousin is 6'2", slightly muscular, and has the start of a mustache -- and he's thirteen. His ''twin'' actually ''looks'' thirteen, which doesn't help their relationship much.

In my first year of college, I knew a guy in my dorm who could easily pass for a grad student, and was once mistaken for a teacher's aide by one of his own classmates.

This troper had a mustache in the 4th grade. Cue children assuming he's been held back from school 7 times.

I was mistaken for an 18 year old once. I'm 15.

Inverted with this troper. She was walking in her little brother's elementary school on the last day of school to his classroom. Unfortunately, she was stopped by a teacher who told her that she shouldn't be walking in the halls without a hall past even though its the last day of school. I'm in high school. *facepalm*

It's so creepy when this troper gets mistaken for her mom. Really, really creepy.

This troper was in the ninth grade, and once had a hairdresser ask if they were getting ready for their high school graduation.

This troper is 14, 6' something, and has had a full mustache since he was 12. Puberty really stinks at that age, trust me. He's been mistaken for ''21''. Quite an advantage.

This sixteen year old troper gets this all the time; the most extreme case was when her stepmother introduced herself as a university professor and the person asked "Do you teach there too?"

This eighteen year old troper often gets this, usually in the 22-25 year old range. The most interesting case, however, happened at a local chinese restaurant. I had been going there for the lunch buffet twice a week for at least a month. Then I find out that the restaurant belongs to my friend's family. So me and him go there to eat, and my friend's family were shocked to find out we were classmates. Apparantly they thought I was ''thirty''! Now that was a surprise. I guess it come from the fact that I have a pretty thick mustache.

This troper, 13, is constantly mistaken for being 16 or so. She's also more mature than most people her age, and mostly hangs out with older people. This leads to a lot of situations with her muttering "I'm thirteen." when people ask, and having to laugh awkwardly when they're like "... Oh. You look a lot older."

I get mistaken for 16-18 quite often. I'm 13. I was in a 'summer reading program' at a local library over the summer, and one of the other kids thought I was 16. His jaw practically hit the floor when I told him my true age. In fact, when I started to homeschool, some of our neighbors wondered if I had graduated high school already. It doesn't help that some people confuse me for a {{Bifauxnen}}, especially with my NiceHat, BadassLongcoat, and loads of jewelry [mostly spiked things].... even though I have semi-long hair and a rather obvious bust. Not as obvious as most examples of MostCommonSuperpower, but still there and pretty obvious.

This troper was offered wine at a restaurant once. She was 13.

This troper gets mistaken for 2 or 3 years older all the time. I don't even get it! I don't have more (actually I have LESS!) "curve" than other girls my age... I guess my face looks older.

I go to school with a guy who's about 6' 5", has facial hair, dresses like a stereotypical nerd, and is described by some people as "thirty" and "NapoleonDynamite with straight hair" (yes, really). He's a senior in high school. I don't believe he's had to repeat grades or anything if he's in NHS.

This troper came across someone who he thought was 18 or 19 years old. out that person was 14. Oops.

This Troper was 14 when my brother graduated from university. So, me and my family went to the graduation. I exited from the seremony cause I needed to go to the toilet and after a minute or two there comes this professor and asks if I'm looking the auditory cause the lecture of modern psychology is starting. So, I was mistaken as an university student while still being in junior high...

This troper is generally mistaken for about a year over her age. The memorable one, though, is when I went to be a camp counselor and the kids thought I was twenty-one. Even upperclassmen refused to believe I could ''possibly'' be under 18/19 without my insistence. I was 16.

...Okay, being given an alcoholic drink that no one even ordered for her at the age of 15 is also pretty memorable, but doesn't make as good a story. (Legal age 21)

This troper gets hit on by older men all the time and when I politely tell them I'm seventeen, they blush and quickly back off. I asked one of them about it and he said: "Well... You just got an aura of... *vague hand gestures* ...mature-ness." It didn't help me much.

This troper is only 15, but he has been mistaken for a collage student more than once. The fact that he kinda looks like a chubby {{Bishonen}} helps matters little.

And multiple times when he was little his sister was mistaken for his mother and vice versa.

When this troper was 13, she passed as 16. When she was 16, she passed as 21. She hated alcohol though so never used this to her advantage.

This troper is 14, but constantly mistaken for a 17 year-old. It's genetic. I once met my cousin who i'm sure was 24 or 25. He was 16.

I was never asked for an ID to enter R rated Movies... My sister took me to see one for the first time when I was 11... Depending on what I'm wearing, I apparently look like an office lady (I just turned 21...) Apparently it is a family thing as my sister also seemed to turn automatically from 10 to 20+ in one year.

I am 23 now and look about the right age, but when I was 13, I was 5'3" and had an impressive hourglass figure and a grown-up looking face. My sister was 22 at the time, and we often got asked which of us was older. I got hit on by so many older guys... to their credit, most of them went dead pale and looked horrified when I said, "Guess what? I'm 13." The few that didn't seem fazed were the ones I knew to avoid.

This troper's next door neighbors daughter is 14, but looks like she's 19 (she's...well endowed to say the least. His friend (who actually is 19) is dating her. They aren't doing anything though...(I hope.)

This troper is 17, but constantly gets mistaken for being in his mid-twenty's.

When I was 11, I had B cup boobs and was quite tall, and people thought I was about 14. At 13, I was mistaken for my baby brother's mom. Now I am 18, people think I am 14 (I was mistaken for 11 when wearing a thick coat that hid my massive breasts)...what happened??? Ive gone from YoungerThanTheyLook to OlderThanTheyLook in just a few years

Same here, without the boob thing.

My 16 year old brother somehow manages to get mistaken for 18+. He was able to rent ''The Hangover'' without even showing ID and has more then once started smoking in public without drawing any attention to himself (I have no idea where he actually got them since they always card me and it's very obvious I'm legal to buy them). Recently we were at a concert and a drunk/stoned/both Native American asked if he was a virgin (he said no, I have no idea if that's true or not) and said his girlfriend (also under the influence of something and was sure he was a virgin) wanted to change that.

(same guy as above) I have also had this happen. In high school people thought I was a year older than I was. When I started college a year early (long story, isn't as amazing as it would seem) people were amazed when they found out I was 17 (which came about around election day when I was asked who I was voting for and I told them I was too young to vote). At the same time as the previous thing happened I was also surprised when another guy said he was 16 (he looked about 19) and a girl (who looked at least 18) said she was also 17 (the 16 year old was the only over-achiever of the 3 under-aged people).

This troper had to explain to librarians at age 15 that I don't have to pay for my late books since it's only required by people over the age of 18. Only a few months after that, a ticket seller tried to charge me student price instead of juvenile price when I tried to buy a commuter card for the semester. I had my hair up in GirlishPigtails and was reading comics.

This Troper have a friend who's 20 now but when he was 15/16,he was 6 foot something and 25-year-old (according to her mother) looking.He always bought some alco for his peers and despite being a pretty nice guy with minor case of ADD,no one would approach him unless they knew him.

This female Troper who turned sixteen very recently sixteen has been mistaken for all kinds of ages. For example, last week I was at my 23-year-old brother's apartment playing D&D and there were lots of different people of different ages, because my brother's roommate has a brother of his own who is a senior in high school. One of the guys there (he was 17) asked me how old I was. I said my age, and he said (I'm paraphrasing), "You know, you're actually kind of creepy because you look an adult." Cue laughs from everyone else and my brother being sad that he missed this moment.

Also my(above troper's) dad suffers from this. He is in his late 50's and is regularly called my grandfather or my mom's dad instead of just being my dad. He's even been called Santa Claus once.

This troper was once mistaken for his sister's dad. He was 17 at the time: she was 15. To be fair, I rarely wear teenage clothing, as it just doesn't suit me.

This troper just started high school, and is taking a couple of sophomore classes to further his education. Due to being tall and having a September birthday, I look like I could be a sophomore. At least one classmate couldn't believe I'm a freshman. My ex-girlfriend said that I sounded like a college student, but that's more likely because I refuse to use text-speak, and have a larger than average vocabulary.

This Troper's algebra teacher is a mild example. He's 25, but he looks to be in his early 30s.

This Troper is six feet tall, rather curvy, 38C, and fifteen years old. I often got mistaken for nineteen when I was nine. Fucking hormones, how do they work?

This Troper once went to a school event known as the Lock-in at my High School. One of the adult supervisors asked me my age. I honestly replied that I was a student there, and fifteen at the time. He thought I was ''thirty-five''. Might've been due to the beard I refused to shave off.

This Troper rarely got carded for R-rated movies as a teenager, was able to rent R-rated movies at the video store at age 12 and was able to get alcoholic drinks at age 17. Helps that I can grow facial hair very quickly. (By the way, I'm 20 now.)

I have been carded a total of three times since I first bought alcohol at 16. At 18, I was assumed to be in my early 30s. Now I'm 22 and people are telling me how brave I am for making the decision to go back to university at my age. Of course, the fact that my hair is fast running out of melanin, turning me into a White Haired Not-Particularly-Pretty Boy doesn't help.

The bus used to try to charge me full adult fare until I pulled out my student ID card. Then I got braces, and suddenly everyone could accurately place me as in high school (even though they still overestimate my grade by a year). However, some people still mistake me for a boy when I wear baggy clothing or they can't see my chest. I don't really care, though.

It was way worse than that when I was younger. Especially if they couldn't see me, since I have a deep voice and spoke in LittleProfessorDialog for my entire childhood. When I was eleven, one of my mother's friends nicknamed me "the eleven year old with the vocabulary of a thirty seven year old."

Most recently, I have been worried that I might end up being mistaken for my seventeen-and-a-half years younger half-sister's mother.

This troper constantly looks younger than her age, especially if I wear something casual or cutesy. When I was 15 years old, I went to the cinema with a group of girls who were younger than me. I was the only one who got the children's ticket, and the other girls were given tickets for adults. I deliberately lied about my age when I was 18 to buy a children's ticket at the cinema to save money, and it worked. Also, as a 4th year university student, I was mistaken for one of the newly entered students.

This troper's six foot 1 and a half inches tall and everyone he meets thinks he's either 17, 18, or in the case of a few young children, 21. He's not even turned 16 yet.

The same troper knows someone who's growing a beard, is slightly taller than him and wears a different tie from the school one. He looks 30. He's been mistaken for a teacher before. He's only 16 and one of the youngest in his year (the year above mine.)

This troper, since his youth {16 at the time, 22 now}, has been mistaken for being his older sister's uncle, his dad's dad, and his uncle's brother.

This troper is 6'3, has facial hair, long black hair and a slightly deep tone of voice. I regularly attend death metal shows, and I get invited to parties/bars a lot, which I have to decline for two reasons: I have no way to get there (I go to these shows the old-fashioned way - getting dropped off by parents), and I'm fifteen. I've literally lost count of the times people have questioned my age. ''This has been going on since I was thirteen years old.''

Girl}} This Crush}} Troper's now 13 year old friend. Met her playing Yu-Gi-Oh and I'm shocked this common superpower}} hot got back}} 18 year old girl is playing. So the mall is close enough that I walk there with her and not once to the mall or the long walk back anything hints she isn't in the 17-20 range. So her dad texts it's time for her and her brother to go. So before we get close enough to the shop she grabs me by the collar and decides to give me a going away present. My homeboys coming back from the BK seen what just happened and drop the hammer that I was just making out with a 12 year old. "BSOD}} She's 12!? 12 years old not 12th grader? Mad from the Revelation}} Oh god no!!" Now I'm pretty much fate}} stuck brother instinct}} with her.

This troper in spades.

At the age of 11, mistaken for 14. Not so bad, right? It gets worse.

Age of twelve mistaken for 23 by a taxi driver.

Ages 14-17, I always get mistaken for someone in my mid-twenties.

A particularly egregious example is when I went to DisneyLand, Paris, in Axel CosPlay. And I was served alcohol. Without a bat of an eyelid.

The few times I've gone to clubs I have breezed in without an ID. And gotten offered alcohol menues in a supposedly Muslim Country Where Drinking is Prohibited.

And a more recent example, finally 18 years old, I go to see a friend's drama production. She is only two years younger than me. Cue the lady in the stands sitting next to me asking: #QUOTE#'''Lady:''' Are you a teacher here? #QUOTE#'''Me:''' No, I'm just here to watch. #QUOTE#'''Lady:''' Oh, is your child in this performance? #QUOTE#'''Me:''' [AWKWARD] No... I'm.. here to see a friend.

I spent the rest of the night going 'ERK'.

This troper flirted with a guy in a mall who she thought was 18. He had a skin tight shirt on and nice jeans only to learn while she talked to him that he was 16 and a SOPHOMORE in high school. Ouch.

This has happened to this 14-year-old troper twice. She and her family was dropping her brother off at college and she got mistaken for a student there. Then when she was bra shopping she was asked by a middle-aged woman if she worked at the store. Am I really THAT tall?

When this Troper was a Freshman in High School, I was mistaken for a Teacher. About Three Years latter, I was mistaken for my Mother's Husband.

I'm fourteen with D-cup bosoms and I'm 6'6. Wine and kid marriage, whoo-hoo!

This troper was pestered by a bunch of people to register to vote in the 2004 election, I was twelve, and still in middle school (would have turned thirteen the week after, regardless of the fact I was way too young to vote in that election anyway, being a history/politics nerd with a birthday in mid-November sucks). I have since caught up with my looks, I'm 19 and most people think I'm around 19-20.

When I was 14, two American girls who were visiting Mexico asked me if I was in high school. A year later, I went to a college to ask about the careers and the woman attending me clearly thought I was 18.

This troper at 18 has been mistaken for twenty-six at least once.This is likely because I dress like a member of a Southern Rock Band,wear Sunglasses and have a Beard

In a serious ego-boost, about a year after getting braces, this then-16-year-old tropette was mistaken for an adult. Considering that she's 4'11", not overly gifted in the bosom area, and big-eyed, it was quite a surprise...but that's nothing compared to the reaction of the nice cashier who'd been hitting on her.

Although she doesn't get it much anymore, this troper was always mistaken to be much older than her age when she was a kid, because she grew quickly. Her mother will probably never forget, or stop telling people about, the time her ballet teacher told her (then a three year old) how kids younger than her can dance better - ''while pointing at a bunch of six-year-olds.''

This troper has been hit on by guys over eighteen because of my defined features and more somewhat tall stature for a girl in my country. Worst part, I just turned thirteen.

When my cousin was eleven, she wore high heels and is quite 'developed' for her age. She was hit on by a guy who looked twenty-one and smoked. The only reason he left was because he thought I was too creepy...

Several times in my life I've kind of sped up to an equilibrium age and just hung there for awhile. When I was 13 I passed for 19 and remained pretty much the same until then, when I started getting grey hairs. The grey actually vanished by the time I was 21, when I looked 25+. Again I didn't age much, even with the grey coming and going, until I was 30.

This troper her brother is 19 years old. He's been mistaken for somebody in his twenties since he was ''16''. A lot of people are very suprised when they learn our ages, seeing that I'm 20 but am mistaken for a 16-year old from time to time. The fact that he's ''at least'' 4 inches taller than me doesn't help matters.

CandyEntrails is 17. His mustache makes him look like...well, he can't get a good estimate. All he knows is that he looks like somebody you should keep away from your children.

This troper's family makes jokes about their apparent age (20-30 physically, 50-100 mentally, actually 15), mostly due to SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, cynical humor,a love of coffee, and being smarter than their mother. ItGotWorse when they had to get glasses, because then people started mistaking them for their mother's sibling. It went to Hell when their mother started developing some kind of mental disorder, because then, the stress started affecting their behavior as well.

I usually look younger than I am to most people, because I never wear makeup and dress very casually. However, one of my managers at the store where I work thought I was in my forties when he first started (I'm 24), though this was mostly due to my SkunkStripe.

At the tender age of 14, I've been mistook for around 16-18, my 30 year old mother's boyfriend, and my 60 year old grandmother's son. It doesn't help that I'm supposedly an old soul. Then again, said mother and grandmother look 20 and 40 respectively.