Looking Young

I have always had this problem with my looks. Everyone says that I look too young for my age – essentially I look a little too boyish. When I first went to Cambridge for my PhD, most people thought that I was a fresh undergraduate instead of a post-grad student.

This has always been a problem for me and I have tried to look a bit older. One way of doing that is by wearing my spectacles – without them I would look even younger. It is a problem when trying to convince others to use your system or buy your product. People tend to get the impression that I am a blur young kid with no experience at all when the opposite is actually more true. Hence, a lack of trust for whatever I say. Sigh…

But it seems like there is a silver lining in the cloud. According to this BBC article, “People who look young for their age live longer”. It has something to do with telomeres, which is known to control ageing and has recently shown signs of controlling how young we look as well. I guess that the caveat is: assuming that nothing else kills these people first, like car accidents, disease and what nots – people who look young could possibly age slower.