Growing up and making the transition to adulthood is hard enough in the modern world - the pressures of performing well in school, the bodily and emotional changes you go through, the huge importance of being popular, making sure you're wearing the right clothes, saying the right things and listening to the right music, and dealing with the problems associated with impressing the opposite sex - so the last thing you need is to look younger than you actually are. It's a problem that lots of us have had to deal with and one that can really inhibit you as a kid - mostly in ways that become completely unimportant once you grow up, but it can be pretty difficult (and embarrassing) at the time, when all of your friends and everyone else in school looks older than you. There was always that one kid who, while his/her faculties may all have been there, lagged behind a bit when it came to looking his/her age - and that made them stand out, which is the last thing he/she wants - and, if that kid was you, you should be able to relate to this article. Here are nineteen problems only people who grew up with a babyface will understand...
19. Seeing Your Friends Start Shaving
Granted, this only applies to males, but it really is quite the heartbreaking moment when you realise that you're the last one to start shaving. Your face suddenly becomes the focal point of any given social event and any sign of "bum fluff" forming on your chin gets giggles and pointed fingers from your "far more mature" friends (though, evidently, they're only more mature in the physical sense). Because, of course, shaving is one of those things that makes you a man, right? If you didn't start doing it until you were in your late teens, you'll understand exactly what this is like.
18. People Saying "You'll Appreciate It When You're Older"
So, you hate the fact that you look younger than all your friends. It prevents you from doing several things that you'd like to do and makes you something of a laughing stock when you're with them. So what's the last thing you want? An adult telling you that it'll be all okay in the end. That's right, when it becomes apparent that you can't join your friends to see that 18 certificate movie because you know you'll never be let through the doors, the old "you'll appreciate it when you're older card" gets played by all the adults around you. "That's all well and good", you tell them, but it isn't going to get you any closer to seeing that latest gore-porn flick at the local cinema in the here and now.
17. Those People Being Right
What's worse than being told "you'll appreciate it when you're older"? Well, it's the fact that, when you're older, you realise those people were right. You're 30 years old, you look 25, your friends all look 30 at the very least - those with kids and stressful jobs look even older - and they'd all kill to have your youthful-looking face. So yeah, once you're old enough to do everything you want to do, it's great to look younger than you actually are, but it makes all those years approaching 18 seem so pointlessly rushed away and, even worse, it makes you realise that all those seemingly clichéd adults were right.