“You’ll be grateful when you’re 30!” is something that I get told a lot of the time whenever I complain about my baby face. It’s a very fair comment, and there have been times recently when I’ve been very grateful for my baby face. But there are also times when my baby face becomes an absolute pain in the backside, especially recently as I’ve started creeping towards my mid 20’s.
Sometimes I love my baby face, in particular on those days where having such a youthful complexion saves me money. There have been many times, even recently when it seems so long ago that I turned 18, that I’ve been allowed in places on a child’s ticket. Or when I’ve only paid a child’s fare on public transport. Or when, though not related to my baby face and more my small stature, I’ve been able to buy clothes and shoes from the children’s section.
I also realise that buying children’s clothes probably doesn’t help much on the whole ‘not looking a day over 18’ thing, but honestly kids clothes are often so much cooler than the clothes in the adults section. For some reason it’s much harder to find clothes meant for adults that have dinosaurs on them. Also, kids shoes often have velcro instead of laces, and whilst I can fasten my laces I’d much rather not have to.
However, I’ve got on a tangent about clothes and away from my baby face. Yes, the baby face is a good thing, but it can also have a downside as well. Usually when I’m a muppet when I forget my ID and try to but things like Paracetamol, or DVD’s with a 15 age limit. I feel so far from 15 or 16 that it always surprises me when I get ID’d for things like that, especially since it’s so hit and miss when I do get ID’d.
Even when I do have ID though, it’s gotten to a point where sometimes whoever is checking my ID doesn’t believe that it’s actually mine or that it’s actually genuine. I see them look, look again, move it back and forwards in the light just to check it. I’ve even been asked to recite my date of birth several times, just to prove it’s actually mine. I see the suspicion in their eyes as they look at it and back to me three or four times, and the moment when they do decide to trust my ID and serve me what I was trying to buy, usually beer.
This new behaviour has only started recently and I think it’s because I’m getting older. As I stay looking barely 18 and the age on my ID gets closer and closer to 25 the belief in it’s authenticity gets less and less. I’m worried that one day my ID is just going to get flat out refused simply because whoever is checking it simply doesn’t believe it’s mine.
I’m hoping that when I get my driving licence I can update the photo, so that hopefully it looks so much like me that they won’t be able to question it’s authenticity. Until then I’m going to keep on hoping that my ID doesn’t get refused and keep on counting it as a win whenever I only have to pay child’s prices.
Sophie x
A Place of Mine 