Help! I look young!

Nurses Professionalism

Published

I guess I should be happy but I can't help but feel like looking younger than your age can be a disadvantage sometime. I've been a nurse for quite some time now and most people still ask me when I'm graduating. Patients and family members look at me and think I'm 18, when I'm not. I agree I'm young (late 20s) but I feel like people treat me different and I don't get the respect that I deserve. I also am down to earth and laid back, I like to make jokes and have fun while I'm at work, but I take my job seriously. I feel like because I'm so positive, people don't take me seriously. From patients, nurses, and most of all, doctors. I work in the ED and I find myself wearing my glasses often, which I hate, just to make myself look more mature. Should I change my personality? Just be quiet and focused? I feel like that would make my work day drag.

Your input is appreciated. Thanks!

Specializes in Hospice.

I wish I looked 10 years younger! Just wait for Gravity to set in.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Yeah, cause Gravity Is The LAW!

(Mean old Mr. Gravity)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This!!!

OP, I feel your frustration! On my next birthday I will celebrate 36 years of extraordinary life, but I am most often mistaken for 25, 22, even 20... Socially, this is not something you will ever hear me complain about. Professionally, however, I feel that I do go the extra mile often to climb out of the shadow of a stereotype. Still, people then believe that I am just mature for my age.

I really think, while I am still young, I will jump on the bandwagon of common thought, since folks will think what they want....

....Because maybe the bigger impression is to be a very mature 20YO, than to be just an average mid-lifer! :yes:

At at the end of the day, though, all you can do about it is execute being your best self and just hope that someone notices that.

Best wishes!:)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I understand what you mean. I worked in retail while in CNA school and people thought I was 13 or just entering high school. I am 19. I find when I wear my hair down, people think I am younger.

It was not really that bad, except when a 15 year old once-a-week employee told a customer (his mom) that I hardly knew anything about the store. When I told him I had been working for a couple of months already and asked him how old he thought I was, he said 15. I think since I looked his age or younger, he felt he had the liberty to say what he wanted. His face when I told him! :roflmao:

If all goes well, I will graduate at 20 from an LPN program. I say, enjoy your looks, they will come in handy later! Strange, but true: I have kind of always envied those smile lines at the corner of people's eyes. Makes me think they are happy people. :D

The maturity thing is hard to get over, but like the other posters have said, act professional and people will have confidence in you!

Cheers!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Oh, I am sooooo guilty! I was looking through the Sunday paper a few weeks ago and ran across an ad for a new FNP that was joining a certain practice, and when I looked at her photo, the FIRST thing I thought was, "My god, she looks sixteen years old.!"

I'm so sorry, I can see it would be a problem to look so young while in a position of a certain amount of authority.

Of course, perhaps I could be forgiven because I am nearing the age when anybody under 30 looks VERY young to me. But I did catch myself and chastised myself, because I had at the time, just finished reading this thread.

Mea Culpa. Nolo contendre.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Rehabilitation,Critical Care.
Help! I am an immature Millenial who is fishing for compliments on AllNurses because I am not getting enough of them on my Instagram!

Rude.

For OP, be yourself and show your professionalism through your work. To heck with everyone who thinks you look young. Looking young won't matter when you are saving lives. Keep doing a good job!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.

While I can appreciate where it is coming from, the negativity in this post is unfortunate.

You can count me as one of the young looking nurses. I could have marched in a parade when I turned 30. The thing is - appearance is judged. Surely no one here actually disagrees with that. We spend so long earning degrees, becoming competent at doing something for a living. It sucks to have someone size you up and decide you are incapable of doing your job because of your appearance, regardless of what the factor is.

Thankfully, this is a factor that will change over time. Your 20s will just being annoying when you look so much younger. At 34, I'm told I look 20 by my patients literally almost every shift. I tell them, "hearing that will never get old!!" and we have a good laugh together. Looking in your 20s will work better for you, I promise.

And to the other posters.... If you never have someone in the professional setting treat you like a child, ask for a different nurse (because your youthful look must mean you are inexperienced), if you have never literally been yelled at by a "colleague" because they felt you being young made that somehow excusable, know that you have some blessings to count.

Being youthful is valued in our society socially and romantically, but not professionally. You will find that in most fields. Appearing to be too young to be taken seriously and/or trusted is a legit problem. Thankfully it is a self resolving problem (and requires patience). :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

A sister of a friend was extremely petite and young looking. When she married a guy who was 6'4" and they were out and about, she was often mistaken for his daughter, though they were the same age. One person even jumped on her husband for allowing his 'daughter' to dress 'that way'.....like a woman. It used to burn her butt! Understandably! She wasn't in nursing; I don't know what she did for work, but the last time I saw her she was 34 and still being mistaken for her husbands daughter.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
A sister of a friend was extremely petite and young looking. When she married a guy who was 6'4" and they were out and about, she was often mistaken for his daughter, though they were the same age. One person even jumped on her husband for allowing his 'daughter' to dress 'that way'.....like a woman. It used to burn her butt! Understandably! She wasn't in nursing; I don't know what she did for work, but the last time I saw her she was 34 and still being mistaken for her husbands daughter.

Oh, my god!!!!!! My husband is 6'4" and I can honestly say I would be MORTIFIED if this ever happened!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment