Why do millennials look so much younger than they are?

As a child, I never imagined that I would look like this in my 30s, and when I look around me it seems that millennials are stuck in time.

I don't think I physically look younger than 35 years old. But, like other millennials, I possibly give off a younger ‘energy’. I feel comfortable in a hoodie and jeans. The way I speak and behave hasn't changed much in recent years. And I'm not the only one: my friends, who are about the same age as me, could easily be five years younger. As a child, I didn't imagine my 30s like that, because my only reference was my teachers at school, who were also 30 years old. And we are nothing alike.

Much has already been said about millennials' inability to 'grow up'. We are criticized for not owning a home or not having children. We rent shared houses like we were students for a long time longer (some of my single friends can't afford to live alone). And things like marriage, or working for years in the same career, seem to have lost their shine for many. Still, that doesn't explain why we don't always look like the thirtysomethings people used to.

I'm not the only one wondering it. TikTok is full of videos about why millennials don't seem to age 'normally' ('Why don't millennials age?' currently has about 19.4 million views on TikTok). Some have hypothesized that it is because 'touch-ups', such as filler and Botox, are cheaper and more accessible to everyone. Others have joked that it's because millennials 'have depression, so we stay home all day and don't let the sunlight age our skin.' Others wonder if it's because of camera phones and the fact that we see each other more often than ever, meaning we pay more attention to our appearance and what we wear. Or perhaps we are aging normally, but we act as if time has no real effect on us.