{"id":47937,"date":"2026-03-19T13:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/ive-always-looked-younger-than-i-am-its-caused-challenges-at-work-but-embracing-it-beats-trying-to-seem-older\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:21:14","slug":"ive-always-looked-younger-than-i-am-its-caused-challenges-at-work-but-embracing-it-beats-trying-to-seem-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/ive-always-looked-younger-than-i-am-its-caused-challenges-at-work-but-embracing-it-beats-trying-to-seem-older\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;ve always looked younger than I am. It&#8217;s caused challenges at work, but embracing it beats trying to seem older."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b9709775bee4e0ee55d41c?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling in cherry-print dress\"\/><figcaption>At work, I&#039;ve been mistaken for a student many times. Instead of trying to seem older, I&#039;ve leaned in to my youth.<\/p>\n<p>Julie Zhu<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite being a professor in my 30s, I&#039;ve often been mistaken for a student because I look young.<\/li>\n<li>Although I considered trying to seem older and more mature, I decided to lean into my youthfulness.<\/li>\n<li>I learned what mattered was the way I felt and how I taught, not whether I looked the part.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I went to meet the department chair as a freshly hired adjunct last April, the front-desk staff said, &quot;A student is here to see you.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>I froze and wondered whether I should correct him. <\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve always looked younger than my age, and people often assume I&#039;m a student. When I became an adjunct professor at age 30, I realized I had a choice: try to look older, or embrace it.<\/p>\n<p>If you look young in a professional setting, people don&#039;t always say it outright \u2014 but you can feel it in the assumptions.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve been waved toward the student check-in line while judging a business-school competition and asked &quot;What are you studying?&quot; at college events when I&#039;m there to guest speak on personal branding.<\/p>\n<p>People kindly explain things to me as if I&#039;m new to the room until I say what I do. Even then, they raise an eyebrow and double-check: &quot;Wait \u2026 you&#039;re a professor?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I smile through it in the moment, but the assumptions still trigger my inner critic. Unspoken advice hangs in the air: Be more serious. Look more professional. Blend in.<\/p>\n<h2>Despite the pressure to seem more mature, I chose to embrace my youthful look<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b97058d387710cb9e457e2?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman standing in classroom\"\/><figcaption>I did make a few changes when I joined the faculty. Just not in the way you might think.<\/p>\n<p>Julie Zhu<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although there are easy ways to look older and signal authority on the surface \u2014 matte foundation, black suits, a more serious personality \u2014 the idea of shrinking myself to look the part seemed exhausting.<\/p>\n<p>I own precisely one oversized black linen blazer I never wear. My energy drops whenever I throw it on, like I&#039;ve trapped myself in a costume.<\/p>\n<p>It makes me hyper-aware of myself, which is the last thing you want in a classroom stuffed with students ready and waiting to size you up.<\/p>\n<p>So instead of dulling myself down (or adding that blazer to my regular wardrobe rotation), I decided to get more intentional about how I showed up.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted my look to reflect how I teach: warm, creative, and engaging. I spend a probably unhealthy amount of time keeping up with cultural and marketing trends. I crack a joke here and there, even when I&#039;m the only one who can&#039;t stop laughing. <\/p>\n<p>So I leaned into color and vibrance with purpose \u2014 bold blue sweaters, cherry-print dresses, a soft camel cape, and floral prints with a pop of pink \u2014 plus a dewy glow on my cheekbones.<\/p>\n<p>These choices weren&#039;t about making a fashion statement. I just wanted to feel comfortable and like myself, even if that meant appearing youthful. <\/p>\n<h2>My first class proved that the way you you show up matters more than how old you look <\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b97058ebc245a53a81119f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman in colorful dress smiling with arms outstretched\"\/><figcaption>A bright, windy day when my hair had its own opinions and I felt fully like myself.<\/p>\n<p>Julie Zhu<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I didn&#039;t realize how much showing up as myself would calm my nerves until I stepped into the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>On my first day teaching as an adjunct professor, I walked in with a red floral dress, burgundy Mary Janes, and a plan. <\/p>\n<p>Sixteen new faces stared back as I asked them to pick a brand, jot down three words associated with it, and turn to a partner to compare notes.<\/p>\n<p>Then it was time to share. Students explained the &quot;why&quot; behind their impressions \u2014 a Super Bowl commercial, the smell of a product, a friend&#039;s comment, something their parents used to buy, or a meme they&#039;d seen online.<\/p>\n<p>No longer watching me, they were building on each other&#039;s ideas. That was the point: Marketing lives in what people remember.<\/p>\n<p>In that moment, I stopped worrying about whether I looked like a professor. When I stopped second-guessing my look, I stopped second-guessing myself, which freed me up to focus on the work.<\/p>\n<p>Now, when people ask, &quot;Are you a student?&quot; I smile. Yes, I&#039;m always a student of the world. <\/p>\n<p>Because what really matters isn&#039;t whether I look like a student or a professor. It&#039;s showing up prepared, teaching with clarity, and helping students think more creatively and strategically \u2014 so they can do the same when they&#039;re in my shoes one day, burgundy Mary Janes or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At work, I&#039;ve been mistaken for a student many times. Instead of trying to seem older, I&#039;ve leaned in to my youth. Julie Zhu Despite being a professor in my 30s, I&#039;ve often been mistaken for a student because I look young. Although I considered trying to seem older and more mature, I decided to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}