15 Dating Struggles Only Girls Who Look Really Young Understand

By

1. You are always slightly concerned that a man is only approaching you because he has a weird, perverted, infantilistic fetish. What if he’s just one of those 30-year-olds who exclusively hits on young looking girls and secretly molests children?

2. On your first date, when you’re carded for a drink and your date isn’t you want to burrow into the ground until the world can’t see you anymore, but instead you politely try to make a joke that ends up making the situation more awkward.

3. You’re still sitting there, red in the face, when the bartender or server questions the validity of your ID. There’s nothing like having to recite your home address or zip code or date of birth while someone you hardly know is sitting across from you trying not to be judgmental.

4. Meeting your new date’s friends is weird because you know they’re secretly counting down the seconds until they can stalk you on Facebook to verify your age. You assume his friend group is having telepathic conversations with each other in which their eyebrows say, “Um, didn’t Nick say she was in her twenties? This girl looks like she’s in high school.”

5. Sometimes you meet a great guy and he’s shocked when you reveal that you have a legitimate job and an apartment because he thought you were a freshman in college.

6. Your date is always surprised you can sip good whisky or that you have basic wine knowledge, because they just assumed you have the tolerance and alcohol awareness level of a 16-year-old.

7. You have a sneaking suspicion that after the second date your new beau went home and described you to his roommates as looking like a 12-year-old with huge boobs. Unsurprisingly, this idea revolts you.

8. When your new man friend, or lady friend, brings you home to meet the parents for the first time they will remark that you are so sweet and cute. You will pretend to take it as a compliment and smile while berating yourself for not trying to pull-off 8-inch heels.

9. And while you’re meeting the fam, you notice your new love’s younger sibling looks your age even though in reality you’re 6 years-older than he or she is.

10. You fear the nick name phase of a new relationship because everyone always puts the world “little” in front of your name, and never in a bad ass way. (Seriously, why is it always Little Maya, and never Lil’ Maya? Okay, I hear it. But still.)

11. You are always described as “cute” when someone’s trying to set you up. It’s completely unfair because you are obviously hot, stunning, beautiful, etc. and would be classified as such if it weren’t for the fact that you’re munchkin-sized.

12. You hope your date doesn’t call you on the phone before you meet in person because you sound like a toddler on the phone. Hey, sometimes when you have a baby face, you have a voice to match and you don’t want to reveal that fact too soon.

13. Dates that aren’t ever a good idea for you: amusement parks, or anything that might have a height limit. Bungee jumping on a first date sounds awesome in theory but in practice, you don’t want to risk being too short and having to sit at a picnic table next to a 7-year-old as you watch the person you like bungee jump.

14. You’ve caught yourself rationalizing your young look by pointing out that celebrities (Reese Witherspoon, Hayden Panatteire, and if you really want to invite the comparison, Selena Gomez) also have baby faces. Then you remember you don’t need to rationalize how you look to anyone and try to brush off the random celebrity references in the middle of dinner.

15. You are hyper-aware of being someone’s “type.” Even if you’ve confirmed that your date doesn’t have any weird fetishes, you always get a sinking feeling in your chest when someone remarks that your guy “always goes for the younger girls.”

thumbnail image – Antti-Jussi Kovalainen