Why Does Gen Z Look SO Old? | Style Theory

Why does Gen Z look so much older than their age?

Gen Z is aging like a banana.

Gen Z is looking older these days.

Is Gen Z aging faster?

So apparently Gen Z looks older than they actually are.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's with everyone saying Gen Z is looking old?

Is this just the case of people picking on the younger generation?

Or is there really something making Gen Z age faster than any generation before?

Well, it's a lot more complicated than that.

And I'm about to show you why.

Hello, Internet.

Welcome to Style Theory, the show that never ages.

No, really.

I'm stuck like this forever.

But apparently the same can't be said for one generation, Gen Z.

Hey, hey, hey, don't shoot the messenger.

It's been hard to ignore post after post after post popping up on my feed saying Gen Z is looking kind of old.

And before you go saying it's the older generation hating on the youth,

even Gen Z itself is wondering what the heck's going on.

Zendaya is older than me.

I'm not even going to sit here and deny that I don't look old.

I'm 23.

I thought she was early 30s.

I am 23.

Well, sit back and put on a face mask because I'm about to solve the mystery.

And to all my Gen Z friends out there, get ready to take some notes.

To figure out if Gen Z is looking more mature, we first need to know how old they actually are.

Technically speaking, to be considered Gen Z,

you need to have been born between the years of 1997 and 2012,

making the youngest of the group about age 12 and the oldest age 28.

Now, that's a pretty wide range.

But before any preteens start rushing out to the stores to buy wrinkle cream,

know that the people getting roasted for looking too overcooked are elder Zoomers,

sitting roughly between the ages of 18 to 28.

And though everyone may be talking about Gen Z looking old,

no one has actually been able to pinpoint why until now.

Today, I am taking you down the rabbit hole of what's making your BFF look like they're 52 instead of 22.

Let's start with the one that keeps popping up the most on my feed, the clothes.

People have been saying that Gen Z looks older than their age.

I think a lot of this can be chalked up to them not necessarily looking like they're aging faster,

really, but styling themselves a lot older than their age.

Thanks to social media and especially TikTok, Gen Z has taken over the world of fashion.

They're buying more ethical and sustainable items,

thrifting from vintage stores and upcycling old items from their closet and their families.

More and more Gen Z are sourcing items from their parents and their grandparents,

giving those old forgotten items a new life,

meaning that their clothes are old and so are their styles.

Listen, Gen Z's been busy creating trend after trend after trend.

Cottagecore, old money, dark academia, coastal grandma, grandpa core, frazzled English woman.

Yes, these are actual trends worn by actual people.

So do you see what links them all?

Looking across this whole spectrum, I see one overarching theme, old.

From the more fanciful vintage inspired looks of cottagecore to dark academia's use of blazers and tweed,

it's not just that the clothes are old or that the styles are old.

Even the fabrics that they're choosing to wear are old-timey.

Gen Z is known for its love of loose casual fits and you see that at play here as well.

From the slouchy pants of the grandpas and the loose flowing blouses of the grandmas

to the large coats and cardigans reminiscent of mid-2000s rom-coms,

everything harkens back to an older era and that in and of itself gives Gen Z a feeling of being beyond their years.

But clothes alone aren't the only thing that has the internet putting Gen Z on blast.

So let's take a look at the other giant red flag, at least according to TikTok.

The reason that Gen Z looks so much older is because Millennials was not allowed to wear makeup in middle school.

It's the amount of makeup that they wear and how good they are at it.

While the clean girl aesthetic that focuses more on natural looking makeup may be making the rounds right now,

Gen Z is no stranger to going ham on the makeup.

Data shows that Gen Z started wearing makeup around 11 years old,

a whole three years earlier than when Millennials started wearing makeup.

Not only were they using makeup earlier, they had something that no other generation had before at that age,

the internet and a slew of beauty influencers ready to teach them everything

from how to find their perfect foundation shade to contouring their face for the gods.

The height of the YouTube beauty guru hit around 2010 when the oldest side of Gen Z was just turning 13

and starting to experiment with their personal expression via their makeup.

So they turned to the popular faces of the time, your Miss Glamorazzi, your Michelle Phans, and of course, Zoella.

Hello everyone!

This easy access to tutorials and product recommendations meant that Gen Z got a head start on every other generation

when it came to developing their skills.

And it didn't stop there.

Style icons on Instagram like Kim Kardashian were known for their sharp cheekbones and angular jawlines,

which meant that when Gen Z was learning how to paint their face, they focused heavily on the contour.

While this can make you look snatched, it can also make you look old.

How?

Pfft.

No, that's not just me making a weird sound.

It's literally P-F-F-T.

Plumpness, firmness, folds, and texture.

These are the four traits we as humans use to identify youthful skin.

When we're young, our faces tend to be fuller, rounder, and more plump.

This is because younger faces tend to hold more of one thing, fat.

Yeah, those baby cheeks that your grandparents love to pinch and say,

Oh, you're so cute!

Look that way because of a healthy layer of fat under your skin.

As you get older, this collection of fat starts to deteriorate,

which then leads to a change in that youthful, pfft, look.

Your face will naturally start to become sharper as you get older.

So all that contouring is doing is putting you on a bullet train to looking more like your mom or dad,

or your grandma and grandpa.

And Gen Z is actually taking this to a bigger extreme, plastic surgery.

They started cosmetic injectables way too young.

They didn't need to be getting four syringes of fillers in their face.

When it comes to cosmetic procedures, Gen Z is starting earlier than any other generation.

No, really.

As of February of this year, 75% of plastic surgeons reported a spike in patients under 30.

There are a few reasons for this.

One is the increased emphasis on skincare over the past three to five years.

Then you have the fact that most procedures are cheaper now than they ever have been before.

And of course, you have the fact that Gen Z has grown up as the most visible generation in history,

thanks to social media.

And that comes with a lot of pressure.

The most common procedures for Gen Z include Botox, fillers,

and cheek implants that help give you a more pronounced cheekbone.

All things that, again, help play into that very sculpted look made popular on Instagram and TikTok.

And all of that is not even mentioning the most popular procedure of the past couple years,

buccal fat removal.

For those of you who haven't heard of it,

it is a procedure that removes a specific pocket of fat from your lower cheek

and thus makes your face appear slimmer.

This procedure has actually existed for decades,

but it exploded in popularity recently thanks to the rise of the influencer face.

That same sculpted angular look that started with the rise of contouring.

You even see it now in almost every IG and TikTok filter.

And Gen Z, the first generation to grow up fully online,

is turning it into their reality.

Case in point, Kylie Jenner,

who many call out as the poster board for changing your face with cosmetic surgery.

Kylie, like the rest of Gen Z,

has been trolled online for looking much older than her natural age

because she's lost that youthful pfft factor

thanks to the cosmetic procedures and the makeup that she wears.

And no shade here.

I'm not weighing in on her choices or if I personally find it appealing.

It's just hard to say that this hasn't had an effect on how old she appears.

Yet, while cosmetic procedures can put a band-aid on issues,

the long-term effects could actually make signs of aging worse.

According to the Illuminate Skin Clinic,

while Botox may halt creasing effects of the muscles on the skin,

long-term overuse can sometimes weaken the muscles,

causing them to waste away.

Elasticity is lost,

and you may start to notice deepening lines and wrinkles.

Yes, your preventative care could actually hurt you in the long run.

And doing it younger, like in your early 20s or earlier,

could cause even more hazards,

like the thinning of your skin,

which can lead to sagging and wrinkles appearing earlier

than they may have without the procedure.

Talk about a double-edged sword or scalpel.

Still, not all of Gen Z is going under the knife,

so once again, we are left with a missing piece of this puzzle.

What is that missing piece, you might ask?

Stress.

They've grown up on social media,

which we all know impacts mental health.

And on top of that, the pandemic.

I think that really did a number on them.

It is mainly because of the stress.

Come here.

Ah, stress, my dear friend.

We meet again.

Now, the truth is, our dear Zoomers are no stranger to stress.

Yep, we have to talk about COVID.

When it comes to generations impacted by the pandemic,

Gen Z sits at the tippy-top of that list.

For most of them, it hit during a key developmental point of their life,

the time where they were learning to connect with their peers,

process increased responsibility,

and develop their own sense of self,

a time when they were most vulnerable.

Stress can do a number on your body.

It can lead to thinning hair,

changes in your skin like inflammation,

increased acne and rosacea,

and yes, it can cause you to look older.

Stress makes a cell in our body known as the skin mast cell

activate and produce a hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol, among other things,

can cause your body to stop producing collagen.

However, Gen Z is not the only generation

to go through a large-scale traumatic event

during their developmental years.

Millennials went through 9-11,

the war that followed,

and a major recession.

Gen X went through the Gulf War,

while baby boomers had Vietnam

and the assassination of JFK,

just to name a few.

So, what makes what Gen Z is going through any different?

According to them,

it's the amount of stress.

Multiple studies have shown that Gen Z

says that it feels more stressed

and more depressed than previous generations,

especially when it comes to things like work,

money, and health.

And that makes sense.

We are talking about a generation

who's come into adulthood during a recession,

a pandemic,

political distress,

and an environmental crisis.

The downside is that

claiming the title of most stressed generation

doesn't come with a shiny crown.

It comes with wrinkles.

So, what's the final verdict?

Has Gen Z cursed itself to looking forever old?

Well, don't start picking out your burial plots yet, Zoomers,

because the answer is

no.

You see, this idea around Gen Z looking old

is just that,

an idea that has been repeated

generation after generation.

None of these concerns are new.

I was watching Oomph! in the city,

and they run into a group of 13-year-olds,

and they're all like,

they look like they're in their 20s.

Sure, right now, our sights are set on Gen Z,

but before that,

it was whether or not millennials

looked older than the kids of today.

Why do these teenagers look so much older?

We give so much s*** to TV and movie producers

for hiring 30-year-olds,

but apparently when they were in high school,

everyone looked 30.

And before that,

we were talking about Gen X

and Baby Boomers looking older

when they were younger.

The truth is,

people are not aging faster or slower

than previous generations.

So, what really has people thinking Gen Z's looking old?

It's the fact that we as humans

are bad at identifying age

based on sight alone.

I just don't have a perception of age.

Either you look really young

or you look really old.

Anything in between that,

I'm just gonna assume you're my age.

I just can't tell the difference.

A study from 2018 found that,

on average,

when people tried to guess someone's age,

they were about eight years off,

which is about the range

of mistaking a 22-year-old Zoomer

for a 30-year-old millennial.

Wouldn't you say?

It doesn't stop there, though.

That same survey found

that we are more likely to guess

that a younger person is older

and vice versa

due to our own internal biases.

You see, we judge faces

based on other faces we've seen recently.

And what faces are we seeing now

more than ever?

Millennials and Gen Z,

our two chronically online generations.

Yes, we are so oversaturated

with our own faces

thanks to social media

that it has skewed

how we perceive each other

and how others perceive us.

Unlike in the past,

where situational context

and in-person conversation

could clearly help draw

that generational line,

we're all just shouting

into a context-free void

of endless scrolling faces.

Add in all those other factors

we discussed today

that help to blur the lines

between one generation and another,

and it's no wonder

that no one knows

how old anyone is anymore.

So, whether you're a Zoomer

or a millennial,

a Gen X

or a baby boomer,

remember, age is just a number

and we shouldn't be fighting each other

about who looks older than who

because Gen Alpha

is coming for all of us.

But hey, that's just a theory.

A style theory.

Keep looking sharp.

And if you've ever wondered

what makes a face more attractive,

check out our episode

on facial symmetry

and I will see you next time.