How to guess someone's age.

I used to be intrigued by the carnival booths where they offer to guess your age or your weight within some reasonable margin of error. For me, it was more about gauging how old or how heavy I was perceived to be, rather than getting that free Teddy bear.

Now that I've turned twenty-two and magazines tell me this is a good time to begin my anti-aging, anti-wrinkle regimen(before it's too late!), I am intrigued by this cultural obsession of masking your age. The national obsession with looking younger- housewives with regular Botox appointments, "lifting" everything there is to lift, and dressing like your teenage daughter- does not seem appealing to me. I think there is some joy to be derived from acting and looking your age, to be proud of your life accomplishments and days you've lived through. It may be because I grew up in Korea where age indicates wisdom and naturally draws respect from those younger than you.

Anyhow, how do those carnival guessers estimate your age? It seems to be more of an observation game. They look at the crowd your are with- your kids or parents or friends may give your age away. They also observe the way you speak, the way you carry yourself, or the clothes you are wearing. One thing I found interesting is that the carnival workers will guess the women's age on the lower side, because after all, they are more likely to be offended by the suggestion that they look older even in a silly carnival game meant for laughs.

Your face does go through predictable changes through time. In your 20's, you may see lines in your brows and start seeing "crow's feet", wrinkles around the eyes. As you progress to your 30's, these lines may be more prevalent, and lines(called "11's") may appear between your brows. In your 40's you can expect to see lines around upper lips, forehead, and crows. Onto your 50's, 60's, and beyond, the fat beneath the skin continues to decrease, making those wrinkles and lines deeper while your face may droop downward. This WebMD article discusses the treatments you can consider in each age frame.

 The ultimate age-proof celebrity: Jennifer Aniston. Picture Source

Correspondingly, Dr. Thomas S. Huang at University of Illinois has developed an age-estimation software. The paper which appeared in IEEE transanctions on Image Processing discusses this program which can process images to determine someone's age. This program may be used to collect consumer data- what age group frequents this restaurant at this time frame on Thursdays, or who comes into the soap and fragrances store-without jeopardizing personal privacy by collecting only the age information.