The Need to Look Older

Dressing Older Won’t Help Us Grow Up Any Faster

By Samantha Rosenberg

Photograph by Carina McCallum

From blunt bobs to oversized wool coats, young adults are increasingly dressing older than they are. We as humans are biologically wired to seek control and authority, and one way to achieve this is dressing older than our age. I find this to be both completely valid and absolutely ridiculous.

Somewhere between beginning college and building a LinkedIn profile, we’ve decided that looking older will help us feel older, too. It’s like we’re faking it till we make it, and “mature” fashion has emerged as a popular shortcut to adulthood.

This is not a new concept, but this transformation used to begin after graduation; now I look around and see 18-year-olds dressing as if they were already CEOs. In truth, as much as I feel bad for them for rushing their lives away, I envy them, that they seem to have gotten their lives together so quickly. It can be embarrassing to be young when you are entering adulthood. So childish to be colorful, and so weird to act your age.

What’s worse is how quickly this “effortless” look has become the uniform. Instagram and TikTok are filled with one outfit on repeat—black trench, slicked-back bun, leather bag. It’s less about the actual clothes and more about what it’s signaling: I am important, mature, and you should be jealous because clearly I’ve made it. I am not a kid anymore.

Instead of colorful dresses, graphic t-shirts, and bold accessories that dare to express a personality, there are neutral palettes, structured blazers, and tailored wool coats that swallow up any form of self-expression. It may seem elegant and effortless, but in reality, for these newly minted adults, it comes off as forced.

Growing up has always seemed like something you have to prove, and now this feeling is accelerated. We’re not easing into adulthood like I thought we were—we don’t have time for that. There’s so much pressure to skip the in-between, past the awkward stage, and go directly to polished and perfect. But that awkwardness is where we figure everything out, where we are supposed to experiment and be messy. If we don’t go through this phase, the bobs and wool coats just feel like an undeserved costume.

Let’s not skip over the freedom and individuality that come with being young. In college, we are entitled to wear whatever we want, to experience everything new, and to have our own ideas. There’s an opportunity for creativity that is being suppressed and left behind in our childhood.

Wanting to be perceived as mature is valid—especially now. College brings so many expectations: careers start to feel real, the future feels closer than ever, and we want to present ourselves as polished and unflawed. But this is also the exact time we’re supposed to experiment—not just with our style, but with our identities and what actually feels like us.

So if dressing this way feels natural, keep doing it. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of your individuality. It should not replace the parts of you that are still evolving and uncertain. Growing up isn’t supposed to be about perfecting your image for others—it’s about becoming yourself, and this experience should not look so uniform.