What Does 36 Look Like?

Today is my birthday.

When I went to bed last night I was still young(ish), but as of this morning’s alarm clock I am officially closer to 40 than 30. I’m 36.

birthday pic
I took this picture this morning on my way into work, just to be sure it was an ACTUAL picture of me at 36 years old. I mean, if I took it yesterday I could have suddenly grown much more haggard overnight when my birthday hit.

36.

36 is weird.
I mean, is this considered middle age?

Am I “over” the hill?
Where IS the hill, exactly?

I’m not depressed about it or anything. It’s just really weird to me to be 36 years old. I mean, I still feel so young. Well, most of the time.

I guess it helps that I don’t “look my age.”  When I tell people how old I am, their eyes typically bug out and they respond with something along the lines of, “are you freaking kidding me, I thought you were in your mid-20’s?!”

Maybe they’re just being super nice. Or maybe I act like I’m younger than I am? Perhaps my face lotion from Origins is doing a better job than I thought?

It probably helps that I’m a bit of a cradle-robber and married a hottie husband who is 5 years younger than me. Okay, 5 ½ years younger.

When Travis and I got married, I was too young to be a “cougar”… Crap, am I a cougar now?

And if I look “good” for my age, what does a NORMAL 36 year old look like? The person that when they say, “I’m 36” you just nod your head and say “yup.”

I googled it, because that’s what we do nowadays.

However, google failed me because I couldn’t find what a normal 36 year old looked like. I did find a list of celebrities that are also my same age though, which included: Ryan Reynolds, Liv Tyler, Sarah Michelle Gellar, James Van Der Beek, Joe Manganiello, Anna Faris, Emily Deschanel, Rachel McAdams and Alicia Silverstone.

Marilyn_Monroe - 1962
Marilyn Monroe from 1962, when she was 36 years old. (Source: Wikipedia)

I really doubt that anyone on this list would be described as “typical” in looks though… they’re all massive sexy beasts that probably spend more on hair and makeup than I did on my truck. I’m going to go ahead and consider that (WAY) out of my league… especially since I haven’t actually gotten my hair cut since December.

I also was reminded that Marilyn Monroe was 36 years old when she died. Here’s a picture of her from 1962 when she was 36. Hottie. A 36 year old HOTTIE.

I did a little Facebook research too and checked out my classmates from high school. I mean, we’re all the same age, right? That didn’t really help either though — maybe they also “look good for their age” or maybe some of them look terrible for their age. I can’t really tell because when I look at them I see the 17 year old version that I knew almost 20 years ago.

Oh and while doing my research I also learned that the age of 36 is considered the “year zero” face that people shoot for when doing plastic surgery. So that’s kind of cool. Or depressing if you think about the fact that it’s all downhill from here. Well, crap.

Anyways, I’m 36 now. So there’s no going back. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that I continue to “look good for my age” or at least have people in my life that lie quite flatteringly.

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10 thoughts on “What Does 36 Look Like?”

  1. Happy Birthday! I hate it when people say “you don’t look your age” what the hell does that even mean?!?! I look at celebrities that are my age and I think they look like teenagers! And yet I have friends from high school and university that look much older than I do. It’s all about the genetics 😉

  2. I think you actually ARE 25.
    And just want to be cool like us old folk.
    I used folk in a sentence.
    See what you have to look forward to?
    Happy day!!!

    1. lol, yup I’m totally 25… I just know that you won’t be my friend unless I’m over 30, so I do what I have to do. 😉

  3. Happy Belated Birthday and you do look younger! Let me tell you a secret- you’ll only get better looking. It’s just a matter of confidence, and humor and you’ve got that one down. Beautiful Joules!

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