Feeling young, looking younger

“I’m sorry Chris, I hate to have to tell you this, but the client gave me this feedback and I thought I’d pass it onto you,” he said. This was in my early years of teaching and presenting in front of an audience, mostly adults. I have the gift of a young Asian face but I also knew my material like the back of my hand. So his comments were biting. “The audience mentioned that though you knew your topic, you were dressed too young for the crowd.” From then on, I have vacillated between dressing much older and stuffy, in a way that was super uncomfortable for me, and dressing youthful and playful as a much better reflection of who I felt like, in an effort to either gain respect from my audience or give them the proverbial middle finger.