I just spent 12 hours as a second shooter/photographer’s assistant at a wedding i’m 18 in 3 weeks, i’m 4’11 and have a horrendous baby face. People ALWAYS assume and treat me younger than I actually am.
Today multiple people thought I was the photographer’s kid tagging along instead of someone actually working. I was literally doing my job properly the entire time—calm, organised, not fidgeting (which was hard after that many hours), following instructions, staying professional even when I was getting attitude from the people & the photographer. Multiple adults were laughing when i was chasing after the photographer with a bag full of lenses, and talking to me in a “baby voice”, when i was stood with the 200 sheets I had to check off the bride’s dad said “are you rating her photos out of 10? 🥺”
And the bride at the end of the day said “Thank you for helping! 🥺”, meanwhile the photographer was spoken to normally, it’s actually humiliating, it really upsets me, i’m an adult in 3 weeks and people still speak to me in the baby voice, because who doesn’t love having their job invalidated?
At one point I was talking to a group of girls my age and one of them said she thought I was 14. I awkwardly laughed and said I get that a lot because of my height, and she literally scoffed and said “it isn’t the height” and kind of glared at me.
Like… okay? That was just rude for no reason.
The worst part is I couldn’t even say anything back because I was working and it would’ve been “unprofessional,” but at the same time no one was even perceiving me as professional anyway.
It’s so frustrating putting effort into acting professional and still being treated like you don’t belong there or like you’re a kid tagging along. It genuinely gets in your head.
At the end of the day, i’m getting paid £100, which is a lot, but honestly for the constant hassle I face daily it doesn’t feel like it was worth it, I was so embarrassed.