Quest for eternal youth starts earlier

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Forget "40 is the new 30." Now even twentysomethings are joining the quest for eternal youth by using anti-aging products and wrinkle treatments.

Some young adults say they want to reverse the effects the sun has already had on their skin. Others already are feeling social pressure to retain their fresh-faced looks.

"Instead of starting when you're 40 or 45, you might as well start now," says Joanne Katsigiannis, a 24-year-old from suburban Chicago who's been using anti-aging products for about two years.

Like a lot of people her age, Katsigiannis once spent hours at tanning booths and out in the sun without using much sunscreen. She thought she looked better tan, until she realized her skin was starting to scar.

For Leslie Speyers, it's as much about keeping up appearances as anything.

"Vanity is probably the main reason I started using anti-aging products, as superficial as it is," says Speyers, a 24-year-old who works for a publishing company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She notes that maintaining a youthful look is a common worry among her friends -- including one who's begun to dye her dark brown hair to hide some gray and another who uses skin-firming lotion on her legs because she thinks they look too flabby.

Both genders agree that women bear the brunt of this kind of anti-aging pressure -- though not exclusively.

"For guys my age, investing in your face is less of a priority than investing in a house or car," says Josh Levitt, a 23-year-old in Laguna Beach, California. Still, even he has started using anti-aging products at the urging of his mother, who wants him to preserve his "golden boy" looks, as she puts it.

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