'I sound like a five-year-old and nobody takes me seriously as a result'

27 January 2024 , 15:15

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People think she's 10 years younger due to her voice (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A woman has revealed that she's never taken seriously due to her voice "sounding like a five-year-old" and always gets accused of "putting it on".

Looking younger and more youthful is something many of us hope to achieve as we get older, but one thing we can't change is our voice. But one woman claims people always assume she's much younger than she is due to her voice and it's caused some pretty awkward encounters.

Ebony May took to social media to vent the frustrations of her voice. Despite being 20, she said she would get mistaken for a 10-year-old, this raises a whole host of problems when she's running her business.

Ebony says she once got told to get her mum when she went to order a lemonade at the bar as the bartender thought she was too young, and that another time she was asked if she was "competent enough" to help a customer while working in a retail job.

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Ebony is also accused of "putting on" her youthful-sounding voice. Fed up with the comments, she decided to speak about it in a video and said: "Ok, I'm going to address this once and never again, yes, this is my actual voice. I'm aware that I sound a lot younger than I actually am.

"Some people literally think I'm putting a voice on for TikTok. They're like 'why are you speaking like a five-year-old?' I cannot help it I cannot change my voice. I didn't realise that my voice was that different until I had a teacher that said 'why do you sound like that?' and I was really confused. Since I started this account, I get heaps of comments all the time, saying 'why do you sound like that?' Also on video I feel like I sound even more like a child."

Ebony explained that she's always been told she looks younger so she's "used to it" now. She even claimed that a customer once said to her in a in retail job: "Oh my god, you're so cute, I just want to take you home," and she was 15 at the time.

Another anecdote she shared was when she was in a nightclub with her brother and a woman was staring at her intensely. Ebony said: "And then she comes over and she goes 'are you old enough to be here?'" She then jibed that her ID was her "biggest flex".

Niamh Kirk