Dear Adele, 30 Is Not That Old

Adele has always seemed mature beyond her years. To celebrate her 29th birthday on Friday, she decided to show us what it would look like if she really were an old lady. Adele posted four hilarious photos of herself with prosthetics, a wig, and reading glasses — and those of us on the other side of 30 just have to hope she's not trolling us.

"Nearly 30! Thanks for the well wishes. See you soon x," Adele wrote when she shared the pics on Twitter.

Knowing her, this is probably just self-deprecating humour. But we can also read something deeper into it if we want to: Since she released 19 in 2008, her big voice and emotional delivery seemed to come from someone much older. Her signature '60s makeup style also gave her a more mature, glamorous air than her contemporaries early on. Maybe this old lady character is who she feels like on the inside?

Adele seems to have a bit of an obsession with getting older. Obviously, all of her album titles are named after her age, reflecting how she changed in that phase of her life. In her most recent, 25, she expresses a whole lot of nostalgia for her youth already. In "Hello," she talks about "who we used to be / When we were younger and free." Then, of course, there's "When We Were Young," in which she's already anticipating missing this exact moment and says, "I'm so mad I'm getting old / It makes me reckless."

All of which makes me want to say: Relax, girl, 30 IS NOT OLD. If you want to go by the numbers, the average age of death for a woman in the U.K. is 89, so your middle age is 15 years away, at least. Plus, most people in their 30s will agree that things are so much easier after your angst-ridden 20s. If anything, you may want to worry that you won't have as much pain to write about once you hit that not-so-big 3-0. Just kidding, there's plenty of pain here too, just not so much self-doubt. That may also be where that old myth about hitting your "sexual peak" at 35 comes from — it's not about age at all, but about feeling free to express yourself, experts say.

Anyway, here's hoping we all live to see Adele in her real old age because clearly, she's going to be a hoot.