Author Unlocks Secret of Youth

After a year tracking the American obsession with looking younger, veteran journalist Beth Teitell reached a sobering conclusion: "Age is the new fat." But the author of the newly released book Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth kept her head and her sense of humor. Teitell, 47, tells Time: "The real trick to the fountain of youth is not working on your own appearance, but actually blinding others to your flaws."

More pointers:

• Dress for your age: "If you go too young, you look desperate. If you go too old, you go right to Queen Mum."
• "The bad news is that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to look younger."
• "The good news is that it's possible and actually relatively easy and inexpensive to appear more youthful."

(More age stories.)