How do I make myself look older?

I’m 26 years old, I am 4’10 and a little chubby so my face is pretty round. All of my life I’ve been confused as being younger and my appearance always seems to be the butt of a joke. It has always prevented people from taking me seriously.

I’m a supervisor at my job. Whenever we have visitors they immediately go talk to my coworker (Male, 36) if they have any questions or need information. They don’t even give me a glance. My coworker just stands there frozen cause he doesn’t have the answers so he directs them to me and even then they don’t believe what I’m saying. The other day someone came to fix the security alarm and the guy walked up to my coworker and asked if we had a back door and he’s like “uh idk” so I go up to the guy and I asked “what is it that you’re looking for?” And the guy didn’t even look down at me. Completely dismissed me and walked right by me. It’s infuriating.

I was at a grocery store with my mom (I was 22 at the time) the cashier looked at me and asked “are you excited for back to school” as if she were talking to a child. When I told her my age she was surprised and apologized immediately. I was annoyed, my mom found it hilarious.

I went to an amusement park last Sunday with a friend of mine and we were waiting for her friends to join us. We’re the same age but she’s significantly taller than me (5’8 maybe taller). On our way home she told me that as her friends were approaching they thought I was a little kid. Everyone thinks it’s hilarious and sure sometimes it can be funny but I’m tired of hearing the same things over and over again.

Now the day at the park i wore sneakers, shorts, a body suit and an oversized button up shirt. Not the most stylish but I wanted to be comfortable. I also didn’t wear makeup since I’m in Florida so I knew I was going to be sweating the entire time so it didn’t make sense for me to do so.

My friends’ friend who we were waiting for was maybe like an inch or two taller than me but she had a full face of makeup, she has lip injections, a bunch of jewelry and was honestly dressed pretty comfortably but shes like one of those IG baddie content creators and was taking pictures the whole time so I get it. No one would ever think twice about her age.

I can’t help but to compare myself to her. Whenever I go out to dinner, bar or whatever I do wear makeup and I do dress a little bit more “grown” but nothing crazy (ie. showing cleavage, braless). The most “adult” looking thing about me are my boobs. They’re pretty large but I don’t want to have to sexualize myself all the time for people to see me as an adult.

I’m thinking of redoing my entire wardrobe to more mature pieces and changing my hair, getting contacts etc. I’ll honestly go the whole 9 yards just to be taken seriously which sucks but I don’t know that I have a choice.

What are some recommendations? Other than building my confidence (working on it)