If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that you should never really assume ANYTHING about ANYONE.

If you do, many times you’ll just end up looking pretty foolish. And, as the saying goes, you can never judge a book by its cover…

AskReddit users went on the record and shared their stories about when people assumed things about them that were totally wrong.

Let’s take a look.

1. Not that clever.

“That I am clever because I like to read and wear glasses.

Then they see my grades and are really suprised…”

2. Are you a kid?

“I’m 26, almost 27, and female. I

‘m 4’11” and have resting nice face. People either baby me or are awful to me because they think I’m a teenager. People constantly ask me what grade i’m going into.

I get into places for free sometimes or at kids price, especially if i’m with my family and my nieces and nephews are present. It’s a blessing and a curse. but people assume a lot about me. I like it, I’m often underestimated.”

3. You’re way off.

“I live in a very Hispanic/Latino area and one woman heard me speak English and yelled at me for not speaking Spanish, calling me a traitor to my ancestors and bringing shame to my past family history in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Imagine her surprise when I told her I was Arab and Middle-Eastern. Still felt guilty for not knowing Spanish for some reason.”

4. We need to talk…

“My teacher asked my mom if I was taking drugs because my eyes were “bright” or something.

I was not and my mom knew it so nothing bad happened but a good laugh.”

5. Weight gain.

“People assumed is highschool i was eating nothing but junk because i was rapidly gaining weight while my twin wasn’t.

In truth i was starving myself because i couldn’t figure out why i was gaining weight. It wasn’t untill my 20s i found out i had a tumor on my thyroid and that’s what caused the weight gain.”

6. I am a man.

“I have a high voice as well as a high vocal range, but people always assume I’m a woman on the phone.

It’s hilarious when the scam callers say “‘ma’am you have a virus on your computer” and I lower my voice an octave and proceed to scream monkey noises for a minute and a half until they hang up.”

7. Mother in law.

“My MIL assumed I couldn’t cook, even though I’ve been cooking my entire life and enjoy doing it.

She always insisted that we go out to eat when they visited, to the extent that she would ruin our family plans because she was that adamant about not eating at our house.

Until one time, after about 3 years of being together, my husband refused to eat out and insisted that I cook. After eating she turned to my husband in surprise and said, “wow! This is really good! I didn’t know she could cook like this”

My husband liked her dead in the eyes and said, “that’s because you never gave her a chance and she’s a better cook than you”.”

8. Nope.

“A psychiatrist from the Emergencies assumed I had a lot of s*x because I told her that a few months before, things happened with one of my roomates when we were both drunk, but I didn’t know how far things went.

I went over the edge because of the silent treatment he gave me afterwards, underlying issues I had about s*xuality and a mild fear of unwanted pregnancy. I also told her that I occasionnaly partook in binge drinking at the time because it was true, which might have added to her bad opinion of me.

She called my mom (she was my emergency contact), told her everything and basically slut-shamed me on the phone, which I assume is super unprofessional, if not downright illegal (I thought what you said to a psychiatrist was private).

I was possibly a 23 years old virgin at the time (since I still don’t know what happened that night, at least the pregnancy scare was unfounded).”

9. You got the hookup?

“I started at a new high school my junior year. For starters, I looked like a hippy. I have very long wavy hair and dressed pretty boyish.

Everyone, including the school administrators/nuns, assumed I was a drug dealer of sorts. I had never even seen weed or any drug at that point. I got “randomly” chosen for our schools monthly drug tests several months in a row and periodically there after.

People constantly asked me for hookups or where to find hookups. On the plus side, the other hippy types gravitated and became some lifelong friends of mine, though their proximity to me was still suspicious at the time.”

10. This is pretty wild.

“This happened to me last night!

My girlfriend and I are in a different part of the state visiting her parents. She gets 7 missed calls and voicemail from the state police.

We call back.

A wanted man fitting my description is staying in a hotel of the same type, in our SAME ROOM NUMBER.

My girlfriend registered the room under her name, so the cops assumed she was shacked up with this guy and we were trying to give them the slip.

We go back to the hotel that night, she goes upstairs while I have a cigarette out front.

I see the woman at the front desk walk out into the lobby, recognize me, stop dead and immediately turn around. I text my girlfriend, “they totally think I’m that guy.”

To be fair, I have a big beard and I’m wearing black head-to-toe, including a black leather jacket–I stand out in this part of the state.

Sure enough, not 5 minutes later there’s a knock on the hotel room door. I knew it was a state trooper before I opened the door.

He asks me questions, hand on his gun, foot in the door– clearly assuming I’m this guy. I show him my ID, he writes down the information and asks me questions and writes down the answers. He keeps saying “you really do look just like the guy we’re looking for… Sure you’re not him?”

When I tell him I live in a different part of the state and prove it by reciting the address on the ID, he stops writing, looks at me and says, “so you’re just visiting for a few days, happen to be staying in this type of hotel, in this room, and fit this guy’s exact description?”

I say “yeah, I don’t know what to tell you.”

He gives me back my ID, and on his way down the hall, turns and looks back at me and says, “promise you’re not him?”

Apparently, they really thought they had their man.”

11. Not pregnant.

“I was at a dinner party and people kept offering me drinks that I continued to decline.

Eventually one woman’s eyes lit up as she looked between me and my husband and then she asked, “oh my gosh, are you pregnant?” Everyone around us got quiet and I laughed and said “no, I have epilepsy.”

I was handed no more glasses of wine after that!”

12. That’s weird.

“Had a friend I was crushing on that I felt liked me too. We were talking online one day and he had to go to work, he says “I’ll bbl and then get to spend more time with my favorite Asian.”

I asked, “who’s that?”

For as long as I knew him he thought I was Asian. Once he found out I wasn’t he ghosted me.”

13. I said no!

“My ex wife was convinced I had another family in another state. Simply because she heard a kid’s voice in the background on the phone when I was traveling for work and sitting in a restaurant once.

During divorce depositions, I spent a full day being questioned, and half the questions were slightly different wordings of “so you have another family/child/spouse/kid/dependent/etc…”

14. Oh well.

“Around the holidays my students often wish me Happy Hanukah. The exchange usually follows this pattern:

Student: Happy Hanukah, professor!

Me: Uh . . . thanks, Happy Hanukah!

Student: Oh, I’m not Jewish.

Me: Neither am I . . . but thanks for the sentiment. Happy Holidays!

I’m a college teacher in a Brooklyn school, so a lot of my students simply assume I’m Jewish.”

15. Just the way I am.

“People look at me and think I’m either a marijuana enthusiast or addicted to something.

The truth is I’ve never done anything, I guess I just dress like a skater and for a lot of my life operating on at most five hours of sleep.”

16. You’re not a kid anymore.

“A lot of people think I’m 18 or 19 and treat me like a kid.

I’m almost 26. It happens at work a lot and it can be annoying.

Also this is more recent but I just got a new car and people always ask if my parents bought it for me. Understandable but no, I worked hard for it.”

17. Not true.

“That I’m a lesbian.

Like my whole family thought that.

I guess my short colored hair, lack of interests in guys in high school, and eccentric clothes don’t help.”

18. Wow.

“I lost all my hair and eyebrows during chemo.

And someone I hadn’t seen in a while asked when I was getting my Make-a-Wish, thinking I had shaved for the hell of it. They had no idea I actually had cancer.”

19. That’s right.

“People seem to always want to talk about kneeling for the flag and other stuff because, as a Marine, they assume it p*sses me off.

Always seem baffled by my response, “I served because of my belief in their right to do that.””

20. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

“People assume that I am unemployed, poor and therefore uneducated because I always wear the same clothes, drive a small car, and am not very talkative.

When I need clothes I buy the same piece 4-5 times. I don’t feel like bothering about what to wear. My car is exactly as big as necessary. Why should I pay for more?

I have 2 different academic degrees and am a freelancer, working mostly from home.”

21. Just depressed…

“As a kid (around 10-15) people were so convinced I was some rude demon child that hated everybody when in reality I was just depressed and didn’t trust people enough to believe they had my best interest at heart so I just didn’t speak.”

22. This is who I am.

“Becuase I am African American, people assume my tastes generally are rap music but I’m actually am leaning towards punk, towards old rock, bubble gum pop, and then some rap music.

Not all. Kinda just liking RnB if that’s all right with yall.

Oh yeah don’t expect me to be a real anime guy. But yeah that’s a thing. My girlfriend says my demeanor is the main reason why no one sees me as the nerdy black guy anymore.

Which is interesting…”

23. You got the wrong person.

“I was about 21, never drank/smoked. Was highly against it at the time.

My step brother and his friends were about 17. They got caught smoking and all their parents blamed me because they apparently heard rumors I was a druggy.

It was the weirdest thing all the parents evil eyeing me n what not when I was the good one.”

24. Fast food.

“When I was 18/19 I worked in fast food while getting my degree in Psychology. I always had customers make smart *ss remarks about me when they were angry and it was usually along the lines of saying I’m uneducated, a high school drop out, etc.

One day there was a specific incident that happened where a customer got mad at me about his order being wrong. He started yelling at me and saying I needed to go back to school if I couldn’t get a simple order right.

I was on the verge of tears when out of nowhere one of my high school teachers walked up who was there with his family for lunch. He congratulated me on being accepted into college and heard I was working hard.

The guy yelling at me actually apologized after my teacher walked away and told me he’s just used to dealing with “dumb fast food workers” most of the time.”

25. A person of mystery.

“A lot of people assume I work in the trades or have no education because I have a lot of tattoos. I have 4 degrees and work in L&D *(learning and development).

A lot of people assume I am a heavy drinker, because I’m Eastern-European. I have maybe 10-15 alcoholic beverages a year.

A lot of people think I am 22ish. I’m 30.

I’ve had a few people tell me I’m quiet; I just didn’t like them and avoided talking to them.”

26. Mind your own business.

“A lot of people assume I got married soon after my divorce and gave custody of my daughter to my ex because I was cheating.

Nope. I gave him custody because she asked to live with him and he has the ability to provide for her much better than I could. I could have made the divorce super messy and petty and came out very well off. I didn’t want to put my daughter through that simply for money.

I got married soon after my divorce because an amazing guy came into my life and I decided being happy was more important that what other people assumed.”

27. Hmmm…

“People in high school assumed I was gay based on…I’m not actually even sure.

And it wasn’t even like them being curious, they straight up assigned that s*xuality to me and refused to believe otherwise. The things they would use as “proof” were some of the biggest stretches I’ve ever heard.

One time they took a look at my nails and were like “you paint your nails, you’re clearly gay!” My nails weren’t painted, it just didn’t look like I clawed my way out of a hole with my bare hands. I’m sure some of them still think I’m gay years later.

The reality of the situation is that I just don’t talk about the women I’m interested in openly. It doesn’t seem like that should be anyone’s business except for mine and the woman in question.”

28. Sorry, not happening.

“People in high school spread rumors I was ALWAYS having s*x.

I’ll be the first to say that nothing could’ve been farther from the truth, and many girls couldn’t even stand me. I have no idea where the rumors came from or how they started. Some of them even made their way to the local civic theater and other high schools.

I actually had a couple instances where someone would tell me (fake name used as an example) “Sam Holtman from South High said you were having s*x with blah blah blah” and I had never met the people mentioned, or even knew anyone from the other school. It happened my last two years of high school and it was very surreal.

It followed me to my Sophomore year of college, but it happened significantly less often.”

Now we want to hear from you!

In the comments, please tell us when people assumed things about YOU that were just plain wrong.

We’d love to hear from you.