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Most of us probably have a very vivid picture of how a US president looks. However, before men become the most powerful people in the free world, they are regular guys just like us. For example, Harry S. Truman was a timekeeper in the railway, while Andrew Johnson was a tailor.
To illustrate that one day they were just like us, Bored Panda has collected a list of portraits of US presidents when they were young. You can barely recognize them, and if you think presidency is an easy job - take a look at how presidents look before and after their terms in office.
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#1
Barack Obama, Age 18
Sam McKinney 8 years ago
If someone had asked me which photo I thought would be number one on this list of presidents and I had to guess. I would have bet everything I own that it would be this guy. I hope everyone enjoyed the cool-aid they drank.
John Parker III 6 years ago
YEP!, I've missed that dud since January 20, 2017, the change I neither wanted or needed and what kind of deals he was making with his Raghead Jihadist buddies. Thanks be to God for the Red Blooded, 100% American in Washington now!
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#2
Theodore Roosevelt, Age 20
#3
John F. Kennedy, Age 21 And 20
Aunt Messy 8 years ago
I never understood why so many people thought he was good looking. He looks like a pudding to me.
Ivana Bogdan 8 years ago
Look at him. Just another teenager which have no idea what will happen to him.
Kim Burnett 8 years ago
Ones soul is never opened until one is owned by a puppy; hence a good president
#4
Gerald Ford, Age 18 And 20
#5
Abraham Lincoln, Late 30s (Earliest Confirmed Photo)
Kendra Coffey 8 years ago
It is also suggested that he might of had Marfan syndrome. That's where you grow abnormally tall and your bones elongate. If he wasn't shot there was a good chance he would have died an early death anyways because with Marfan syndrome the heart has to overwork causing an early death.
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Claire Von Hirdler 8 years ago
best pic of lincoln i've seen. he always looks so stiff. back problems or just the way photos were taken back then?
#6
Bill Clinton, Age 22 And 26
jacluckycat 8 years ago
Wow they both look so happy and relaxed. Politics takes such a physical toll. Not that they look bad now, just weary
Sarah Lennie 8 years ago
The womaniser and the war monger. I wonder if they look back and are ashamed of the things they've done.
#7
Ronald Reagan, Age 29
Ina Andreassen 8 years ago
Looks aren't everthing. He was more than happy to cruch the union and snitch on fellow actors (communist hysteria) to clime to power.
Kendra Coffey 8 years ago
#hollywoodShouldStayOutOfPolitics .... am I right or am I right? lol
#8
Franklin Roosevelt, Age 18
Jeanne Deaux 8 years ago
Holy schnitzel, if I was 14 years younger and living at the same period as him I would love for him to court me.
#9
Jimmy Carter, Age 18
#10
Rutherford B. Hayes, Age 30
jacluckycat 8 years ago
Wow he was really good-looking. He looks like he should play mr. darcy in pride & prejudice
#11
Richard Nixon, Age 20
nyssa1049 8 years ago
I think he looks kind of attractive, in a rugged sort of way...aaaaannnnd I can't believe I'm actually thinking that. :\
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jacluckycat 8 years ago
He was better-looking in his youth than i would have imagined. He did not age well
#12
George H. W. Bush, Age 18
Amy Hedges 8 years ago
Wow...That did escalate quickly. I didn't agree with the politics but in this picture he's just a young kid, just a kid.
#13
George W. Bush, Age 19
Yugan Talovich 8 years ago
Yeah, but at least, the very least, he did put on a uniform, unlike #45.
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Walt Hodgson 8 years ago
No way he's 19 in this pic. He'd be at least in his early 20's. You have to earn bars and wings.
#14
James Garfield, Age 16
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
Those eyes though, doesn't have to be color for me to know they were gorgeous!
#15
William Mckinley, Age 21
Karla Heesacker 7 years ago
You had to keep a neutral face, because of the long exposure time. Otherwise you blurred your features. If you look at old pictures of that era, and there are animals, check out the dogs, they often have no tails and no heads, because they can't keep still for the exposure.
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#16
Calvin Coolidge, Between 19 And 23 Years
Stephen Hoggarth 8 years ago
Deserves some sort of award for keeping still for 4 years so they could take that photo.
Lee Schedler 8 years ago
They called him Silent Cal. I think we could do with more of his type. I don't think that would win nowadays, though.
#17
Woodrow Willson, About 19 Years Old
Martha Dye-Whealan 8 years ago
His eyes are not directly facing the camera, but you know his gaze must have been piercing.
#18
George W. Bush, Age 21
Sofia Bellavista 8 years ago
The others have a certain brightness in their eyes, or a special composure.. he just looks goofy, a daddy's boy
#19
Warren G. Harding, Age 21
Rosemary Moreland 8 years ago
Actually, he looks a lot like my Dad at a similar age! But my Dad is Australian born and bred.
#20
Harry Truman, Age 22 And 33
Marcena Cashman 8 years ago
If Radar and Father Mulcahy had a love child!
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#21
Dwight Eisenhower, Age 25 and 29
Kimberly Malachowski 8 years ago
Seriously the front of his pants look like you can see his balls hanging. Couldn't help but noticing. It's hanging right there.
#22
Lyndon Johnson, Age 18
#23
Herbert Hoover, Age 25
#24
Ulysses S. Grant, Age 23
Charlotte Notenboom 8 years ago
In older pictures people seem older than we'd estimate age now. Because they had to stand still for many seconds (resting b***h face) and the colors of black and white then and now are different, in certain ways of phoyography redness (in the skin) shows darker on the picture, why they look more aged. And ofcorse general health is better now, so we seem younger ;)
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Tamara van Hees 8 years ago
They aged alot quicker back then in regards to the era, some people come across older than they actually are.
#25
Benjamin Harrison, Age 17
#26
William Henry Harrison, Age 40
Flora Polvado 8 years ago
40 is not that old. May have been the youngest they could find of him, though.
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#27
John Tyler, Age 36
#28
Millard Fillmore, Undated
Courtney Wilson 8 years ago
https://www.google.com/search?q=millard+fillmore&oq=mill&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0j46l2.2301j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=9DE2-tj5wDTbBM:
#29
John Adams, Age 33
Lynnie Hendricks 8 years ago
Wearing the grey wigs that were the fashion at the time does make him look a lot older.
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Lianna Valdez 8 years ago
John Adams?! I know him That can’t be That’s that little guy who spoke to me All those years ago What was it, eighty-five? That poor man, they’re gonna eat him alive! From Hamilton
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What do you think ?
jacluckycat 8 years ago
It's really interesting to see these people at an age before they ever knew they'd directly shape their country's path
Sarah Thompson 8 years ago
Explain to me why Obama's photo has a photoshopped cigarette in his mouth? And why Trump photo is the only one without historical context behind it? This makes it look like Obama was a pothead and Trump was in the military both false statements.
Talia Sarai 8 years ago
Seriously? You find a suited pic of all the other presidents and you post this one Barack Obama?! You're telling me, you could find no other pictures? And if so, why not find casual pictures of the other Presidents? I'm done.
Cheryl Daniel 3 years ago
The early presidents had life masks showing what they really looked like but not young.
David Penny 8 years ago
Interesting....only two Presidents look like filthy punks. Can you guess which two?
Lee Crandall 8 years ago
Interesting - at 29 Ronald Reagan was just PRETENDING to be a famous Notre Dame football player (George Gipp) while Gerald Ford at 20 WAS a Michigan football player (without a helmet?) and Jimmy Carter was in the Navy ROTC and eventually headed for Annapolis.
jacluckycat 8 years ago
It's really interesting to see these people at an age before they ever knew they'd directly shape their country's path
Sarah Thompson 8 years ago
Explain to me why Obama's photo has a photoshopped cigarette in his mouth? And why Trump photo is the only one without historical context behind it? This makes it look like Obama was a pothead and Trump was in the military both false statements.
Talia Sarai 8 years ago
Seriously? You find a suited pic of all the other presidents and you post this one Barack Obama?! You're telling me, you could find no other pictures? And if so, why not find casual pictures of the other Presidents? I'm done.
Cheryl Daniel 3 years ago
The early presidents had life masks showing what they really looked like but not young.
David Penny 8 years ago
Interesting....only two Presidents look like filthy punks. Can you guess which two?
Lee Crandall 8 years ago
Interesting - at 29 Ronald Reagan was just PRETENDING to be a famous Notre Dame football player (George Gipp) while Gerald Ford at 20 WAS a Michigan football player (without a helmet?) and Jimmy Carter was in the Navy ROTC and eventually headed for Annapolis.
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