I wouldn't say it's an age thing. But ppl now think of me as that guy who has snakes. Snake owners are thought as the hippies with long hair (look like chewy from SnakeBites) and are all around weird b/c we don't follow the crowd and get a dog, cat or fish. What most don't know is that most snake owners are most likely an all around animal lover and normally have another pet of some sort.
But that is just the feelings ppl I know have.
I must second this.

I keep snakes and a whole lot of other critters. I have a small herd of cats...two that live with me now (a Persian and a British Shorthair) and one that will be moving in with me once we are settled in the new house next month (a little mixed-breed shorthair) and if my dad insists on it, an ancient Maine Coon might come live with me as well.

I also have a dog, and a betta lives on my desk.

I have plans to set up a live-plant-intensive vivarium after we move, which will house a small colony of D. Leucomelas (bumblebee dart frogs) and I have plans to buy/aquire a LOT more snakes in the next few months.

Someday I plan to have a decent parcel of land (at least ten acres) zoned for livestock so I can have horses again, and I'd like to try my hand with a small group of sheep.

In other words, I'm a snake person for sure, but more than that I'm an ANIMAL person. I like critters more than I like most people. Nothing wrong with that.

Of course we're judged. The people trying to pass all these stupid laws prove that.
And I second this. Though I see a major flaw in their logic...more of us are voters than I think they realize. And oh how we are alienated by their preposterous claims.

I got my first snake on my 31st birthday, when it occurred to me that I -am- a grown-up, and I can decide what pets I have. I live on the other side of the country from my Mom, so it doesn't matter if reptiles freak her out, and I can jolly well have a snake if I want one. Or two. Or, um, ten.
Haha, likewise. One day I realized, oh my god I'm an adult, living in my own home, and I can do whatever I bloody well please.

That day, I began shopping for my first BP in years after eating a giant slice of chocolate cake for breakfast. I spent the afternoon after work playing video games.

I am 29, btw. Next May, I turn the big three-oh.

Yeah that's one thing i hate...
i have piercings, long hair, and I'm young.
Though the "young" part is debatable, I am all those as well. People still occasionally mistake me for a teenager when they find out I'm gauging up my ears (my goal is to get to 02 gauge in each lobe) and that I have no intentions of changing my hair (I have a pretty high-up undercut. It's all but a limp mohawk at this point! The undercut is shaved right to the skin, and the long stuff is about shoulder length when left down.). I inform them that many things are not limited by age, thus they cannot be "grown out of." If anything, I'm more into and enthusiastic about body modification and piercings than I was as a teenager!

Well i gotta admit whenever i heard of some1 having snakes or any sort of reptile i immediately thought they were weird and would have piercings and tatoos ha but know from being on this forum and researching stuff online before i got my bp i don't really think that anymore.
Funny story. I was at my dad's house, and somehow he, his GF and I got on the subject of snakes. I mentioned I know a fellow who might be willing to do a partial trade for some tack I own, and that he has some fabulous super-dwarf Retics I rather fancy. My dad sneered and said "Oh, how many tattoos does he have?" He turned to his GF and said "Most people who keep THOSE kinds of pets have tattoos." At that point I jumped in and said "Yeah, I know I sure do!"

Aparently my dad forgot about my ink. The look on his face was PRICELESS.

It did lead to a discussion that people from ALL walks of life can enjoy snakes, wether or not they are into tattooing or whatever. Contrary to popular belief they ARE mutually exclusive!

Anyways though...I must agree, the person who said to "grow up" needs to be told off.