Absolutely! Everyone here needs to pull out their high school yearbook and look at their photo. Then find a photo of themselves 3, 5, even 10 years later and look at the "differences".
Not a whole lot, eh?
Mikey
I graduated high school 28 years ago. Two years ago I moved back to my hometown after being gone 22 years. I was easily recognized in stores and gas stations by old classmates I hadn't seen since before I left, some I hadn't seen since junior high, and I can recognize them too. One guy who had red hair had gone totally bald and had a grey beard but I could still tell it was him. People may age, get fatter, skinnier, their hair may change styles and colors but their basic features and bone structure do not change. Another thing that makes it easy to recognize a person is their voice. Makes me wonder how many people who claimed AA as AN took the voice into consideration. I also wonder how many really knew and remembered Anastasia that well as distinct among the other girls. Some of those who 'recognized' her said stuff like 'those are Nicky's eye!' but it's not Nicky, it's Anastasia! Did they even know her eyes and face enough to know? I would say Mathilde K never met AN in her life, I mean, being Dad's old mistress, and being married to a member of the hated Vladimirovichi can you imagine what an awkward guest she'd have been at the palace? Yet the ones who knew her best, like Olga, denied her. There's a reason for that, she knew better. Some of the others who didn't know Anastasia personally that well didn't really know enough to be a judge of her.
But the difference between 16 and 18, that's really nothing at all. Back when I first got into the AA case as a kid, I didn't realize how soon after Ekaterinburg AA's emergence was supposed to be, and I didn't realize that people didn't change all that much in so short a time, and now that I'm older I know that their faces really don't switch features even years later.