Simone Biles Was Offered a Children's Coloring Book on a Flight

topshot usas simone biles reacts after competing in the artistic gymnastics balance beam event of the womens qualification during the tokyo 2020 olympic games at the ariake gymnastics centre in tokyo on july 25, 2021 photo by loic venance afp photo by loic venanceafp via getty images — (Image credit: LOIC VENANCE)

You know when you don't have ID on you and the waiter won't serve you, but you're literally, like, 37?

I imagine that's how Simone Biles felt when she routinely boarded a flight, minding her own business, and was offered a kids' coloring book. Now, I love a coloring book as much as the next girl, but if the flight attendant is trying to give you one for free, you know that means they think you're about 6 years old. And Biles is 25, as she had to make very clear on this occasion.

Anyway, the Olympic gymnast posted about this whole ordeal on her Instagram Story. She shared a selfie of herself looking a tad exasperated but also a little amused, with the caption, "not the flight attendant trying to give me a coloring book when I board..... I said 'no I'm good I'm 25'"

If you're confused as to how this even happened in the first place, the missing piece of information is that Simone Biles is famously short, at 4 foot 8—as demonstrated by many a photo of her standing next to an NBA player or other.

And although she is perhaps one of the most recognizable figures in athletics these days, it sounds like the flight attendant just didn't recognize her this time around. It happens!

Anyway, airplane mishaps aside, Biles is doing OK for herself these days, having just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and become the youngest person to receive this honor.

She's also presumably planning a wedding, since her partner Jonathan Owens proposed to her in February. All good things!

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.