Some start further down the road, some have a lot of work to do, and there are many in the middle. Me, unless people knew my name (and even then, some thought my parents had been very original by giving a male name to a girl), knew that I was supposed to be a guy, people mostly thought I was a girl, before really transitioning, and I wasn't especially trying to look like a girl. Despite having no waist to speak of. Despite my Adam's apple. Despite my abundant body hair (arms x.x). Despite a masculine jaw and chin. Despite ugly, bushy, thick eyebrows.
Sound like a girl, have hair that looks rather like a girl's than a guy's, and chances are you'll pass.
Now, if you're older, "chances are" that it won't be so easy. Even then. When I look through the member pictures, whenever someone who's been on HRT for long enough doesn't pass, very rarely is it not because the person is obese/severely overweight, hasn't had hair removal, hasn't been trying very hard (or has been doing something absolutely wrong) or hasn't taken care of their baldness yet. And even cases not in that category (which is not many), what, 90 % would pass more than fine with facial surgery.
Granted, the more you age, the more male characteristics pile up on you, the more expensive, the more work it's likely to be. But how many trans women cannot pass convincingly even after surgery? Honestly, there must be very, very few. (Also, the older you are, the more money you should have. As a poor student whose available income has been cut by almost 10 % recently (no more medication reimbursement), I doubt I can still muster even 50 $ a month, from my income of ~900 $. At your age, it's likely that you have at least twice that. Surely, costs are less scary when you look at it this way, hmm?
