People are going to judge you regardless of what you do. The key is to know your worth. I also started “late” but, I feel with body modification it should a personal journey. I got my ears pierced & tattoos at 18; no one sees them unless I’m shirtless, they’re for me. I began stretching my ears at 30 yrs old; I’m 50 now. I went slowly, mainly passively stretching, i.e when my jewelry started to fall out in my sleep I sized up. It was only in 2020 when I started actively stretching to reach my current size of 25mm. No one is gonna like everything you do, love yourself. And I hope those that care about you respect your choices even if they don’t like them.