Why Do Some Adult Women Have 'Little-Girl' Voices?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Hi everyone,

I havent posted here in a while.

Anyway, I too have a childlike voice. I am 27 and when a telemarketer or someone that I don’t want calling calls I get out of it easy.

Once they start their spill I can say my mom isnt home. Most of the time they start off asking for my mom.

I also work for a large corporation and would of never gotten the job I have if I hadnt pursued it. I originally talked to them on the phone. They said they were looking for someone for the position that had more responsibility.

I showed up at the place and insisted to see them. I ended up getting the job. Since becoming friends with the lady that hired me she said I sounded like a kid. She thought that I was young and irresponisble.

Sometimes the voice works to your advantage. If you are talking to an angry customer they dont want to get mad at a kid! haha:D

42

I used to get asked for my parents on the phone quite a bit, but in the last two or three years that has tapered off. A good friend of mine once suggested that the fact that I sounded like a child a lot of the time was due to my own abuse. Anyway, I have recovered quite a bit in the last couple years so that very well might have something to do with it. I do a lot of voice acting and impersonations though, so it is extremely easy for me to sound like a child when I actually want to.

43

I went to high school with a girl with a very high-pitched voice. She sang alto, though, and had an EXTREMELY deep laugh. It was odd.

44

My natural speaking voice is quite low, but I do find myself unconsciously doing a higher-pitched “polite-please-help-me” voice when ordering something, talking on the phone to strangers, etc. I didn’t even realize it til a friend pointed it out and laughed at me.

But people on the phone have been assuming I’m “the lady of the house” since I was about 12, so I think I skipped the High Tinny Smurf Voice Syndrome. Thank goodness.

I do think, FTR, that while a lot of women have naturally high voices, a lot of them also exaggerate it for effect. Cadence and phrasing have a lot to do with it.

45

I’ve caught myself doing the same thing, and it really irritated me! I’m not a militant feminist or anything, but I hate to have anyone think that I think being female will get me better treatment. I also hate that when my voice goes up, I sound all helpless and girly. I’m most definitely not that way.

So I have to make a conscious effort to speak in my normal voice in some circumstances. Criminy, I’m almost 50 - you’d think I’d be past that stupid stage!!

46

Correct me if I’m wrong here, Eve, but doesn’t (or didn’t) Broadway have a thing for girly-girl voices? The obvious instance is with the orginal cast of Guys & Dolls, which may make sense. But I’ve heard several other musicals with such females–and it drives me nuts.

I think the most Pwecious of them all was good ol’ Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Gawd, I wanted to shoot her…

47

I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one this bothers. My wife and I accidentaly caught an episode of Will and Grace the other night and as someopne mentioned earlier, that woman …
[shudder] Every time she opens her mouth I cringe and lean away from the TV. However, I saw her once in an interview and her voice wasn’t so bad, so it is probably a character thing for her.

48

I have a fairly deep voice, but I learned to change when answering phones as a receptionist. People actually complained that I was rude, although I thought I was being friendly and helpful. So when the phone would ring, I would answer in a higher pitched voice, and say the same kinds of things I had said before in my regular voice (“I’m sorry. He isn’t available right now. May I take a message?”) and suddenly, I wasn’t rude anymore.

I never stooped to little girl voice, but pitching my voice higher seemed to make me sound nicer. Go figure.

49

Kathy Ireland dated a friend of mine for a few years, so she hung out with our group when we were about 18 to 20 years old. Everytime she opened her mouth I wanted to climb the walls. She sounded like a juvenile Minny Mouse. A nice enough girl, but the voice was quite off-putting. I could never get past it to see her as someone I had much in common with (being almost - but not quite - a tomboy type myself). When she first started dating our friend, the main topic of conversation among the rest of our group was her voice, not her looks.

I know of 2 other women with baby voices. One is a close girlfriend of mine who I’ve known for nearly 25 years. To this day, I often confuse her with her 8 year old son when I call her house. She was in fact abused as a child.

The other is a pretty blond trophy wife married to a guy with a lot of money… I guess it works for her, but I can only take about 5 minutes of it.

50

I can’t believe nobody’s asked why there’s this “abused-girl” voice deal.

What’s the theory behind it? Why would childhood abuse lead to a high voice tendency later in life?

51

I worked with a woman who had that Pwecious Pwincess voice. We worked at an AIDS clinic in the late 80’s and dark humor was almost de riguer as one way we got through those horrible times.

We wondered if she would even fit in. When you first met her, she came off as this very feminine, demure person. But, when you got to know her, she talked like a sailor and was funnier than hell. She fit in just fine. My guess is that she was compensating, but I still giggle when I think of that Pwecious Pwincess voice talking about felching.

52

It’s not just a “high voice” tendency, its downright childlike, at least in my friend’s case (the one who was abused). She also tends to dress in a childlike way, being drawn to baby pinks and baby blues. I’m certainly no expert, but I always asumed it was a way of reliving or reclaiming a childhood time prior to the abuse. Or perhaps it’s a yearning for the time when she didn’t understand the full impact of what was going on. Sort of reaching out for innocence again.

There must be someone on this board who could shed more light on this.

53

Ah … just to jump in with MHO …

First off, at least to me, and I assume the OP, “little girl” voice is Not the same thing as “high pitched.” High pitched voices are another matter, all together, when I think of “little girl” voice, on an adult, I’m thinking of voicing and inflection and pitch placement that actually sounds like a very young child, even if the diction if perfect.

It has certainly seemed to me that when the speech development got arrested at a very early age, given the chance to explore, you’d find there was some form of trauma at that point in their development.

This is not different from any other part of the personality becoming arrested at a young age, like the classic adult “boss” who throws 5-year-old temper tantrums when things don’t go his way, just that part of their emotional development got “arrested” or stuck, and it fell behind the rest of their growth. (Or I guess an equal example could be my own 13-year-old humor … dunno the trauma, but I’m find the “body parts and farts” part of my humor is still Very Much alive and well…)

It’s been my hunch that early sexualization would be the most likely event to make speech development ‘freeze’ in baby or very-young girl, but I’m sure that even a shocking loss could do the same thing. So, I wouldn’t assume molestation, when I heard a baby voice in an adult woman. I have, however, heard significant, and relatively sudden, changes in speech patterns when women have managed to “bring up to current time” some part of “their inner child” that got stuck, reviewing and trying to “make sense” of some childhood event that was a ‘senseless’ trauma.

And all seriousness aside, this picture REALLY cracked me up!
I have a friend who ‘normally’ has a solid alto speaking voice, but sounds just like a smurf when ever she reads anything out loud! I’ve mentioned it to her, and she can’t hear it at all! Cracks me up. (though I quit saying anything to her, it just frustrated her … but it is funny to hear a news story read over the phone by one of the smurfs!)

54

Ginger, what’s going on? What’s all this?

55

j.c. and Marley23, I sympathise. I am a bass, and let me tell you, trying to speak in a normal tone with such a deep voice is taxing. One time I got out of breath during a particularly long conversation and felt dizzy!

Before my voice deepened telemarketers used to ask if I was the lady of the house. Gosh I hate telemarketers.

Will someone please tell me the name of that woman from the Glad commercial! I want to append her name to my list of celebrities I want to have sex with.

56

According to IMDB, her name is Melanie Deanne Moore.

57

Arrrggh, I HATE it, HATE it , HATE it. My voice is naturally little girlish, if I don’t concentrate, I slip back into it without even realizing it.

Mine’s not “Victoria Jacksonish” with the slight slurring lisp, it’s just very young sounding (think 12ish, 14ish).

And NO, at least in my case I don’t do it for attention. Most of the time I concentrate and have “on” my professional voice, but when I’m tired, or perhaps have had a drink (rare for me), I tend to relax and forget about making sure I sound “adult”.

58

Another thought. My voice also tends to also be very soft. That’s due to my teaching both dance and aerobics, where I have to call moves and counts during 1-hour classes, and due to the fact that I talk on the phone quite a bit at my “real” job.

My throat is always a little bit sore, and sometimes a LOT sore. Sometimes by the end of the work week there’s not much voice left. My boyfriend probably appreciates that :smiley:
(My throat is generally a little sore though, even when it’s summer break).

I wonder how many others with really “too soft” voices might have a chronic sore throat problem like mine?

59

CanvasShoes, have you considered taking acting or public speaking lessons, or some such? If your throat is always sore after work, it’s most likely because you are not using your voice fully efficiently. This could eventually cause damage to your vocal cords.

Im a professional voice user too (actor and singer), and the vocal cords are actually pretty delicate. A lot of people abuse them mildly without even being aware of it.

60

I have a high-pitched soprano voice. It doesn’t make me sound like a little girl–but it does have a tendency to get, well, shrill (absolutely not attractive in any way).

Oddly, I have noticed that I sometimes talk in a slightly more child-like manner when I’m feeling particularly insecure or in need assistance. I guess it’s a sort of “I’m no threat to you, don’t hurt me–please help me” plea. I don’t ever get into a really little girl voice, but I’ve noticed others who do in similar situations. So maybe it is an appeal to protective instincts that others have mentioned.

It would make sense then that someone who was molested would talk that way if that experience led them to a constant feeling of vulnerabilty. Also, it would make sense that some like the Pwincess Pwecious would try to get through life by inspiring sympathetic feelings in others if they don’t feel they can get by on their own.