# At what age is a girl no longer considered "little"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 25, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108 "2012-05-25T21:06:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/1 "2012-05-25T21:06:17Z")
[Inspiring thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=652647). I say 10 (double digits)-many are often going through a huge growth spurt at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/2 "2012-05-25T21:12:53Z")
13 I think. Though as I get older, it gets harder to think of people in their early twenties as anything other than children… ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/3 "2012-05-25T21:15:36Z")
Littleness is a [fuzzy concept](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_concept), so it doesn’t obviously make sense to talk about a cutoff age. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/4 "2012-05-25T21:17:48Z")
I voted “It depends.” Generally, 11-12 or thereabouts. If she’s hit menarche, she’s not a little girl any more. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/5 "2012-05-25T21:47:05Z")
If it’s about puberty, I was a ‘little girl’ until I was nearly 15. And I’m still only about the size of a 12-year-old. Usually I think of ‘little kids’ as the 10-and-unders. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/6 "2012-05-25T22:12:51Z")
In a practical sense, I consider any female who is too young to be a “teen girl” or a “woman” to be a “little girl”. At least here in the US, 13 is commonly considered to be the beginning of the teen years, so I consider a girl to become a “teen girl” and cease to be a “little girl” at 13. Also, the threshold to becoming a “woman” is anywhere from 18 to 20 depending on context and the relationship you have with the “girl”. A 19 year old could be considered as a woman (as she is over 18, the standard age of adulthood in the US), but can also be considered a teen since “nineteen” is a “teen”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/7 "2012-05-26T00:03:51Z")
Nice to see a normal distribution in an IMHO poll, for once! Let us know when you’ve figured out the mean and the SD. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/8 "2012-05-26T00:46:52Z")
Depends. One of my daughters or an unrelated young woman? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/9 "2012-05-26T00:54:55Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > In a practical sense, I consider any female who is too young to be a “teen girl” or a “woman” to be a “little girl”. At least here in the US, 13 is commonly considered to be the beginning of the teen years, so I consider a girl to become a “teen girl” and cease to be a “little girl” at 13. Also, the threshold to becoming a “woman” is anywhere from 18 to 20 depending on context and the relationship you have with the “girl”. A 19 year old could be considered as a woman (as she is over 18, the standard age of adulthood in the US), but can also be considered a teen since “nineteen” is a “teen”. See, I add in another category, the preteen. This puts the limit at 10. Although I won’t use the term about girls who have already started puberty. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/10 "2012-05-26T03:08:31Z")
I voted 12, but really it’s 10-12 depending on the girl. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/11 "2012-05-26T03:37:48Z")
anyone a third of your age is little. so if you’re 30, 10 is little. if i get to live to 90, i get to call anyone 30 years old or below little. ---
**Author:** ![lizlizliz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/db5fbb/32.png) [@lizlizliz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizlizliz)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-is-a-girl-no-longer-considered-little/623108/12 "2012-05-26T04:35:42Z")
I think it depends on the girl in question. I know I was 5’6 when I was 10 (long story on why I remember that height at that age); I doubt that qualifies as “little.”