# How old is she? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562 "2008-11-26T15:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/21 "2008-11-26T16:47:29Z")
12 and 18, huh? That’s creepy. She’s out of primary school, just starting puberty and he can legally drive and buy cigs (and drink in some countries), join the army, attend college. But it’s cool, 'cause I heard she was really, really mature for her age. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/22 "2008-11-26T16:52:30Z")
I was 12 starting high school, developed and fertile for a year already. There would have been 18-year-old seniors in high school with me and it would have been slightly creepy but not outrageously so. Of course sex would have been the last thing on my mind, and me being crazy-shy ensured no one tried anything! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/23 "2008-11-26T16:53:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > 12 and 18, huh? That’s creepy. She’s out of primary school, just starting puberty and he can legally drive and buy cigs (and drink in some countries), join the army, attend college. But it’s cool, 'cause I heard she was really, really mature for her age. Snark aside, she’s 5’1" and 120 pounds. She probably looks like an adult from every conceivable angle until you hear her speak. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/24 "2008-11-26T16:54:27Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > The answer, for those of you who have already guessed: > > She is the twelve year old subject of an Amber Alert out of Perry, Florida (panhandle town) that is suspected to be with her 18 year old boyfriend. Here’s a link ( [blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/11/12-year-old-per.html](http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/11/12-year-old-per.html) ) to a St. Pete Times report. One reason I put this out here was because of the other thread in IMHO right now about a 27 year old guy asking if he can date a high school kid. Link –\> [Can I date a High Schooler? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=494614) . Right… because… why? ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/25 "2008-11-26T17:00:19Z")
I’d guess 15. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/26 "2008-11-26T17:04:11Z")
I should have posted - I’d have gotten it right. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/27 "2008-11-26T17:08:21Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Right… because… why? A couple of reason. One, my daughter is 12 and stuff like this freaks me out a bit. On the other hand, I could possibly mistake that girl, at least in a photo if it wasn’t self-snapped, for a variety of different ages. I think this tends to confuse males, and some of them then do really stupid stuff. I’m betting her boyfriend ends up doing time and becomes a registered sex offender. As parents, we don’t do our daughters any favors when we give in to societal pressures and allow our daughters to make themselves appear and act older than they really are. It seems to me, at least, to be a bigger problem here than it was where we lived in Ohio, but I didn’t know many pre-teen/young teenage girls then, just my kids’ sitter and a couple of other kids that lived in our neighborhood. To an extent we’ve created this problem by delaying the onset of mental maturity. For some people this is now in the mid 20s and later. But girls are physically mature way before then. I was in my son’s fifth grade class yesterday. Most of the kids were small, roughly my son’s size. But one girl was full mature, taller and with larger breasts than my wife. She was modestly dressed, but her shirt showed her cleavage a bit. Nothing radical, but probably the only shirt her mom could find in her size. Anthropologically speaking, these girls are ready for breeding at this age. Mentally they are not. So it’s still creepy, but at least understandable, when an eighteen year old, with his fancy pick-up truck and raging hormones and this child decide that they are “in love”. Heck, it’s Romeo and Juliet, right? It’s Bella and Edward. Not their fault that society doesn’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/28 "2008-11-26T18:07:21Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > One reason I put this out here was because of the other thread in IMHO right now about a 27 year old guy asking if he can date a high school kid. > [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I’m betting her boyfriend ends up doing time and becomes a registered sex offender. Wow. I’d venture to guess that if the OP of that thread was planning to kidnap and rape a minor, he wouldn’t have posted about it on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/29 "2008-11-26T18:39:59Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > A couple of reason. One, my daughter is 12 and stuff like this freaks me out a bit. On the other hand, I could possibly mistake that girl, at least in a photo if it wasn’t self-snapped, for a variety of different ages. I think this tends to confuse males, and some of them then do really stupid stuff. I’m betting her boyfriend ends up doing time and becomes a registered sex offender. > > As parents, we don’t do our daughters any favors when we give in to societal pressures and allow our daughters to make themselves appear and act older than they really are. It seems to me, at least, to be a bigger problem here than it was where we lived in Ohio, but I didn’t know many pre-teen/young teenage girls then, just my kids’ sitter and a couple of other kids that lived in our neighborhood. > > To an extent we’ve created this problem by delaying the onset of mental maturity. For some people this is now in the mid 20s and later. But girls are physically mature way before then. I was in my son’s fifth grade class yesterday. Most of the kids were small, roughly my son’s size. But one girl was full mature, taller and with larger breasts than my wife. She was modestly dressed, but her shirt showed her cleavage a bit. Nothing radical, but probably the only shirt her mom could find in her size. > > Anthropologically speaking, these girls are ready for breeding at this age. Mentally they are not. So it’s still creepy, but at least understandable, when an eighteen year old, with his fancy pick-up truck and raging hormones and this child decide that they are “in love”. Heck, it’s Romeo and Juliet, right? It’s Bella and Edward. Not their fault that society doesn’t understand. More specifically, the link between this story and freejooky meeting a 16 year odl girl and her parents at a MENSA meeting and asking us about the wisdom of casual dating is what? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/30 "2008-11-26T18:49:00Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > It’s Bella and Edward. Vampireness aside, he’s supposed to be “17”, right? And I thought she said they are both juniors? The actors are 18 and 22 respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/31 "2008-11-26T18:51:41Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > More specifically, the link between this story and freejooky meeting a 16 year odl girl and her parents at a MENSA meeting and asking us about the wisdom of casual dating is what? Yeah, in the other thread, he found out her age early on (though it’s still not clear if she and her parents know how old _he_ is). Even if a girl lies about her age, it only takes a trip or two to the movies or a bar that cards to find out she’s underage. Even though I developed early myself, I always felt badly for the girls who got their periods at 11 or DD breasts at 12. Through absolutely no fault of their own they became targets for tons of unwanted sexual attention at school and on the street. Wouldn’t be surprised if it contributed to some of their eating disorders. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/32 "2008-11-26T18:52:31Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Anthropologically speaking, these girls are ready for breeding at this age. Mentally they are not. And you don’t imagine the reason that mentally they are still children might be because they are treated as children? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/33 "2008-11-26T19:12:01Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > And you don’t imagine the reason that mentally they are still children might be because they are treated as children? I thought it was because their hypothalamus hasn’t developed? ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/34 "2008-11-26T19:16:36Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > And you don’t imagine the reason that mentally they are still children might be because they are treated as children? Are you suggesting that a girl old enough breed should be treated as an adult and not doing so is stunting their mental/emotional growth? In the U.S. there are more an more cases of younger and younger girls starting to menstruate. There are eight-year-olds that can now “breed”. I don’t think that continuing to treat an eight-year-old as a child is inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/35 "2008-11-26T19:24:09Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > More specifically, the link between this story and freejooky meeting a 16 year odl girl and her parents at a MENSA meeting and asking us about the wisdom of casual dating is what? I have no idea. What do you think? I didn’t say that they were tied together, just one made me think of the other. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/36 "2008-11-26T19:26:11Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > And you don’t imagine the reason that mentally they are still children might be because they are treated as children? I think that’s pretty much exactly the reason. I also think that it’s a net societal gain to delay the onset of adulthood, at least in terms of advancing scientific development, overall intelligence. etc. When people were "mature’ at 13-16 years old we didn’t tend to live very long lives. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/37 "2008-11-26T19:28:37Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > Wow. I’d venture to guess that if the OP of that thread was planning to kidnap and rape a minor, he wouldn’t have posted about it on the SDMB. Sorry, I obviously didn’t make myself clear. I meant that the girl that is 12 years old and subject to an Amber Alert, her boyfriend will be in a world of trouble. As to the OP of the other, assuming he’s being completely honest, I doubt that there will be any legal repercussions. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/38 "2008-11-26T19:30:29Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Anywhere between 13 and 30. Not a great pic. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/39 "2008-11-26T19:32:18Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Are you suggesting that a girl old enough breed should be treated as an adult and not doing so is stunting their mental/emotional growth? In the U.S. there are more an more cases of younger and younger girls starting to menstruate. There are eight-year-olds that can now “breed”. I don’t think that continuing to treat an eight-year-old as a child is inappropriate. No, im saying for thousands of years teenagers have been considered old enough to marry and have children, its only in the last 100 years or so that we decided they were still children and started infantilizing them. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562/40 "2008-11-26T19:32:44Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I was in my son’s fifth grade class yesterday. Most of the kids were small, roughly my son’s size. But one girl was full mature, taller and with larger breasts than my wife. She was modestly dressed, but her shirt showed her cleavage a bit. Nothing radical, but probably the only shirt her mom could find in her size. 😕 I have other thoughts on this issue, but I keep wondering about this. Why do you say it’s probably the only shirt the mother could find in her size? T-shirts are available for women in every size including plus sizes, and of course T-shirts are not low-cut. Showing cleavage is never necessary for any girl or woman of any size. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-she/474562.md?page=3)