# She's only 12!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 4, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682 "2003-02-04T13:39:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/1 "2003-02-04T13:39:48Z")
[April](http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archive/03_02/0203.htm), I mean. What in the world is up with that? I was still playing with Barbie dolls at 12. And she’s talking about groping and “something serious” in the future, and when I was 12, those of my friends with boyfriends were titillated over holding hands and pecks on the cheek. I’m only 29, for god’s sake! Have times changed _that_ much?
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### Author:  [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/2 "2003-02-04T13:50:02Z")
It really depends on the kid. Of course I was playing ‘Barbie Bondage’ at age 12…
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/3 "2003-02-04T13:51:41Z")
I believe that 12 is the age of consent in Uganda, or somewhere around there in Africa.
When did the strip mention she’s 12? I have read the strip on and off for many years, so I guess I missed something.
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### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/4 "2003-02-04T13:53:31Z")
She was born April 1, 1991. I looked it up on the site to check. That makes her not quite 12 actually. I was interested in boys at 12, but even semi-serious thoughts of sex never even entered my mind.
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/5 "2003-02-04T14:11:21Z")
Well, in keeping with the nature of the strip, it _was_ bound to happen around now.
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### Author:  [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/6 "2003-02-04T14:13:50Z")
You sound quite sheltered. I was playing with barbie at age 12 as well… Just not the doll. 😃
Please, most kids realize what sex is before the age of 12. I learned about sex from my friends, television, and my reading so many books before I was even 10.
When I was 7 I used to play “doctor” with a girl down the street(she was 9). Natural human curiosity. Most of my friends have similar stories to tell.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/7 "2003-02-04T14:13:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by DeadlyAccurate \*
> \*\*She was born April 1, 1991. I looked it up on the site to check. That makes her not quite 12 actually. I was interested in boys at 12, but even semi-serious thoughts of sex never even entered my mind. \*\*
I feel old.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/8 "2003-02-04T14:31:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \*
> \*\*I feel old. \*\*
[Pssst. Over here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160194)
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/9 "2003-02-04T14:32:45Z")
12 years old? Let’s see, that would have been grade 6? [counts on fingers] No! Grade 7!
I had definitely discovered the joys of self abuse at that age-- as had most of my peers.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/10 "2003-02-04T14:45:46Z")
The cartoon (which I stopped reading when she murdered the dog) does NOT say what ‘something serious’ is. Obviously the mother and **DeadlyAccurate** think that it means sex but for comedy it will probably mean something like saying ‘I love you’ or something like that.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/11 "2003-02-04T15:04:30Z")
We have here a 12-year-old who is upset that she’s being punished for getting a little kiss, and in fact complains that she WASN’T doing anything “serious.” What’s the big deal?
This strikes me as being behaviour typical of kids of that age.
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### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/12 "2003-02-04T15:12:27Z")
It was the “YET!” that I found shocking. Yes, I did lead a rather sheltered life, I admit.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/13 "2003-02-04T15:24:53Z")
I was certainly playing naked with the girls at that time. It never led to sex but we were showing off.
Maybe that’s just being a kid in LA.
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/14 "2003-02-04T15:29:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Barbarian \*
> \*\*12 years old? Let’s see, that would have been grade 6? [counts on fingers] No! Grade 7!
>
> I had definitely discovered the joys of self abuse at that age-- as had most of my peers. \*\*
Yeah, I remember knowing about the very basics of sex by the sixth grade. But in that scandalized, giggly, omigosh-do-people-really-DO-that-ewwww kind of way.
I recall my female friends having Ken humping Barbie well before that.
(I was one of those girls who preferred climbing trees and never owned a single Barbie doll.)
So yeah, I remember that “dating” started in the sixth grade with someone saying “will you go out with me” and the sum total of the relationship was pretty much just holding hands in the schoolyard.
And I do recall 12-year-olds very awkwardly kissing each other, but at the time it was a Very Big Deal and was the center of the schoolyard gossip.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/15 "2003-02-04T15:38:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And I do recall 12-year-olds very awkwardly kissing each other, but at the time it was a Very Big Deal and was the center of the schoolyard gossip.
Which is exactly what is happening in the strip. I think that April’s protests that “it wasn’t a abig deal” are just her attempt to minimize what is a very big deal to her and which is something that she feels ambigous about. HTat is to say, she wants to convince her mom it wasn’t a big deal so that she dosen’t get into trouble (this is 12 year old logic) and she wants to convince herself it wasn’t a very big deal so that she dosne’t have to think too much about it.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/16 "2003-02-04T15:47:56Z")
From another real world perspective, my youngest sister (youngest of 5 kids) was savvy much younger than the oldest (me) - just because she was exposed to teen relationships in a way that I wasn’t. Considering April has a married brother and a sister in college, I don’t see this as particularly unrealistic.
Of course, if I was her mother, I’d have words with her about that “Yet” remark… But I’m an old grouch that way. 😃
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/17 "2003-02-04T15:48:42Z")
Remember, too. The boy (name forgotten) kissed April, not the other way around. She was pretty surprised there.
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/18 "2003-02-04T15:57:37Z")
I went to my first boy-girl party when I was ten (I was younger than the other kids in my Grade 6 class, but they had started having these parties in Grade 5). There was kissing, very nervous kissing but definitely ‘something.’ (Remember Spin the Bottle? 2 Minutes in the Closet?) I myself was an unpopular tomboy so I never saw any of that action personally, but we were all definitely thinking it. And when I danced with the boy I had a crush on … well, that was something ‘serious’! I can still remember the Whitney Houston song we danced to. Maybe that’s all April is referring to.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/19 "2003-02-04T16:09:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eats\_Crayons \*
> \*\*And I do recall 12-year-olds very awkwardly kissing each other, but at the time it was a Very Big Deal and was the center of the schoolyard gossip. \*\*
Yeah; I mean what was **up** with that encounter? “That was a good move”—“Yeah, and here’s another one” :::smooch::: 😕
I kissed a boy in sixth grade. But that’s singular for both: one kiss, one boy. And no way did he, or, I daresay, any of the other boys in my class, have that kind of mack-daddy assurance.
And then after they confess their “like” for each other, they do it **again**? When it happened with me, we were both too embarrassed to look at each other afterwards. It was much more of an **Annie Hall** “now-we-can-digest-our-food” kiss than a **Sleepless in Seattle** “what-kept-us-apart-so long?”. That’s the kind of nervousness and self-consciousness you get at that age. This was like 90210. (Oops, dating myself…This was like Dawson’s Creek.)
I think Lynn Johnston must have forgotten what age April is supposed to be. April’s not based on one of her real kids, as Michael and Elizabeth are; maybe she’s gotten careless and skipped a stage of April’s development. I can see this happening if they were in grade 8 or 9, but not 6.
BTW, the guy’s name is Gerald.
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### Author:  [@FSimons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FSimons)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shes-only-12/152682/20 "2003-02-04T16:15:50Z")
April’s “yet” is pretty vague. You really have no idea exactly what - or when - she means by it. You can read into it whatever your perverted little imagination can dream up.
I think, in the last frame, that Elly (Mom) is having pretty much the same reaction that DeadlyAccurate had to that remark. That “yet” drives forcibly home the point that April’s only 12, she’s only going to get older, and Mom’s problems are only just beginning!
I’m a parent. I’m all too familiar with the feeling.
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