The Prettiest/Handsomest Teens in TV History

Finding out in the recent 30 Rock thread that Katrina Bowden started when she was only 17 got me thinking.

Most “teens” in tv shows are at least 18, because that frees them from the schooling requirements. Teens in their mid-20s are common and some have been over 30.

Oldest person to play a teen is probably a good thread, and I’ll start that.

But for this thread I’m thinking about a different issue. Another reason older actors are hired is that they are so much more physically developed than teens. They aren’t as gawky, they’ve lost the acne, they’re fully grown in all directions.

Katrina Bowden seemed unearthly gorgeous at 17. Way back in time Tuesday Weld was the knockout teen of the 50s at 16 playing Thalia Menninger on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

In between you had Danica McKeller on The Wonder Years, Christina Applegate on Married with Children and Mila Kunis on That 70s Show.

Who are your picks?

Tiffany Amber Thiessen

Michelle Trachtenberg

John Travolta.

Yes.

No.

Vanessa Marcil - but maybe they weren’t teens anymore when she starred in 90210

She was 29 when it started. Maybe you meant to post it in the oldest teens thread? :slight_smile:

Yup :smack:

Heads off to the other thread…

I always thought Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell) was attractive, at least when he was a kid.
Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains it All)
Scott Baio (Happy Days)
Ricky Schroder (Silver Spoons)

Hayden Panetierre?

Justine Bateman on Family Ties.

Young Ricky Nelson, who was playing a teenager when he actually was a teenager.

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris in Buffy. Sorry, nobody who looked like that in high school would have been dateless. No matter how ugly the shirts. But the show was a fantasy. There aren’t really vampires & werewolves, are there?

“Go Fish” is considered one of the lesser episodes. But we do get to see Young Nick in a Speedo…

Valerie Bertinelli
Nancy McKeon

Back in her Dey, Susan of The Partridge Family was pretty striking.

Point of order - does the actor/actress have to actually be under 20 at the time to be eligible for this thread? :slight_smile:

Seconded.

Of course, now she’s 23 and… well… insert everyone’s favorite Jayne quote from Firefly…

Jodie Foster. Man I’d have killed to be with her.

Sarah Michelle Gellar as “Buffy” was very pretty, particularly in the show’s first season before she lost some weight. Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia on that same show was strikingly beautiful too.

Stacey Dash as Dionne on Clueless was gorgeous, as was pre-Mike Tyson Robin Givens on “Head of the Class” twenty years ago.

Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!

Actually, more cute than pretty I guess, depending on your taste.