# When did you stop growing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880 "2006-03-03T09:12:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/1 "2006-03-03T09:12:22Z")
**fretsonfire** ’s [question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=361192) in GQ started me thinking about this, so rather than hijack his thread I’ll start my own. If you’re an adult who has stopped growing (well, stopped getting taller, anyway), how tall are you, and at what age did you reach your present height? I’ve heard that the average is 18 for women and “a few years later” for men. That makes me a statistical outlier. I’m 6’1" (about 186cm), and I quit growing when I was 12. I had always been among the tallest in 1st-4th grade, but then I suddenly grew 11 inches over the next two years after that before stopping altogether. I ended up freakishly taller than any of my classmates, but only weighed about 100lbs. My mom went through the same thing; she stopped growing when she was 13, at a height of 5’7". ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/2 "2006-03-03T09:42:37Z")
Well, I can say for sure that I didn’t grow after my fourteenth birthday, because that’s about when I got my uniforms for high school, which I wore until graduation. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/3 "2006-03-03T10:11:31Z")
I was the shortest kid in school for a long time. I remember being 4’6" for three years. Then, around the age of 12 I had a growth spurt and ended up at 5’8" by the time I was 14. I’ve stayed there. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/4 "2006-03-03T10:44:50Z")
I stopped growing out of things around 14, but managed to gain another 10cm or so and one shoe size before finally coming to a halt at 16. I’m 176 cm and female. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/5 "2006-03-03T10:46:00Z")
Oh, and I was always a tall kid, but never “OMGTALL”. I would describe my height as taller than most girls I know but shorter than most guys. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/6 "2006-03-03T11:01:21Z")
8th grade I peaked height wise. The boobie fairy showed up about two years later. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/7 "2006-03-03T11:15:56Z")
Female, reached 5’7" at about 14, and stayed there–but filled out here and there over the following year or so. Gained a shoe size after the first kid. I remember a 6 foot friend in college came back for sophomore year after summer break; he had gained 3 or 4 inches of height over the past few _months_, with huge stretchmarks on his back to show for it. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/8 "2006-03-03T11:29:50Z")
Female…reached the height of 5’10" at around thirteen, as I recall, and I have stayed there. I’ve always been tall, and I didn’t keep track of exactly how I got there, but IIRC, it was about a year after I hit puberty that I topped out. As for **Shirley’s** Boobie Fairy, she didn’t show up til college. Or maybe that’s when I started caring. Then the Enchilada Fairy got together with the Boobie Fairy and decided to grace me with more than my genetic fair share, but hey. What’s a girl to do? So God wanted me to be a B cup, and the Echilada Fairy said nay, she shall be a C cup. It’s all good. I’ve got the height to carry it off. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/9 "2006-03-03T12:15:18Z")
I’m 20, female and 5’2". I haven’t grown in a looooooooong time. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/10 "2006-03-03T12:51:46Z")
I stopped growing around 14, topping up at 5’4". Oddly, I was always one of the taller girls in my early classes in grade school, but slowed on growing around the age of 11-12, so many of the other girls caught up and got taller than me by the time we were in jr. high. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/11 "2006-03-03T13:17:36Z")
I had a big growth spurt when I was 13 and 14, and for about nine months was actually taller than my twin brother for the first time ever. At one point I was the tallest girl in the class. Then my growth stopped and they all began to lengthen, caught me up and passed me, mostly. I didn’t grow again at all until my first year of university, when I noticed that my jeans were too short in the rise - they were constantly disappearing up my crotch. This happened twice and I bought new jeans each time, in the same size but deeper from the crotch to waistband. It dawned on me that I might be growing, and when I went home and measured myself against the pencil marks on our wall, I had gained another inch and a half to end up at 5ft 3". It seems that the inch and a half that I lengthened was all in the pelvic area! The boobie fairy never did visit me… I was on the back row when they were handing boobs out. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/12 "2006-03-03T13:19:07Z")
I haven’t grown but sideways since I was maybe 14. I’m 19 and 5’1". ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/13 "2006-03-03T14:17:07Z")
I’m 29, and I keep telling my wife that as soon as that growth spurt hits, she’ll be in trouble cause then I’ll be dark, handsome AND tall. I quit growing at 5’7" (generously) at about 18 or so. I didn’t notice I was short until I was 22 and standing in a bar with 3 housemates all over 6’2". I commented on how tall they all were, and one guy said, “No, dude. You’re just short.” I had genuinely not noticed until then. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/14 "2006-03-03T14:22:04Z")
I know that I was my current height of 5’7" at the age of 14 (I’m 25 now). I was taller than my boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/15 "2006-03-03T14:23:39Z")
I was a tall kid. I hit 5’6 when I was 12. Somewhere along the way, I grew an extra 3/4 of an inch, and now I just round up to 5’7. I don’t remember when the extra 3/4 inch happened, but it was sometime before I was 15. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/16 "2006-03-03T14:26:37Z")
I’d be interested to see some more replies from male dopers as it seems to be mostly females. I’m male and 20 years old, and I seem to have topped out at 5’10’’, but I’ve heard males can gain some height till around 22-23, and though I really doubt it will happen, it would be nice to gain an extra inch. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/17 "2006-03-03T14:28:01Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > 8th grade I peaked height wise. > The boobie fairy showed up about two years later. \*\* Note to self: She suffers from Vertical Mammarial Displacement Syndrome. Yes !!! 😃 😃 😃 \*\* I stopped growing around 17, but really the growth spurts were 12-14ish. The penis fairy showed up about 11 years later. -snerk- Horizontally? Still growing, dammit. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/18 "2006-03-03T14:33:37Z")
I’m 185cms, a fact I only discovered recently. The last time I measured I was 20 and 183cms. So it looks like I’ve gained around an inch (2.5cms) since then. Although there may be a margin for error which explains it all. ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/19 "2006-03-03T14:39:08Z")
I remember being the same height as my mom in 7th grade (5’7") and by 13 I’d made it to 5’10". Over the next couple of years I put on a few more inches; by the time I got my driver’s license I was 5’11.5"-- but sometime between 16 and 20 I got another half an inch. Of course, I’m at least an inch taller than every guy I’ve met who says he’s “six feet tall.” Both my dad and my uncle went from 6’4" to 6’6" in their early 20’s. I remember meeting a woman at a garage sale who was very tall, and asked her when she’d quit growing-- she was 23, 6’1", and had grown a half an inch while she was pregnant. My former husband, on the other hand, was 4’8" when he started high school and by his senior year had reached his adult height of 5’6". My pediatrician told me that most girls have a growth spurt in their early teens, boys hit a similar one a bit later than the girls, and then boys usually continue growing (sometimes dramatically so) into their early 20’s. She also had some formula I can’t remember offhand-- take your height at, I think, 18 months for girls and 22-24 months (?) for boys, and double it, and that’s likely your adult height. The formula came out at 6’0" for me. If I’d known the Cleavage Fairy was going to come back and beat me again, I’d have hidden in the closet; I made it to 18 as a scrawny kid with B cups, then got blindsided in college with D’s (thank you dorm food)-- and then this last year she snuck up on me in a dark alley and gave me two MORE cup sizes (ok, I gained weight, but not THAT much!). I’m telling you, though, I’m 31 and I’m smarter now, if that fairy comes back I’m gonna kick her in the kidneys and make her take some back with her. ---
**Author:** ![davmilasav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@davmilasav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davmilasav)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880/20 "2006-03-03T14:47:05Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > 8th grade I peaked height wise. > The boobie fairy showed up about two years later. I topped out at 5’2" in 6th grade (age 12) but apparently the boobie fairy got lost on the way to my house. :mad: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-stop-growing/346880.md?page=2)