Dang! I was picturing **Skald **in a strongman’s outfit! 
When they start having Barbie and Ken walk around naked and sleeping together.
When they stop dressing up like princesses and start acting like “princesses.”
I agree with this statement. I also think that only little girls declare themselves princesses.
I also think that 12 is rather old for all of those things. That’s almost done with middle school. Around 8 or 9 would be a more usual cutoff, if not earlier.
I just now realized that the line for little kid and little girl are different. You guys mentioned puberty as a line for “little girl,” which seemed weird to me until I realize that, unlike with “kid” and “teen,” we don’t really have another word for a post-pubescent female who is not an adult other than girl. Even males have terms like man and
I consider a little kid to be just above toddler and below a tween. (Kid includes little kids and tweens.) With only two terms, I guess I’d have to split the middle, and keep “little girl” until 11 or 12.
Though I wonder if I would do that for boys. For some reason, “little boy” seems younger to me than “little girl.” I think there’s some cultural baggage there–with women wanting to be small and men wanting to be big.
This. And climbing on males you are not immediately related to should be discouraged at this point. Call me old fashioned, but it is inappropriate.
I’m sure there must be some ‘percentage of your age, plus whatever’ factor in play too. My grandmother , even in her sixties and seventies, was quite capable of referring to twenty-five year old shop assistants as “the little girl behind the counter”
The pre pubescent growth spurt.
See school photos by grades - there is a year or so when the girls are taller than the boys.
I’d call that a handy cut-off.
I’m male, and recall that even at the age of about eight, I got mortally offended if my parents referred to me as a “little boy”. (I was altogether a loathsome child.)
Going by my father’s use of the term towards his youngest daughter, who is now in her 50’s, apparently infinity.
It annoys the crap out of me, but at this point there’s no stopping him.
I did get my sister to stop referring to me as “baby sister” and switch to “youngest sister”.
I think it also depends upon the kid and when they quit acting “little”. I knew young women in college that still had stuffed animals and squealed like little girls (and would do stuff like cry to get sympathy). Then I’ve known a few 8 year olds who acted like they were going on 28.
I still call my youngest sister, now in her 30s , my baby sister. And my one living brother calls me his baby brother calls me baby brother (I’m 45).
I used to be a substitute teacher and in my experience, the difference usually occurs between third and fourth grade, so around age nine, they become girls.
A third grader once told me that she’d never marry, because at her cousin’s wedding, her cousin had kissed a boy right in front of everybody. She would never do such a thing! (And the rest of the girls agreed with her.) I told her that she shouldn’t marry anyone she didn’t want to kiss.
By fourth grade, though, I started to hear about crushes.
Also, my now-21/year old niece deliberately held on to little girl status for as long as she could. She refused to call herself a teenager till she was 14.
I am going to try really hard not to be insulted by this.
(My bolding) – and what’s wrong with stuffed animals? Not a part of my own life; but IMO something cool and fun for people of all ages, who are that way inclined.
I dunno. I’d be pretty insulted. Actually, if you want to be nicer than you need to be, I can be insulted for you. If you give me a minute, I might even be able to work up some outrage.
Sexualizing and shaming young people of either gender who are comfortable with their bodies and their friends is inappropriate.
Nosing your way into other people’s lives in inappropriate.
Generally, after the first candle-lit blood ritual but before the first summoning.
I’d agree with you there. Once you’ve entered double digits (in terms of age), you certainly wouldn`t be classed as “little” anymore. I’d be tempted to say around the 5-8 mark.