# Women with little girl voices **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 14, 2022, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182 "2022-06-14T20:06:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/21 "2022-06-15T02:42:08Z")
Yeah, when I listen to the voices of “Disney princess” characters like [Tiana and Lottie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz5TSTUvJ1A), for example, or [Merida](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0981aNCQ0dQ) (who actually is a child, at least no older than mid-teens), I’m not getting a “little girl” vibe. Old-fashioned Disney princesses like [Cinderella](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDbYQ1ikts) can sound a bit “affected” by comparison, but more in a “mid-century Hollywood actress” way than in a “little girl” way, ISTM. (Did Marilyn Monroe have a “little girl” voice, for example?) Maybe [Snow White](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSkE-b0zEqY) is what people mean by a “Disney” “little girl” voice. (I’m guessing that [Mulan deliberately trying to sound like a boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfF7fjD_P8) doesn’t count.) ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/22 "2022-06-15T02:46:26Z")
You’re over thinking it. Women with little girl voices… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1ADYFLFa91g/hqdefault.jpg "Kathy Ireland on Late Night (1992)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ADYFLFa91g) I remember her talking about trying to order pizzas, they wanted her to put her parents on the phone. She later took voice lessons to deepen her voice. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/23 "2022-06-15T02:51:48Z")
No, I can hear how Kathy Ireland’s voice sounds young, for example, but it certainly doesn’t sound to me as though she’s either being “affected” or revealing “some sort of speech defect” (!). Which is what the OP was explicitly asking about. So unless your example of a voice like Kathy Ireland’s is in fact what the OP was talking about (in which case, wtf? “speech defect”?), then I still don’t understand what the OP was talking about. Do you think that Kathy Ireland’s voice sounds “affected” or like “some sort of speech defect”? ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/24 "2022-06-15T03:10:38Z")
[The MST3K guys spent a whole movie making fun of her voice.](https://youtu.be/b2tt4dhkTdI?t=884) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/25 "2022-06-15T03:19:28Z")
If it’s an “affectation”, she is not the only one—I once met a girl in California who had the same type of accent and high-pitched voice and everything. I do not know if she was from Santa Barbara. I know many people with high-pitched voices. Not sure how it interacts with your singing voice (vocal weight and range), but that requires training in any case. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/26 "2022-06-15T04:16:14Z")
I thought someone by now would’ve mentioned the thing some people (used to?) do, where they speak higher, “lighter” and more tentative. I noticed it in the business world back in the '70s (think Mad Men ad agency). We had a woman who’d always defer to others… in a meeting, her pitch would go up, her voice get softer, and every single sentence would go up at the end and make it sound like a question. "So… I was… _updating the client directory…?"_ (pause, as if waiting for permission to continue… during which I was SO tempted to reply “I’m going to guess YES, you _WERE_ updating the client directory.”) After getting to know her, she told us it was a symptom of a lack of self-confidence. Her boss was overbearing, and she felt that if she took a stand, she’d get shut down. She got better. Almost forty years later, I visited her and her Significant Other, and now that she owns her own business her voice has dropped an octave. And she can make a statement without it… _y’know?.._ being a… _question?_ . HEY! It’s got a name: **Upspeak**. [https://www.masterclass.com/articles/upspeak-explained#what-is-upspeak](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/upspeak-explained#what-is-upspeak) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/27 "2022-06-15T04:39:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I thought someone by now would’ve mentioned the thing some people (used to?) do, where they speak higher, “lighter” and more tentative. AFAIK, though, “uptalking” isn’t generally described as a “little girl” affect. For one thing, it appears that [men and women are equally prone to uptalking](https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/news/a26430/men-are-uptalking-now/). ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/28 "2022-06-15T04:40:19Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > No, I can hear how Kathy Ireland’s voice sounds young, for example, but it certainly doesn’t sound to me as though she’s either being “affected” or revealing “some sort of speech defect” (!). Which is what the OP was explicitly asking about. > > So unless your example of a voice like Kathy Ireland’s is in fact what the OP was talking about (in which case, wtf? “speech defect”?), then I still don’t understand what the OP was talking about. > > Do you think that Kathy Ireland’s voice sounds “affected” or like “some sort of speech defect”? If I understand correctly, the OP was asking if the **cause of** the “little girl” voice is some sort of speech defect, a deliberate affectation, or something else altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/29 "2022-06-15T04:47:06Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > If I understand correctly, the OP was asking if the **cause of** the “little girl” voice is some sort of speech defect, a deliberate affectation, or something else altogether. Yes, which is why I mentioned that I personally don’t think that the one specific example of “little girl voice” that’s been suggested sounds to me either like a deliberate affectation or like evidence of a speech defect. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/30 "2022-06-15T04:54:26Z")
I think it has to do with the structure (size, thickness) of the vocal chords. You can affect the pitch via breathing and tension, but I do not think she is a basso profondo who is faking it. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/31 "2022-06-15T05:00:59Z")
Time warp! She probably started the voice lessons soon after. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/32 "2022-06-15T05:01:30Z")
I have noticed when talking face to face with guests my voice often goes up. I hate it and when I notice it I consciously try to stop it. When I think of little girl voices I think of Amy Acker. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/33 "2022-06-15T05:16:31Z")
I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all answer to the OP. I think in Kathy Ireland’s case that is/was her natural voice, hence the reason for voice lessons to deepen it. Kathy’s voice was just an example of a grown woman with a little girl voice. She was the first one I thought of when I read the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/34 "2022-06-15T09:49:05Z")
I’ve known lots of women with very high voices (there were plenty of women with high voices in China for example) and I can’t relate to most of the comments in this thread. In almost every case it was just their natural voice. It wasn’t done deliberately, and it wasn’t accompanied by childish vocabulary or mannerisms. I think, maybe, some women go a little up in tone when flirting…that’s my best attempt to relate to the observations of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/35 "2022-06-15T11:09:33Z")
Well, somebody has to do it: [https://imgur.com/nyMg1wA](https://imgur.com/nyMg1wA) mmm ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/36 "2022-06-15T11:37:32Z")
Decades ago there was a woman who called the place I worked, with a very notable voice. Her voice was “sexy”. Everyone who spoke with her agreed. It was actually difficult to follow her conversation due to the sultry, breathy nature of her voice. Eventually someone thought to put her on speakerphone. A crowd would gather anytime she called, and her situation required frequent calls. We each had a mental picture of the woman, mine was Tina Louise (Ginger on Gilligan’s Island). Eventually her situation required that she visit in person! People who were off that day stopped by to see what she looked like. Turns out she was an elderly woman in a wheelchair with an attached bottle of oxygen. A caregiver wheeled her in. The “breathy” sound and the cadence, etc were all caused by her respiratory problems. Each word she uttered looked like it might be her last, and yet her diction was precise. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/37 "2022-06-15T12:57:13Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > No, I can hear how Kathy Ireland’s voice sounds young, for example, but it certainly doesn’t sound to me as though she’s either being “affected” or revealing “some sort of speech defect” (!). Which is what the OP was explicitly asking about. It sounds to me like she’s speaking with a higher larynx position, and I notice her tongue seems to be pulled up and back as she speaks. Her vowels seem narrow as well. And this is exactly what a voice actor would do to play a cutesy-voiced character. Heck, it’s also the voice that they tend to give a ditzy type. On the other hand, it does sound rather natural from her, like this is the way she always speaks. It very much may be her natural accent. However, it’s not one I hear all that much anymore. None of this is about just speaking with a higher pitch. Of course many women have those. It’s the timbre which seems off to me. Well, that and the prosody–she’s a bit sing-songy with it, too. It could be structural. Maybe her laryngeal space is just smaller than average. But if that was the cause, I’d think I’d hear it a lot more often, and it wouldn’t be so easy for other people to do as an impression. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/38 "2022-06-15T13:35:21Z")
An old thread on point: > [@Why Do Some Adult Women Have 'Little-Girl' Voices?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-adult-women-have-little-girl-voices/202397): > > Why do some adult women have voices that make them sound as if they were six years old? I recently called a local business here, and the person who picked up the phone sounded this way. I almost asked her ‘Could you please hand the phone over to your mommy or daddy?’. But she seemed too knowledgeable to be six years old, so I continued the conversation, even though I felt like I was talking to Cindy Brady. When I visited this place, I met this woman and she appeared to be in her fifties. I ne… And another _almost_ on point: > [@Do girls' voices change at puberty?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-girls-voices-change-at-puberty/585958): > > I sent my GF [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMrCW07XBS8&feature=feedlik) of an 11 year-old singing “Rolling in the Deep”. The girl does an astoundingly good job of covering the song ([this is the original](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw&feature=artist)). Talking about it I mentioned that I hope this girl maintains her ability once she hits puberty. My GF said it was guys whose voices change (to much comedic effect) at puberty but not girls. I had never really thought about that. As mentioned guys’ voices changing at puberty is well known and [used for much comedy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gIomqhAnCA). I just kind of assumed… ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/39 "2022-06-15T14:09:48Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I think there is a fair amount of code switching going on. There certainly is in some cases. I’ve known women who used that girlish voice whenever men were in hearing, but a lower pitched voice when only women were around. For some women, however, that’s their normal voice; so I try not to jump to conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182/40 "2022-06-15T14:18:50Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Blossom Dearie built a singing career out of it. So did Tiny Tim. Little girl voices are certainly annoying to me, but worse by far are the “quackers” like Savannah Guthrie. Yeah, I’m being judgmental. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-with-little-girl-voices/966182.md?page=3)