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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | [[quoteright:350:[[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sabrina_cast.png]]]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:350:[-The one in the middle is shorter. Must be a teenager-].]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Imagine that you are making a show which features teenagers alongside adults. You want to avoid DawsonCasting, so you try to hire actual teens for these roles. But wait, these kids are taller than half the adult cast! Secondary sexual traits may be present as well: the boys might be sporting stubble, and some teenage boys, if genetics are particularly unkind, [[PrematurelyBald could even have receding hairlines already]]. The girls may have had their "summer growth spurt." [[RealityIsUnrealistic Half the audience won't even believe that they are real teens]]. So how do you make them look definitely younger than those middle-aged adults? Let's hire the shortest ones possible! |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Part of this can be the visual effect of a show shot from a child's or teen's perspective. The adults tower over our protagonists in terms of authority, and the best way to demonstrate that is make them physically much taller (or the child physically much shorter) than they actually are or conceivably would be. This is especially true in animated shows, which can often have the [[PintSizedKid child reach no higher than the parents' waist despite almost nearing adolescence]]. "Short=Younger" can even apply ''among'' the young cast. It's not unheard of for a "big" brother's actor to actually be younger than his "little" sister, but because he's OneHeadTaller, he's written as older. Again, it's a visual clue to the power dynamic. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | In RealLife, most people are at or near their adult height by age 12–16, with girls typically reaching said height towards the earlier end of that range and boys reaching it near the later end. For reference, the average adult height in the United States is around 5′9″ for men and 5′4″ for women. This means a teenager who's on the tall side can tower over his or her adult costars and ruin the visual effect. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Contrast: DawsonCasting. Or compare, as short, baby-faced actors can make a career of playing teenagers throughout their 20s (even if [[NotAllowedToGrowUp they'd rather not]]). A SisterTrope to TinySchoolboy, in which the boy is short for reasons he can't control and it's rather noticeable among others his age. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | %%Contrast: DawsonCasting. Or compare, as short, baby-faced actors can make a career of playing teenagers throughout their 20s (even if [[NotAllowedToGrowUp they'd rather not]]). Also contrast Small Parent Huge Child. A SisterTrope to TinySchoolboy, in which the boy is short for reasons he can't control and it's rather noticeable among others his age. --Small Parent, Huge Child has been unlaunched; restore once properly relaunched. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | PintSizedKid is the prepubescent version, and ArtisticAge is the opposite of this trope. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ''Note: What constitutes as the minimum age for adult depends on how they are portrayed in the work; usually 18-19 year olds count as adults. However, a "15-year-old character being shorter than a 19-year old" is just as valid an example for this trope as an "18-year-old character being shorter than a 25-year-old".'' |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | !!Examples: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 29 | * In both ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'' manga and anime, the mothers are taller than their daughters. Yuuko is taller than Misa, who is taller than Mira, while Shiori is taller than Ao. |
| 30 | * In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' Farnese is 19 and is taller than Isidro, Schierke and Isma who are respectively 14, 13 and 15 but look way younger. They are all dwarfed by [[LargeAndInCharge Guts]], though Casca is the same height as Farnese despite Casca being in her 20s. |
| 31 | ** Guts has always averted this, even at 18 to 19 years old in the Golden Age Arc he’s 6 foot and OneHeadTaller (if not more) than his lover Casca and Griffith who are the same age as him. Pippin was also 19 [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQX2ZAXfo9fwqRDwcG8gglWB7BDwyhuNv3nKh0N98wmgOzA0rKT&usqp=CAU but way taller than Guts and the rest Band of Hawk]]. |
| 32 | ** Played straight with Ricket who was tiny among his TrueCompanions in his mid teens and even when he is 19 he still barely comes up to Gut’s chest at 5′5″. |
| 33 | * High schoolers in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' aren't too far from adult characters in height. Conan and his first grader peers are considerably smaller than them. In the middle is the Mysterious Child, known only as "Mary". Conan estimates her as being middle school aged, approximately 12–15, but she isn't much taller than Conan and is considerably shorter than 17-year-old Masumi Sera when they're seen together, barely coming up to Masumi's waist. |
| 34 | * ''Anime/CodeGeass'': One must assume that in the ''Anime/CodeGeass'' universe, you don't quit growing until you hit 30. Of course, these ''are'' Creator/{{Clamp}}-designed characters, so absurdly lanky is to be expected. |
| 35 | ** It's surprising to see the 17/18-year-old Lelouch, Kallen, and Suzaku compared to the 24-year-old Clovis and the 28-year-old Schneizel, Cornelia, and Jeremiah. |
| 36 | ** Charles (who's a towering 6'8") started out super small, and had kids who barely [[OneHeadTaller reached his collarbone]]. |
| 37 | ** Lelouch is almost 180 cm, which isn't really anything to laugh at. He just looks short compared to other people in the Britannian royal family who are unreasonably large. It seems that they indeed don't stop growing until much later in life. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/DragonBall'': |
| 39 | ** At the beginning the 12-year-old Goku doesn't seem to even stand up to (normal height) 16-year-old Bulma's waist. Bulma herself is rather short compared to adults in the series. |
| 40 | ** Krillin was also pretty short as a 13-year-old. It's also noteworthy that when Goku and Krillin were young teenagers, they were still shorter than Bulma and the others, especially Krillin. |
| 41 | ** By the time ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' hits, this trope is averted. Teenaged Future Trunks is taller than his dad and almost as tall as Goku, and the 17-year-old Gohan (seen closer to the end of the series) is one of the taller members of the cast, despite being 5′9″. |
| 42 | ** In the Great Saiyaman Saga [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSCrYflp9jWm-3P0nQl9iH4RXVlwq-hM3Qfi1sNfVPZpYCdFVna&usqp=CAU Videl and Erasa barely reach Gohan’s shoulder]] while he’s OneHeadTaller. Though this has some TruthInTelevision as boys typically have a faster growth rate than girls. |
| 43 | ** Goku's case becomes a MythologyGag in ''Jaco the Galactic Patrolman'', where being extremely short throughout most of his teens is attributed to his alien biology. |
| 44 | ** Played straight in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', where present Trunks and Goten don't appear to have grown since before the TimeSkip at the end of Z despite seven years having passed by the Tournament of Power. In fact, Future Trunks' own history shows more significant growth during his time training with Gohan, than his present day iteration. That said, it ''is'' established that [[HumanAliens Saiyans]] grow very slowly for most of their childhood but have some rather extreme growth spurts to get to their adult height. |
| 45 | * Exaggerated in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. While Edward Elric is short, he's the shortest of all of the teenage characters, who are taller than him. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the reason is because Alphonse's body is absorbing nutrients from his own, which is keeping him from growing]]. After the FinalBattle he starts growing a lot taller, to the point where he's taller than Winry. He's also 14 or 15 when the series starts. In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 2003 anime]], he never hits a growth spurt and thus is short even in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'' when he is eighteen (where Winry, Alfons, Noah, and even Alphonse at the end dwarf him). |
| 46 | * In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', this is often averted, as Hana is slightly taller than her mother, and Miho, at 16, is about as tall as the family maid, Kikuyo. Interestingly enough, in many shots with adults and children present, one of the two groups will be sitting. |
| 47 | * ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': |
| 48 | ** All the pilots in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''; especially weird in [[ArtisticAge how they otherwise look way older]]. |
| 49 | ** ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' does this with Garrod and Tiffa, who are fifteen, making them about two feet shorter than all the adults. This includes Roabea and Witz, who are still under twenty ''themselves'' (but [[YoungerThanTheyLook don't look it]]). Carris, who's also fifteenish, is also a shorty. |
| 50 | ** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' and its various sequels and spinoffs also has this happen a lot. It's especially noticeable in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', in which the teen characters are still short despite there having been a two year time skip. |
| 51 | ** While most of his teammates in ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' are in their early 20s, Neo-China's Sai-Saici is sixteen, and looks positively dinky next to the rest of the cast. Most pronounced given he shares a lot of screen time with the massive Argo Gulsky. |
| 52 | * ''Anime/GunXSword'' contains several teens who are notably shorter than the adults around them. Compare Joshua to his older brother Ray for a good example. Joshua's age is never given, but he's probably in his mid to late teens. |
| 53 | * Mostly averted in ''Manga/{{Haikyuu}}'' where some of the high-school-aged volleyball players are quite tall, the tallest of them, Hyakuzawa measuring over 2 meters at age 16. In the time skip, however, some players grow quite a bit taller which mostly makes a difference for characters like Hinata who was pretty short at the start of canon. |
| 54 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' ping-pongs the issue, depending on the characters. Jotaro, Kakoyin and Josuke are tall and buff, but Koichi (nearly the same age as Josuke, or possibly the same) is waist-height (and his child-like voice doesn't help things). One teenaged antagonist starts out tall but ''shrinks'' to Koichi's height after being beaten, as does another (presumably) adult antagonist. Officially these characters are about five feet tall, [[StylizedForTheViewer the art style just exaggerates their shortness]]. |
| 55 | ** Averted completely in earlier parts; e.g., the 18-year-old [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Joseph Joestar]] stands at 6′5″ towering over his grandmother, girlfriend, [[spoiler:and 50-year-old mother]]. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' has Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu –- all 14 years old -– about as tall as each other, and ''way'' shorter than the adults they meet in Cephiro (barring the ones who [[OlderThanTheyLook have a childlike appearance]]). They're at least a head shorter than the women they meet, and barely up to waist-height on the men. |
| 57 | * The teens in ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}'' are somewhat short, as seen in the group shot of the first season's opening. Seems to be a Gainax thing. |
| 58 | * Averted in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', while there are short characters like Midoriya or Mineta (and Midoryia is only a little shorter than most other boys), everyone has plausible heights for their age, and some teenagers are pretty tall, more than some adults themselves. It helps that they're pretty athletic and have great physiques due to lots of training. |
| 59 | * The teen characters in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' are noticeably short for their ages, with Asuka and Touji being 147 cm and Rei being 142 cm. Shinji is especially noteworthy; his father is 6'1"/185 cm (which is extraordinarily tall for a Japanese male), yet Shinji's 14 years old and 144 cm, about the same height as an 8-year-old. One might reasonably expect him to be at least 162-172 cm, but Japanese female adults of average height (160 cm or so) loom over him. Contrast with their ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' counterparts, where their heights are more plausible.[[note]]Shinji, Asuka and Kensuke are 157 cm, Touji is 165 cm, and Rei and Hikari are 155 cm.[[/note]] |
| 60 | * At the start of ''Anime/OnePiece'' Luffy and Usopp were 17, Nami was 18, and Zoro and Sanji were 19. Robin and Franky who were 28 and 34 respectively [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSs7YXKyECvo62EckcasjYI6lqM3V39soQDig&usqp=CAU are a bit taller than them (especially Franky)]]. Chopper being the youngest at 16 was the shortest, being {{Chibi}} sized, though he's Heavy Point makes him as tall as Franky. Post-TimeSkip Zoro, Sanji, and Nami (who are now in their 20s) are about as tall as Robin when she isn't wearing heels. |
| 61 | ** Coby is a ridiculous example of this, in his debut where he was 16 and much shorter than Luffy, then a few months later thanks to Garp's TrainingFromHell he gets an insane growth spurt and is close to Luffy in height. |
| 62 | * Most ''Anime/PrettyCure'' protagonists are 13-15, and often at least a head shorter than the adults around them. |
| 63 | ** ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'': 14 year old Love only reaches her mother's chin and her father's bicep. |
| 64 | ** ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'': 14 year old Tsubomi is nearly a foot (maybe two) shorter than her father. |
| 65 | ** ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'': 13 year old Haruka is about shoulder length compared to her parents. |
| 66 | ** ''Anime/MahoGirlsPrecure'': Lilia still needs to bend down for 13 year old Riko to even reach her chin. |
| 67 | ** ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode'': 14 year old Ichika, like Tsubomi, is just above her father's elbow in height. |
| 68 | ** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'': 14 year old Hana is a whole head shorter than her mother. |
| 69 | ** ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'': Downplayed, as Elena and Madoka (both 14) are still shorter than adults around them, but only by six inches at most. |
| 70 | ** ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'': 13 year old Manatsu is a head shorter than her mother. |
| 71 | ** ''Anime/DeliciousPartyPrettyCure'': 14 year old Yui just reaches the shoulder of 36 year old Rosemary. |
| 72 | * The high schoolers in ''Manga/SchoolLive'' are shorter and more kiddie looking than the Saint Isidore University students, despite them being only a few years apart in age. |
| 73 | * In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', if you didn't have WordOfGod to tell you that Simon is supposed to be 14, you'd swear he was ''at most'' ten, which isn't helped by his stare or TaremeEyes. Apparently he just didn't have a growth spurt until later on, since other teens in the series are more realistic in their heights. |
| 74 | * ''Music/{{Tsukiuta}}'' started out as a rather extreme example -- despite being only a year younger, the junior pairs were much shorter than the middles and seniors when they first started. However, this is a real time series, and over the 5+ years since then, they've grown. As adults, Rui and Kakeru are still the shortest, but the other juniors, Koi and Iku are now taller than middle members Aoi and Yoru. You, of Procella's middle pair, is taller than seniors Shun and Hajime. |
| 75 | * Inverted in ''Manga/WithTheLight''. By the time Hikaru enters middle school, he's taller than his mother. |
| 76 | * In ''Anime/YuriOnIce'', the under-18 characters, including Yuri Plisetski, Guang-hong, and Kenjiro, are all a head shorter than the older skaters. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': A justified example is [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]], who was alone and starving between the ages of six and seventeen, so that even at eighteen she is noticeably short, despite her parents being rather tall at 5′8″ and 6′2″. Ironically, Cass is [[OlderThanTheyLook older than she looks]] as she hasn't been a teenager since about a year after she was introduced and is meant to be about the same age as Jason Todd, but due to her short size, [[ContinuitySnarl some writers who aren't well versed in her character write her as being a teenager]], and some fans have assumed she's such. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Poor [[Billy Batson]] is 16 years old, and despite the fact that he's supposed to grow into his "Marvel" form at some point, he still looks like a short, skinny kid. Then again the burdens of being an orphan may be a contributing factor. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderGwen'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], as Gwen Stacy is 19 during the first volume (due to a time skip, she's 20 in the second volume), but is shown to be ''exceptionally'' short. Her exact height is only given as 'approximately' 5′5″, but its repeatedly shown to be much shorter than that (a crossover with the above-mentioned ''All-New Wolverine'' depicts the two at the same height, implying Gwen is ''5′1″''), especially when standing next to others billed at that height. Her father George is a full foot taller and pretty much all of her (primarily adult) villains tower over her, not unlike ''Ultimate Spider-Man''. It seems to be something specific to ''this'' Gwen, as when she meets the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616 (AKA, the main Marvel Universe) when lost in time and space [[spoiler:which indirectly leads to splintering the timeline to create the AU Earth-617]], its said the two are the same age at this point, but 616!Gwen is a couple inches taller. Averting/inverting this somewhat, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMilesMorales Miles Morales]] is about a year and half younger than Gwen, but is currently billed at 5'8. Typically he's depicted as ''much'' shorter than this when around adults, playing it straight, but when him and Gwen meet he's typically drawn a good few inches taller, despite the age gap. This makes ''some'' sense as Miles ''is'' at the point he'd be reaching his full height, and boys are typically taller than girls, but it does amusingly subvert the trend of height being used to determine youth. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': Despite having been portrayed as adults for decades, most of the founding members (Dick Grayson/ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}, [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]], and Garth/Aqualad/Tempest) will all be a little shorter than their mentors. [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West and Barry Allen]] are both 6 feet tall, and prior to the ComicBook/New52, Wally was actually an inch taller than Barry. And Roy Harper/Arsenal/Red Arrow is an inch taller than [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Oliver Queen]]. Despite this, you'll rarely see an artist draw either Wally or Roy as taller than their mentors, and sometimes Wally will outright be dwarfed by Barry despite this billing. |
| 84 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Peter Parker is shown to be about the same height as Aunt May, though most other people tower over him. Even his girlfriends Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson are shown to be somewhat taller than him. Hilariously addressed when someone tells Flash Thompson that he thinks Peter Parker may be Spider-Man; Flash dismisses the idea out of hand because "Spider-Man is like, 6 feet tall!" |
| 85 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Both Vanessa Kapatelis and Cassandra Sandsmark are at least a head shorter than their mothers, and neither of their mothers are very tall women. When both girls are together they seem to be the same height even though Vanessa is a couple of years older and their classmates are likewise portrayed as shorter than any of the adults. |
| 86 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': |
| 87 | ** Despite being one of Marvel's top assassins, ComicBook/{{X 23}} is generally depicted as being very short and slight -- [[DependingOnTheArtist at times]] even smaller than her father/template, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} -- and it's very common for people who've at least ''heard'' of X-23 to be left stunned when they actually see her for the first time. By the time of ''ComicBook/AllNewWolverine'' she's likely no older than 19, and her official height is listed at a mere ''5′1″''.[[note]] However, Wolverine's official height is 5′3″, so [[FridgeBrilliance it does make sense that X-23 would be on the short side even as an adult.]] [[/note]] Her own clone, Gabby, is 13, and is actually ''[[PintSizedKid even shorter]]''. |
| 88 | ** In ''ComicBook/AllNewXMen'' the original five X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel) being teenagers are drawn much shorter than the adults, even ComicBook/KittyPryde. This is quite confusing since in the 60s Creator/JackKirby drew them as being as tall as Magneto and other characters. |
| 89 | * Any issue of ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' that had them standing alongside the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}. Assuming that Franchise/{{Superman}} and the rest were around 6 feet tall, the YJ kids looked like they were closer to 4 feet. Disconcerting, given that most of the cast was about 16. At one point in his own series ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}} (Tim Drake) even lampshades it, grumbling that maybe one day he'll stop looking like he's twelve. |
| 90 | * In general, most 1990s/2000s era 'teen heroes' in Marvel and DC were all drawn as rather short, and were even often billed at 5′5″, which was largely a result of this trope, but it's now something that's carried over even as most have actually grown into adulthood. Though this ''does'' make things somewhat realistic (a short teen will probably be a short adult), it does create a funny situation that seemingly an entire generation of superheroes never grew past 5′6″. |
| 91 | ** On Marvel's side, the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' were all 14-16 when introduced and varied in height, but were all shown as shorter than the "actual" Avengers; now that they're all in their 20s, only Hulkling is drawn as actually reaching average height due to being TheBigGuy of the team (but even still, he appears to be no taller than a "short" adult character), which has led to remarks directed at Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang over their short stature (with Kate regularly getting mistaken for being younger than she is, in-universe and out). At one point, while getting the crap kicked out of her by LMD mooks, Kate lampshades the SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome of her huge size and weight disadvantage. |
| 92 | ** On DC's end of this, most of their teen heroes had all aged out of their teen years by 2009 (for instance, Tim Drake was said to be about 17 at youngest, and Stephanie Brown had started college), and this was somewhat reflected in them being drawn ''slightly'' taller than they once were...but were still shorter than more mature characters (though at the very least, Tim had gone from being about Steph's height to being a good few inches taller). However, this was followed by a decade of DC's continuity getting, to put it bluntly, ''pretty fucking messy'' thanks to [[ComicBook/TheNew52 several reboots]] [[ComicBook/DCRebirth and relaunches]] [[ComicBook/InfiniteFrontier and "anti-reboots"]], during which the 2000s-era teen characters [[ContinuitySnarl alternated between being de-aged back to teenagers to being written as college aged to "graduating" from teen to young adult even after previously being written as young adults]]. Exactly how old they're supposed to by a given writer's estimate seems to reflect the artist interpretation, so if a writer is treating them as still being a KidHero they'll be ridiculously tiny, while if the writer is treating them as an actual adult now, they'll be short by average standards but nothing hard to imagine for an adult. |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 96 | * Usually averted in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', as 16-year-old Peter and 14-year-old Paige are usually depicted as the same height as their parents and other adults, but in one storyline, Paige invites all of her friends to Peter's Halloween party. Her friends are all ''ridiculously'' short and -- as Peter keeps reminding us -- high school freshmen, meaning they're all about 14 years old. The same goes for Paige's [[AbhorrentAdmirer Abhorrent Admirer]] Morton Goldthwait, who is consistently shown as being about the same size as 10 year old Jason (Who is abnormally short as well, being about the height of the average five year old). |
| 97 | [[/folder]] |
| 98 | |
| 99 | [[folder:FanWorks]] |
| 100 | * ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, [[spoiler:Thor's son]] was notably shorter than his father even when he died. |
| 101 | * ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' averts this. Clark (per ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' canon) is easily pushing 6 feet, and Carol's 5′9″, reaching 5′10″ by the sequel, despite both being no older than 14 or 15. Uhtred, despite being 13, is easily the same height as Carol. Likewise, while the other younger characters are initially fairly short -- Harry's initially only 5 feet and change, and Diana is notably pocket sized -- it's temporary. Harry's 13, and she's 11 or 12, so both get growth spurts (and magical medical correction for stunted growth in Harry's case) leaving Harry roughly only par with Carol and Clark, and Diana close behind. Since they all come from tall families, this isn't all that surprising. |
| 102 | * In ''Fanfic/MaFille'' and its sequel, ''Fanfic/ShiningAndSweet'', 14-year-old Katrina Beaufort/Chaton Cheri is the shortest of the WVBA boxers at five foot one |
| 103 | * Averted in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12869868/1/No-Promises No Promises]]'' where the SelfInsert is six feet tall despite only being fourteen, but this is because his father [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire King Baratheon]] is even taller. |
| 104 | * Inverted in ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', where the [[AgeLift now 15-year-old Ash]] is mentioned to be taller than his mother. |
| 105 | * Inverted in ''Fanfic/SkylandersReturnToTheRuins''; 19-year-old Crestfeather, despite being the youngest of the Core Five, is easily the tallest of them, being the only one over 6 feet tall. |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder:Film — Animated]] |
| 109 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'', 16-year-old Merida is shorter than both of her parents. Not surprising with her father, a hulk of a man who's king of the Scots. A little surprising with her mother, though she's only half a head shorter. [[spoiler:At least, when her mother's in human form.]] |
| 110 | * Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon: |
| 111 | ** Rapunzel in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' – supposed to be 18, and still shorter than all the adults. Flynn Rider is in his early 20s and is visibly a full foot taller; evidently Rapunzel's height has little to do with her age and more just that she's ''very'' short. |
| 112 | ** Anna in ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' – aged 18 and with one exception she's the shortest person in the main part of the film. Her sister, Elsa, is 21 and appears to be of average height. Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'', where Anna's still the shortest despite being in her early 20s. |
| 113 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', Hiro Hamada is stated to be around 5′0″ – pretty short for a 14-year-old, and further emphasized by the fact that everyone else in the movie is an adult and ''incredibly'' tall (except for [=GoGo=] and maybe Aunt Cass). It's stated in ''The Art of Big Hero 6'' that for the first bit of the movie, everything is shot above Hiro's eye level so that we are looking down on him. However, after [[spoiler:Tadashi's death]], the "camera" moves down so that we are seeing everything from Hiro's point of view. His short height is occasionally acknowledged in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries''; in particular, when he tries to question Liv Amara at the symposium in "Something Fluffy", he has to move the microphone down. After the moderator Bluff Dunder repeatedly jokes about his height, he angrily replies he just hasn't hit his growth spurt yet. |
| 114 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'', Goofy's son Max goes to high school which means that he's now somewhat older than in ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop''. He, PJ and the other kids aren't much taller, though. Max, PJ and Bobby are still shorter than any older characters in ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'' when they go to ''college''. |
| 115 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}'': Not only are the teens shorter than the adults, all but two of them are lanky and noodly. It doesn't help that the adults are all stereotypical gigantic Vikings, even [[BrawnHilda the women]]. |
| 116 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', one of the characters is Peni Parker (SP//dr), a teenage girl version of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), who is seemingly the size of a school-age child/preteen. Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy are taller than Peni despite being about the same age as her, but adult Peter B. Parker and Noir Spider-Man tower over them. |
| 117 | * Averted in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''; 17-year-old Andy is a couple inches taller than his mom. Given the prevalence of this trope, this aversion is kind of jarring in fiction. |
| 118 | * ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': [[HeroProtagonist Mei]], Abby, Miriam, Priya, and the other students around Mei's grade are all around 13-14 years old and are a head shorter than all of the adults. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:Film — Live-Action]] |
| 122 | !!By actor |
| 123 | * Probably explaining how Creator/MichaelJFox got away with playing teenage parts into his late twenties. Interestingly, ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' partially averted this with Creator/CrispinGlover and Creator/ThomasFWilson, both of whom are over six feet. However, they also had to play middle aged versions of George [=McFly=] and Biff Tannen, so they needed to appear taller than teenage Marty in 1985. |
| 124 | * Creator/ElliotPage is 5′1″, so even in his late 20s he was frequently cast as teenagers. For ''Film/HardCandy'' he played a girl who claims she's 14, and two years later when he was 20 he took on an Oscar-nominated role as a pregnant 16-year-old in ''Film/{{Juno}}''. [[note]]Both these films were made while he was still presenting as female.[[/note]] |
| 125 | * Creator/MarkWahlberg's earliest roles were teens, despite his acting career beginning in his early 20s. The man is, depending on the source, no taller than 5′8″. |
| 126 | * Shailene Woodley is a similar case. At 5′7½″, all her major roles have been 16-year-olds. Amusingly enough, she's also lost her virginity onscreen in five different films. |
| 127 | |
| 128 | !!By film |
| 129 | * Both used and averted in British comic-action thriller ''Film/FourThreeTwoOne'': of the four female leads (who are around 18 or 19), two are anything if but tall, but the petite Ophelia Lovibond and Emma Roberts certainly fall under this. Lovibond in particular has [[DawsonCasting less than a two year age gap]] between her and the older villain played by Michelle Ryan but because Ryan is much taller, Lovibond ''seems'' much younger. |
| 130 | * Inverted in ''Film/DeckTheHalls'', where Creator/DannyDeVito (4′10″) and Creator/KristinChenoweth (also 4′10″) have teenage daughters played by 5′8″ Kelly and Sabrina Aldridge. |
| 131 | * Played straight in ''Film/TheDuff'' with Bianca but subverted with many of the other high school characters. Both Jess and Casey, as well as the AlphaBitch Madison, are obviously taller than Bianca. Note that the actress playing Madison, Creator/BellaThorne, was 16 while filming this movie, meanwhile the actress playing Bianca, Creator/MaeWhitman, was almost 10 years older. |
| 132 | * Somewhat averted in ''Film/EnolaHolmes'', where Enola is as tall as her mother at 16. Of course, her mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is only 5′2″. |
| 133 | * In her 2012 film ''Film/{{Gone|2012}}'', Seyfried actually takes advantage of this trope and her height in-universe. Her character is 20-something but while trying to avoid cops looking for her, she joins a group of teens and successfully blends in thanks to her lack of height. |
| 134 | * In ''Film/Hairspray2007'', the main teen cast members are all significantly shorter than the actors playing their parents -- compare Nikki Blonsky (4′10″) with Creator/ChristopherWalken (6′0″) and Creator/JohnTravolta (6′1″), Creator/AmandaBynes (5′7″) with Creator/AllisonJanney (6′0″), Elijah Kelley (5′6″) with Music/QueenLatifah (5′10″), and Brittany Snow (5′2&frec12;″) with Creator/MichellePfeiffer (5′6″ and towering in stilettos). Not to mention Creator/ZacEfron with everybody. |
| 135 | * For ''Film/Halo4ForwardUntoDawn'', casting specifically chose short actors to play the Corbulo cadets with the intention that Master Chief would tower over them in shooting, though this is justified by the Chief being a roughly 7'0" SuperSoldier. Ironically enough, [[spoiler:the Chief and his fellow Spartans are revealed at the end to be roughly the same age as the cadets, even though John is canonically 6′9″ under the armor]]. |
| 136 | * Creator/DanielRadcliffe started playing Film/HarryPotter when he was only a little bit older than the character. However, he was 21 playing 17 by the end but he was helped in passing by the fact that he’s only 5′4″. Even though Harry’s [[OneHeadTaller a lot taller]] than his {{Love Interest|s}}, Ginny, in the books, [[Creator/BonnieWright she]]’s actually taller than him in the movies. |
| 137 | * ''Film/TheHungerGames'' is all over the place with this one. Book Katniss is small and skinny so casting the tall and endowed-of-boobs -- and-hips Creator/JenniferLawrence was against physical type. She was also implicitly aged up due to Lawrence's inability to pass for sixteen, even accounting for DawsonCasting. Her romantic opposite is played by an actor a little younger and definitely on the short side. His interactions with adult cast members fit the trope completely, as his older co-stars stand above his eyeline leaving him looking more childlike. Filling out the rest of the teen cast are mostly actual teen actors, but whether they were cast to fit this trope or not seems to have depended on whether the filmmakers wanted to portray them as little and helpless in the face of the adults' machinations (Rue, Foxface, several unnamed and quickly dispatched victims) or a viable threat to Katniss in the arena (Cato, Thresh, Glimmer, Marvel). The exception to the rule is Clove who ''is'' a serious threat, but is also tiny. The filmmakers had to shoot very carefully for the sight of the very small and skinny 14-year-old actress playing Clove attacking and holding down the tall and muscular 21-year-old actress playing Katniss not be laughable. Finally, the filmmakers work hard to dwarf Katniss in the Capitol, placing her besides tall and bulky guards to emphasise her vulnerability. |
| 138 | * Creator/KeiraKnightley benefited from this trope in the opposite way earlier in her career. As she was already quite tall by the time she had her StarMakingRole in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', she played mostly adult roles afterwards. Notably in ''Film/LoveActually'' she was only eighteen, and both her love interests were at least ten years older than her (and her character was getting married). |
| 139 | * ''Film/MammaMia''. While technically not playing a ''teen'' (her character is 20) Creator/AmandaSeyfried is considerably shorter than Creator/MerylStreep (who plays her mother). She doesn't get it from her dad either -- ''all three'' potential fathers are over 6 feet. |
| 140 | * In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, KidHero [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] (played by 5′7″ Creator/TomHolland) is a good bit shorter than the majority of his fellow heroes. Even Creator/RobertDowneyJr's [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] is made to look several inches taller despite he and Tom being around the same height in real life. Averted with MJ who, at 5′10″, is among the tallest of the franchise's female characters. |
| 141 | ** Zig-Zagged with Cassie Lang. Originally played by child actor Abby Ryder Fortson in ''Film/AntMan1'' and ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', Cassie later received a PlotRelevantAgeUp to 15 for ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' and was recast with 17-year-old Emma Fuhrmann, who at 5′8″ was almost the same height as her father, Scott Lang, played by the 5′9″ Creator/PaulRudd. In ''Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania'', she's played by Creator/KathrynNewton, who is [[DawsonCasting almost a decade older than Cassie]], but is also only 5'5 and thus still easily passes for a teenager. To be clear, the recast is probably less an issue with Fuhrmann's height but more the fact Newton [[TruerToTheText better resembles the character]] (who in the comics ''is'' around 5'4-5'5). |
| 142 | * Franchise/MonsterVerse: [[Characters/MonsterVerseRussellFamily Madison Russell]], who's supposed to be 12 years old in ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' and 17 years old in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', looks shorter than all the adults around her in both appearances[[note]]The films were shot back-to-back, and the actress Millie Bobby Brown would have been 13-15 during shooting[[/note]]. |
| 143 | * ''[[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock Star Trek III]]'': When the three prisoners on the Genesis planet are lined up together, teen Spock is noticeably ''much'' shorter than David (Merritt Butrick was 6'1"). He even seems shorter than Saavik, though this is mostly because she was wearing boots with heels and had big hair -- the actors were actually the same height otherwise. Stephen Manley, who played Spock at 17, was a good match facially but stood only 5'8", four inches shorter than Spock as an adult (Creator/LeonardNimoy was 6 feet tall). Image [[http://startrekminute.com/e/the-search-for-spock-minute-69-wants-dead-the-most/ here]]. |
| 144 | * Subverted in ''TigerEyes''; 15-year-old Davey (Creator/WillaHolland) is at least 5'5" while her mother (Creator/AmyJoJohnson) is 5'2". |
| 145 | * Inverted in ''Film/WereTheMillers'' with Kenny, who is played by 6'2" Creator/WillPoulter. Played straight by the 5'1.5" Creator/EmmaRoberts. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 149 | * Averted then used and justified in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice''. Almost 16-year-old Jerin Whistler is taller than his older sisters. Later he meets Cullen Moorland, who's about the same age and shorter than said sisters, but by the end of the book has had a growth spurt. The Whistlers are all inclined to be tall, and boys stop growing later than girls do. |
| 150 | * Averted in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' -- by book six, Harry is stated to be as tall as [[RichBitch Narcissa Malfoy]], allowing him to look her directly in the eye during a tense scene. Meanwhile, Ron is repeatedly stated to be taller than him. |
| 151 | * {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Literature/ManyWaters'' -- the 15-year-old twins are about six feet, which is tall by normal standards, and becomes even more noticeable when they're transported to [[BibleTimes the oasis]], where people [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld live for centuries]] but average about four feet. |
| 152 | * Averted in ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn''. Simon is 14 at the start of the main plot, and the books repeatedly refer to the fact that he is at least as tall, if not taller than, most of the adult men around him. When he laments being "only a boy", he's reminded by his (hulking) mentor that the world does not see a boy when they look at him, but a tall, broad-shouldered man, and thus he should stop acting like he's still a little boy. It helps that he also starts growing a beard midway through the adventure. |
| 153 | * In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', it is called out repeatedly that the main characters whose biological parents are still running around look very much like their parents, only shorter. |
| 154 | * Averted in Donald J. Sobol's ''Literature/SecretAgentsFour''. Bo, a sophomore in high school, is ''seven'' feet tall. |
| 155 | * There's something off about Alfie's scale in ''Literature/{{Survivor|Dogs}}s'' and it's likely due to this. His exact age isn't mentioned but he's a "young" dog and the others [[spoiler:mourn his young age after his premature death]]. He is routinely mentioned as being a small dog, even more often than other dogs like Sunshine (a Maltese) and Daisy (a Westie/Jack Russel). The problem is Bulldogs aren't "small" despite their stocky look. The average for an American male is 50 lb. (23 kg.) and all adults should at least be 40 lb. (18 kg.). Even a 6-month-old puppy isn't exactly "small". Alfie is likely small under the assumption adolescent dogs are smaller than they actually are. |
| 156 | * By 5 months the average kitten is roughly 75% of its adult height. In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', several apprentices (who begin training at 6 months) are small enough to be held by the scruff like little kits. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 160 | * Amy Davidson managed to play the middle sister in ''Series/EightSimpleRules'' despite being twenty six, and six years ''older'' than the onscreen eldest Kayley Cuoco. Her height was a contributing factor. |
| 161 | * ''Series/ANTFarm'': |
| 162 | ** Played straight with the [=ANTs=], being that they are preteens ([[DawsonCasting being played by actors that are 13 to 15 years old]]) going to a high school, but not only are they shorter than every adult, but also regular high school students. Paisley and Lexi are taller than the [=ANTs=] but narrowly avert this compared to Principal Skidmore who is about their height. While all extras who are high school students are, for the most part, taller than the [=ANTs=]. Except for Cameron. |
| 163 | ** Also played straight with Cameron, whose actor is 19 years old, yet about the same height as his sister who has to be at least three years younger, while their father is over 6 feet tall, and the mother is also taller than both kids, but not exactly tall. Gibson is around the same height as Chyna's father. |
| 164 | * The main cast of ''Series/AustinAndAlly'' sets up another aversion -- Austin's another 14-year-old six-footer at the start, Dez is about the same height, Ally's barely OneHeadShorter and hasn't shown any HugeSchoolgirl issues and Trish isn't ''that'' short. |
| 165 | * In the 1960s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' series, and ''Film/BatmanTheMovie'', "Boy Wonder" Robin is played by 5'7" Creator/BurtWard, while most adult characters surrounding him are played by much taller actors, such as 6'2" Creator/AdamWest (Batman), 6'3" Creator/CesarRomero (The Joker), 5'11" Julie Newmar (Catwoman), and 6'6" Alan Napier (Alfred Pennyworth). |
| 166 | * ''Series/BlackLightning2018'' has Jennifer Pierce, who despite being a high school upperclassman and the child of two tall parents[[note]]her mother is 5'8" and her father is 6'5"[[/note]], is only 5'3". |
| 167 | * With the exception of Cordelia and Dawn (who was played by an ''actual'' teenager who went through a growth spurt) all of the teens on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' were shorter than most of the adults around them. Buffy and Willow were ''at least'' a head shorter than their mothers and also shorter than adult female Jenny Calendar. Xander and Oz were also both shorter than adult Giles. Referenced in the episode "Normal Again" when Buffy used the fact that her younger sister Dawn was taller than her as evidence that she might be living in a fantasy world. |
| 168 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': Creator/GillianJacobs and Creator/AlisonBrie are the same height (and differ in age by all of 78 days), but Britta (late twenties to early thirties) always wears heels so she is taller than late teens to early twenties Annie. |
| 169 | * Inverted on ''Series/TheConners'', where Harris and Mark are both taller than their parents. Mind you, that isn't particularly difficult given that their parents are played by the 5'3 Creator/SaraGilbert and the 5'5 Creator/JohnnyGalecki, but in Mark's case, actor Ames Mc[==]Namera shot up like a ragweed and now towers over his onscreen mother. |
| 170 | * Played realistically in ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'', where 14-year-old Robbie is the same height as his father and slightly shorter than his mother, while 12-year-old Charlene is shorter than both of her parents. |
| 171 | * Notably averted on ''Series/FamilyMatters'' with Eddie. At 13 years old in the first season, actor Darius [=McCrary=] was already as tall as his onscreen father, and the actor is actually ''[[UnderageCasting younger]]'' than the character, as Eddie was a high school freshman and the eldest of the Winslow children despite being a month younger than his "little" sister Laura's actress, Kellie Shanynge Williams. Unsurprisingly, Eddie ended up towering over the rest of the family as [=McCrary=] grew to an adult height of 6'3. |
| 172 | * Unintentionally done in ''Series/FamilyTies''. Michael J. Fox almost didn't get the role of [[DeadpanSnarker Alex P. Keaton]] because the producers at NBC didn't think it was realistic that the 5'4" Fox could be the son of 6'3" Michael Gross, who played his father Steven Keaton. |
| 173 | * On ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', it varied. |
| 174 | ** Creator/MiloVentimiglia, who played Jess, is 5'8.5", which is actually the average height for young men his age. So part of the trick to convince audiences that he was 17, instead of Milo's true age of 24 at the time, was to dress him in baggier clothing, have lazy posture, and then play his scenes off the larger Luke (Scott Danes) and Dean (Creator/JaredPadalecki) who are both over six feet tall. The height and build differences made Milo look younger and scrappier by comparison. |
| 175 | ** Averted with Creator/JaredPadalecki who was 19 when he began playing Dean Forrester, but was already 6'4" making him the second-tallest member of the cast behind Edward Hermann (Richard Gilmore) who was 6'5". However, Jared's very slim frame highlighted his youth in comparison to the older men in the cast. |
| 176 | ** Played straight with Lane (5'1") and Paris (5'2"). Rory herself is of relatively average height at 5'5". |
| 177 | * ''Series/GossipGirl'' subverts and lampshades this with Serena's tutor Miss Carr. She's a young teacher on her first job and is mistaken for a student initially. She's quite petite and the 18-year-old Serena and Dan are significantly taller than her. |
| 178 | * ''Series/{{Greek}}'': All of the main cast pledges are shorter than their bigs (Rusty to Cappie, Rebecca to Casey, Calvin to Evan). Averted with Lizzi, who's shorter than most of the ZBZ pledges despite being older than everyone in the sorority. |
| 179 | * This is how Jason Earles got away with playing teenage Jackson on ''Series/HannahMontana'' despite being in his late 20s. He's only 5'3.5". Though it eventually led to his little sister played by Music/MileyCyrus outgrowing him, reaching 5'4" by the end of the series. |
| 180 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 181 | ** Everyone from Claire's schools as shorter than 5'6", with the exception of West. Claire herself is only 5'0.5" (if that). The only characters shorter than Claire are Micah and Molly, simply due to the fact that they're still below the age of puberty. |
| 182 | ** Elle is 24 and the same height as Claire, but tends to wear heels so she looks taller. In the online comics Elle got away with posing as one of Claire's classmates despite being eight years older than the rest of the class. |
| 183 | * ''Series/HomeImprovement'' featured an aversion, as the boys all grew up to at least equal their parents in height -- Brad and Mark grew so tall that an eventual gag in the show's opening was to have them stand in front, with their parents having to shuffle around to see past them. The exception was middle child Randy, played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who stood at five foot four and was utterly dwarfed by his younger and older brothers, as well as both parents. |
| 184 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': 5'7" Robin's teenage sister is played by 5'1" Creator/LucyHale. |
| 185 | * On ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Creator/MillyAlcock, the actress playing teenage Rhaenyra, is three inches shorter than Creator/EmmaDArcy, who plays adult Rhaenyra. D'Arcy's take on the character is introduced following a timeskip of about a decade, so the height difference helps establish that Rhaenyra has grown and changed in that time. |
| 186 | ** Both actors playing 16 year old Jacaerys and 14 year old Lucerys Velaryon are 5’5” tall, despite the fact that they are rumored to be [[spoiler:the illegitimate children of Princess Rhaenyra and Harwin “Breakbones” Strong, who is among the largest, tallest, strongest men in Westeros at the time.]] |
| 187 | * While a good casting choice otherwise, it is hard to believe that [[TheLadette Ladette]] Sam Puckett from ''Series/ICarly'', whose actress Creator/JennetteMcCurdy is 5'1", could be the daughter of Pam, played by six-foot-tall Creator/JaneLynch. Freddie is also significantly shorter than his mother. |
| 188 | * ''Series/TheInbetweeners'' plays around with this. Will is noticeably short, even compared to the rest of the lads, despite Simon Bird [[DawsonCasting being well into his twenties]] while playing him. Simon and Jay are about average height, while Neil is actually quite tall, but what sells the trope is the fact that Mr. Gilbert is absolutely huge, hammering home the fact that he is the main adult character on the show. |
| 189 | * In how Jason Earles's ''Series/KickinIt'' role he plays the AdultChild BigBrotherMentor alongside a group of kids, who became taller than him. |
| 190 | * Also unintentionally played straight in ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', as Creator/DavidFaustino was cast as Bud Bundy when he was 13. He reached adulthood over the show's 11-season run...to a height of 5'3, meaning he was ''still'' a head shorter than his family on TV. |
| 191 | * Zigzagged on ''Series/MelissaAndJoey''. Lennox is 5'2", roughly the same height as Creator/MelissaJoanHart, who plays her aunt (and, as mentioned above, has previously played the trope straight) but brother Ryder is ''6' 1"'' and towers over the both of them. Seeing him framed next to Aunt Mel on the rare occasions she doesn't wear heels is rather striking. |
| 192 | * The daughters on ''Series/ModernFamily'' look like homunculi compared to the actors playing their parents. This is especially notable with Haley, who is about 16 when the series begins so in real life should be already as tall as her mom. In reality, the actress playing her is actually now 23 but is petite. At least semi-justified by the fact that the characters were cast as children; while they could have found a taller actress for Haley, they had no idea how tall Ariel Winter (then 11) would be. |
| 193 | * ''Series/MyThreeSons'': Mike, Robbie and eventually Chip and Ernie, are considerably shorter than their father through their teens and (with Mike and Robbie) even into their twenties. Could be explained by their taking after their mother's family; Mike, Robbie and Chip are about the height of Grandpa Bub. |
| 194 | * Kim from ''Series/TheParkers'' is significantly shorter than both her parents (Countess Vaughn is 4'11", Mo'Nique is 5'9", Tommy Ford is 6'4"). Lampshaded by an EnfantTerrible in one episode who, when told by Kim that her father was also tall, responded with MamasBabyPapasMaybe. |
| 195 | ** In a show where a mother and her 18-year-old daughter go to college together, but the actresses playing them only have a 12 year age difference, the advertisements emphasize that Mo'Nique dwarfs Countess in every way, but especially head size, making Countess look like a preteen by comparison. |
| 196 | * Played straight on ''Series/PartyOfFive''. At the height of 5'2", Creator/LaceyChabert was shorter than all of the adult cast members. Likewise Creator/ScottWolf was twenty six playing the 16-year-old Bailey, yet is only 5'7". Creator/NeveCampbell was borderline, at 5'5" playing a 15-year-old. However this is AbilityOverAppearance as producers wanted a younger actress, but Campbell won them over with her audition -- and a trait of Julia in Season 1 is that she's able to pass for twenty one with a fake ID. Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt is another borderline example. She was 5'2 but she was also the same age as her character: sixteen. |
| 197 | * ''Series/TheReturned'' has India Ennenga, who is 5'2", playing Camille and Lena at age 16 in flashbacks as they are twins, but when she appears from the dead 4 years, 20-year-old Lena is played by Creator/SophieLowe, who is 5'7". |
| 198 | * ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Creator/MelissaJoanHart is 5'2" making her much shorter than both of her aunts. This could, at least, be handwaved that she probably takes after her mother's family. |
| 199 | * ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'': |
| 200 | ** Clyde was [[DawsonCasting cast]] because of Daniel Anthnony's short stature. |
| 201 | ** Averted with Rani with Anjli Mohindra being [[DawsonCasting cast]] despite being significantly taller than you'd expect a teenager to be. She's easily the tallest member of the main cast. |
| 202 | ** Tommy Knight as Luke Smith is the only one of the teens to be played by an actual teenager and prove that real teens aren't short. |
| 203 | * Invoked for comedy in the "Janet Reno's Dance Party" sketches on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', featuring Creator/WillFerrell as Janet Reno dancing with a crowd of teenagers...who were all very short, making the 6'3'' Ferell look like a giant in comparison. |
| 204 | * ''Series/TheSopranos'' features 5'6" Robert Iler playing the teenaged son of 6'1" James Gandolfini and 5'5" Edie Falco. |
| 205 | * ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'': Tiberius is noticeably shorter than his elders, Caesar and Crassus, which emphasizes his youth and inexperience. |
| 206 | * C.B. Barnes, who played the teenage son on ''Series/{{Starman}}'', was considerably shorter than Creator/RobertHays, who played his dad. |
| 207 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has ''two'' instances of straight use followed by unplanned subversion: |
| 208 | ** Cirroc Lofton was fifteen but could have passed for twelve when he began playing 14-year-old Jake Sisko; by the end of the series, when the character was 19, he was a couple inches taller than Avery Brooks (who played his father). At 6'3, he towered over most of the characters, making scenes where he was shunted off from the front on the justification that he's "just a kid" somewhat odd (they make perfect sense logically, but the cinematic language of him standing half a head taller than the people saying that made it a bit jarring, showing that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]]). |
| 209 | ** Five-foot-tall, twenty-something Aron Eisenberg was cast as the teenager Nog specifically so that Nog would look young compared to other Ferengi (who tend, in turn, to be shorter than other humanoids). A much older Nog appears in an alternate timeline, still played by Eisenberg, and is of course the same height. |
| 210 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' both played it straight and inverted it in the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E7Rascals Rascals]]. Because of a [[{{Main/Technobabble}} technobabble]] accident involving the transporters, Picard, Guinan, Ro, and Keiko are all de-aged to approximately 10 to 12 years old. Played straight with the child actors playing young Ro, Guinan and Keiko as they all look like children but inverted with young Picard's actor, David Birkin. This is because David had played Picard's nephew Rene in the earlier episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E2Family Family]] when he was about 12 but this is two years later and David had grown to the point that he was taller than most of the adult females and only slightly shorter than most of the males. |
| 211 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': Played straight with Nancy and her parents (and somewhat with Barb and her father, as Barb and her mother are tall women but Mr. Holland is a giant of a man) and justified in the case of some of the younger kids as they are growing in real time. Naturally this is defied by Season 3 where both Jonathon and Will are taller than Joyce (played by the petite Winona Ryder) and Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler) has highlighted the difference in height between her and Finn Wolfard (Mike Wheeler). |
| 212 | * Godric and Tommy from ''Series/TrueBlood''. One is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld really 2,000 years old]] but was turned into a vampire [[UndeadChild at a young age]], while the other is an actual teenager. Both are played by grown men on the shorter side. Though in Godric's case, actor Allan Hyde isn't ''too'' short (5'8), but most of his scenes are opposite the 6'4 Creator/AlexanderSkarsgard. |
| 213 | * Five from ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' is played by Creator/AidanGallagher, who was 15 in the first season and stood at 5'3. Choosing a diminutive actor was a deliberate visual cue since Five is a grown man who regressed back to his teenage self after a time travel stunt went wrong, making him appear to be TheBabyOfTheBunch despite being the oldest by several decades. Granted, he's still taller than the 5'1 Creator/ElliotPage, who played teenagers [[DawsonCasting well into his twenties]] by invoking this trope. |
| 214 | * Bobby Lazzarini in ''Series/USAHigh'' was played by the 5'3 Creator/JamesMadio who was in his twenties at the time. Otherwise averted with the rest of the cast, who were much taller -- and Lazz's shortness emphasised him as the ButtMonkey of the group. Earlier in his career Madio was fourteen playing a 10-year-old lost boy in ''{{Film/Hook}}''. |
| 215 | * In the ''Series/ICarly''[=/=]''Series/{{Victorious}}'' spinoff ''Series/SamAndCat'', Miss [=McCurdy=] is paired with the even shorter (barely over 5'0") Music/ArianaGrande as Cat. |
| 216 | * Interestingly used in ''Series/TheWitcher2019'', which cast 17-year-old Creator/FreyaAllan as Princess Cirilla, who was meant to be roughly about 11-13 years old. Despite having a legal adult playing a literal child, they were able to sell it thanks to Allan being 5'3 and absolutely tiny next to her co-starts, alongside wardrobe and makeup to make her look much more baby-faced. In season 2, Ciri's grown to 14-15 and thus Freya's actual looks are not concealed as much, creating the illusion of her maturing, but as she's still a pipsqueak next to the other cast members, she still looks significantly younger even though she's only five years younger than the actress playing her surrogate mother. It's at least amusingly justified by the show also casting 5'5 Gaia Mondadori as her mother Pavetta (who was a teenager when she conceived Ciri), in an episode when Geralt meets her before Ciri was born, so Ciri's short stature seems to be a family trait. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 220 | * In ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', this might be part of why [[DawsonCasting 40-year-old]] Akinori Nakagawa is so believable as 16-year-old [[UsefulNotes/TheBorgias Cesare Borgia]] -- though it's also his charisma and beautiful singing voice. The 2023 original production double-cast the four Florentine students. In "Squadra Rossa", all four of them were around Nakagawa's height. In "Squadra Verde", however, while Cesare's friendly rival and fellow rich kid Giovanni de'Medici was around his height, both Giovanni's resentful follower Draghignazzo (Shori Kondo), and Angelo (Creator/TaikiYamazaki), the [[NaiveNewcomer innocent]] commoner who's smart enough to befriend Cesare, are much taller. |
| 221 | * In ''Theatre/SpringAwakening'': |
| 222 | ** The teenage characters are all supposed to be 13 to 15 years old, but in reality it's rarely feasible for actors near that age range to be hired, particularly with the amount of sexual content in the show. To disguise this they make sure the majority are short in comparison to the adult actors. |
| 223 | ** Averted in Hungary; many of the actors playing teen boys were hired due to being tall, lanky, and gawky-looking. |
| 224 | [[/folder]] |
| 225 | |
| 226 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 227 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' the main character Jimmy seems to be constantly shrinking and growing as the scene demands it. For the majority of the game he looks to be a reasonable height for a 15-year-old who is perhaps a bit of a late bloomer -- he's a few inches shorter than the other teenage characters, and not quite a head shorter than the adults. However, in the cutscenes he's very clearly shown to be at about armpit level to the principal and his secretary. |
| 228 | * In ''VideoGame/CrisTales'' adult characters are depicted as being twice or even ''trice'' as tall as teenage Crisbell. Granted, the last case is mostly limited to the [[BigBad Time Empress]], who has EvilIsBigger working for her. |
| 229 | * Inverted in ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert''. Heidi, who is in her thirties, is the shortest female character, and Lily, a teenager of Korean descent, is relatively tall. |
| 230 | * In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' and the prequel manga Dante and Vergil are around 18 to 19 years old but suitably tall for their ages, though Arkham a grown man is noticeably taller than Vergil. Played straighter with Lady whom Dante mockingly refers as a “little girl” though by looks she can’t be any younger than [[VagueAge 17 or 18]] despite being [[OneHeadTaller a head shorter]] than both Sons of Sparda. |
| 231 | * In ''VisualNovel/Ever17'' Sara, Kid[[spoiler: (both of them)]] and Coco are all 16 or younger, while everyone else is at least 18. Everyone from the younger group is visibly shorter than anyone from the older. |
| 232 | * ''VideoGame/EvolutionWorlds'': The main character, Mag Launcher, is stated to be sixteen in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]], yet a bit of FlavorText reveals that he hasn't grown any taller since age 10. Fellow adventurer, Chain Gun, fairs no better as she's only one year younger, yet comes up to Mag's chest. |
| 233 | * Big Town in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is filled with short teenagers that are refugees kicked out of the settlement of [[ThereAreNoAdults Little Lamplight]] after reaching 16 years old. The vast majority of them are noticeably shorter than the Lone Wanderer. Despite the Wanderer being only 19 him/herself. Though the Lone Wanderer grew up in a Vault and enjoyed regular, nutritionally balanced meals their whole life, a benefit that the Big Town residents didn't recieve, so the height difference may be justified. |
| 234 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 235 | ** Krile in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' is a sprite example. In the [=NES/SNES=] Final Fantasies, child characters had sprites that were a pixel shorter and partly faced the camera to make their proportions more childlike. Krile is fourteen, but she's given the same kind of sprite as 7-year-old Rydia was in the previous game. (The supplementary materials also state that she's about 5'1"... though her grandfather is also pretty short at 5'5".) This is played with in ''Final Fantasy XIV'', which has a character of the same name as a ShoutOut, but she's a ''[[LittlePeople Lalafell]]''. |
| 236 | ** Yuffie from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is 16 years old and is by far the shortest human character in TheTeam at 5'2. Tifa at 15 years old in the Nibelhiem {{Flashback}} [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSDLPAHEzf4OgevTsfMv6hSACtvr6entCI0VsEDYcgW9e5-73ul&usqp=CAU is shorter than Sephiroth and Zack]] but then again Sephiroth [[EvilIsBigger towers over most characters]]. |
| 237 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has Yuna who's 17 years old and stands at 5'3, and Rikku who's 16 years of old at stands at 5'2, most of the party (especially [[TheBigGuy Kimahri]]) tower over them. Tidus is 17 like Yuna, but is OneHeadTaller than her standing at 5'9 and can look the 6 foot Auron in the face averting this trope. |
| 238 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', Vaan and Penelo (both 17) and Ashe (19) are notably shorter than older party members Balthier (22, though he definitely comes across as much older) and Basch (36). |
| 239 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', Hope is basically the party kid and therefore the shortest at 5'0". It really stands out when he ends up partnered with TheBigGuy Snow. |
| 240 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', a number of teenage [[OurElvesAreDifferent Elezen]] [=NPCs=] appear, and all are dwarfed by adults of any non-[[LittlePeople Lalafell]] race, despite adult Elezen being among the tallest. This is especially notable in ''Heavensward'', where you spend most of the story in the company of one of said teens in an Elezen-dominated city; he stands about waist-high to most adults. This is actually a racial trait: they are noted to undergo a drastic growth spurt to achieve their full height as they near twenty. |
| 241 | ** In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', 16-year-old Zidane -- who is not noticeably short in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX his home game]] -- only comes to chest height, if that, on most of the male heroes and is barely any taller than the preteen aged Onion Knight. The reason for this is because his game had a cartoony, SuperDeformed aesthetic to the character designs, compared to the more realistic (or at least more traditionally "Anime") style used in most other games in the series. Rendering Zidane in a way that gave a proper nod to that style ended up with the him looking notably short. |
| 242 | * Toyed with in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', which have many teenagers in their casts as part of [[spoiler:either their first or second generations]]. |
| 243 | ** In ''Awakening'', the shortest male character of the whole game is Ricken, a male ChildMage who is positively tiny and unlikely to be older than 15. On the other hand/s, however, his friend Henry is probably in his mid-to-late teens and is ''much'' taller... [[spoiler: and both are potential fathers to Brady and Yarne (second gen boys that are easily among the tallest guys) and Kjelle (the tallest second gen girl).]] |
| 244 | ** In ''Fates'', [[spoiler:Xander]]'s son Siegbert and [[spoiler:Ryoma]]'s son Shiro completely avert the trope by virtue of being almost as tall as their fathers, who also ''happen'' to be [[LargeAndInCharge among the biggest guys]] in their respective armies. Siegbert is especially noticeable since, as a refined and gentle PrincelyYoungMan, the fans had bet on him playing the present trope straight and then were ''shocked'' when he turned out to be as tall as his dad. |
| 245 | * ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'': |
| 246 | ** The Boyfriend is 19 years old, with The Girlfriend and Pico implied to be the same; the three are ''much'' shorter compared to adult characters like The Girlfriend's parents, and The Boyfriend is only a bit taller than Skid and Pump, two children. |
| 247 | ** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Senpai and the schoolgirls in Week 6, who have normal heights for teenagers. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': For the most part, both male and female teenage characters are about a head shorter than the adults. There are some exceptions such as Mona who is seemingly an adult yet no taller than the standard teenager model (not counting her massive hat, of course). |
| 249 | * In ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'', most of the soccer teams are made of 13 to 15 years old middle school students, but nearly all of them, including the relatively tall ones like Someoka are at least a head shorter than most adults. The average-sized characters are around 4'9 and only reach the chest zone of the adults. |
| 250 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 251 | ** Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Naminé, and Xion -- aged 15 (at least appearance wise [[YoungerThanTheyLook in the case of the latter three]]) as of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]''. They are by far some of the shortest human characters in the entire series, reaching, at times, ''crotch-level'' of other characters. It's most apparent in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' when Riku, who is merely a year older than Sora and Kairi, [[spoiler:reverts back to his human form]], and noticeably towers over the both of them. In fact, Creator/TetsuyaNomura [[https://www.khinsider.com/news/New-KINGDOM-HEARTS-3-info-from-SE-Cafe-Osaka-Preview-Night-10468 stated during a collaborative event celebrating the series' 15th anniversary]] that Sora's official height is 160cm (or about 5'3"), and that's presumably taking into account his growth spurt between ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' and ''II''. |
| 252 | *** This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d however when they first arrive in the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' world, with the Sora, Donald, and Goofy noting that things look ''really'' different (as it's rendered in a more realistic style). While Sora and the rest are still ''human'', it's implied they may be a different '''variety''' of human than people from other worlds, explaining different appearances and heights. |
| 253 | *** Another, far cuter, lampshade is when Sora tries to point out the DTD password to Ansem's computer in Hollow Bastion, he has to jump to point out the acronyms. Oh, you lovable dork. |
| 254 | *** Roxas and Xion have it worse, since the remaining member of their trio is Axel, who is tall even by adult standards. [[spoiler:In a heartwarming moment in ''III'' when they are reunited after more than a year of separation, Roxas and Xion [[CryIntoChest cry not so much into Axel's chest]] as they cry into his ''stomach'', this despite Axel having lowered his head while doing so.]] |
| 255 | ** Ventus is 16 years old and, as an IdenticalStranger to Roxas, has the latter's lack of height as well, not helped that he is mostly paired with Aqua and Terra, both reasonably proportioned young adults. Becomes HilariousInHindsight when [[spoiler:''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX χ]]'' reveals that Ventus actually came from the Age of Fairytales, meaning he must have been hundreds of years old -- therefore predating not only Aqua and Terra, but his teachers Eraqus and Xehanort, as well -- and yet he still looks and acts as if he is the youngest of them all]]. |
| 256 | * Ellie from ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' is said to be 5'3" in a collectible Firefly note. This is only slightly below average for a girl her age, but she has grown several inches taller in the ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII''. Ellie was 14/15 in the first game (19 in the sequel), so she should have stopped growing by that point. |
| 257 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The majority of the Link incarnations are shown to be this. Even with his [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword latest known age]] being 17 1/2, Link is mostly depicted as being no taller than Princess Zelda. |
| 258 | * The kids in ''VisualNovel/LiarLiar'' are first year high schoolers in the second game however even the boys are all shoulder height to the adults. |
| 259 | * Melody, Sophia, and Xianne, the three main teenage characters in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'', are all on the short side. What makes this a particularly egregious example is that Becca, who’s only just too old to be a teen, is significantly taller than these three, while they are all legally adults. |
| 260 | * A trope common to the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series, specific examples include: |
| 261 | ** In ''VideoGame/Persona3'' [[HelloInsertNameHere the protagonist]] and the rest of the teenage main cast are almost a full head shorter than all adult [=NPCs=] despite all of them being 16-18 years of age. |
| 262 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' generally averts this. 16-year-old Joker, who's said to be 175 cm (5'9") tall, is a fairly realistic height for a boy his age, and as tall or taller than many of the adult [=NPCs=] but is still shown to be shorter than several of the male main enemies, specifically Kamoshida (who is a former Olympic volleyball player so it makes sense that he's taller) and [[spoiler: Shido]]. |
| 263 | ** In ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'', Zenkicki, the TokenAdult, is the taller than the teenaged cast, including Joker and Yusuke (181 cm, nearly 6'). |
| 264 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 265 | ** Michael from ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' is implied to be around 13, or at least no younger than your typical Pokémon protagonist. However, not only is he shorter than most adults in the game, he's also shorter than the link battle models for the characters from the [=GBA=] games, who are all about 11. |
| 266 | ** Tim from ''VideoGame/DetectivePikachu'' is implied to be sixteen-to-nineteen but is shorter than adult male characters. He's the same height as the adult female characters. |
| 267 | * Downplayed in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''. While 16-year-old Jack is still a few inches shorter than his father, he completely towers over his mother. [[spoiler: When Jack becomes playable at nineteen, he appears to have grown taller]]. |
| 268 | * ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': |
| 269 | ** Rebecca Chambers is 18 in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' and standing at 5'3 tall Billy, Chris and Wesker tower over her. Though interesting Jill who was 23 is only two inches taller than Rebecca. |
| 270 | ** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'': Sherry Birkin is 12 years old but she’s so tiny that she only barely comes up to Claire’s waist. She also looks and behaves like she’s 8 years old if not younger. |
| 271 | ** Averted with Steve Burnside from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' who is 17, but conversely the same height as Claire. |
| 272 | ** Played straight with the teenage Moria Burton from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'' who is much shorter than Claire or her father Barry. |
| 273 | * ''VideoGame/TheSims'': |
| 274 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' and ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', Sims at the "teenager" stage of life are shorter than those at the "adult" and "young adult" stage. The Teen stage does include all of puberty, though, and since the Sims don't grow within individual stages, it would have to be somewhere in the middle of the range (so it wouldn't look weird growing from Child or to [=Young Adult/Adult=]) and is thus [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality reasonably]] justified. |
| 275 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/TheSims4'', in which teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders are all the same height. This annoyed many players as it made it very difficult to tell teens apart from adult Sims without having your Sim go over and talk to them and seeing if the romance options were available or not. EA eventually alleviated this by adding a Sim's age to the tooltip with their name that appears when you mouse over them. |
| 276 | * ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'' seems to want us to believe {{Beast M|an}}en grow a foot between nineteen and twenty. Of the characters with given ages and heights, the teenagers are all 160cm/5'3" or less and the adults are 170cm/5'7" or more. This can't even be justified by breed: Opéra, a Russian blue cat, is taller than her two servants, Gren the kishu inu and Calua the ocelot. |
| 277 | * In ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', the teenage heroes are significantly shorter than the adults Vector the Crocodile and Vanilla the Rabbit. For example, Blaze the Cat is 14 years old and stands at 95cm. Sonic himself is 15 years old with a height of 100cm (Shadow and Silver are the same height as him). Vanilla the Rabbit is 130cm, and the 20-year-old Vector the Crocodile stands at 180cm. |
| 278 | * Zigzagged in the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries''. Siegfried at age 16 in ''Soul Edge'' is 157 cm and the shortest male character in the series and the shortest playable character in the game before going through several growth spurts and Talim and Amy, who are teenagers throughout the series, are below the five feet line. However, other characters who were or are close to their age, Sophitia (age 18 in ''Soul Edge'', at 168 cm), Seong Mi-Na (age 16 and 159 cm in ''Soul Edge''), Yun-Seong (age 18 and 176 cm), Tira (age 17 in ''Soul Calibur III'' & ''Soul Calibur IV'', at 159 cm) and Hilde (age 18 and 160 cm in ''Soul Calibur IV'') are either taller or of average height. Also, Siegfried remains a short man even into adulthood until ''Soul Calibur V''. This may be played straight for ''Soul Calibur V'' because Siegfried has been made taller despite being 23 in ''Soul Calibur IV'', going from 168 cm to 172 cm, so that he is not only marginally taller than teenagers Xiba and Natsu, who are 164 cm and 166 cm respectively. |
| 279 | * In ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' Sakura, Karin, R.Mika, Ibuki, Makoto, Ying, and Yang are a good deal shorter than most the adult World Warriors. Averted with Elena despite being the same age as Ibuki and Makoto, she's 6'0 tall. |
| 280 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' is an interesting example. The trope is averted by Raine and Lloyd; 17-year-old Lloyd (at 5'8) is a good few inches taller than Raine, his 23-year-old teacher (who is 5'5), however (though we don't know what his mother looked like) his father, [[spoiler:Kratos]], is 6'1, leaving him in the dust by nearly half a foot. At age twelve, Genis is 4'7.5 to Raine's 5'5, however by ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' he's ''allegedly'' 4'11, which means he's approaching Raine's height at a roughly normal rate, assuming he's going to be about her height and isn't going to shoot up. Trouble is, his character model hasn't changed at all, so though he should only be 6 inches shorter than Raine at that point, he still looks positively pint-sized next to her, giving the impression of this trope. There's a Z-Skit in the first game where Raine talks about how tall Lloyd is, and a C-Skit in the latter game where Genis wants Raine to notice that [[LampshadeHanging he grew a sixteenth of an inch]]. |
| 281 | * ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'': Though Ciri is no longer a teenager, her character model is still visibly a few inches shorter than Yennefer, her adopted mother. This is mostly noteworthy because in the original books, Ciri was estimated at 15 to be about 5'9, whereas Yen's height has never been specifically stated but she was repeatedly described in narration as being a very short woman, making it an aversion of this trope had it been kept. |
| 282 | * ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'': |
| 283 | ** You don't notice it until an age 17+ character is in the same frame as one of the [[KidHero 15-year-old heroes]], but damn are those 15-year-olds tiny. Beat initially appears to be quite tall, but you later realize that the entire cast of adults positively ''towers'' over him. Even given the fact that the average height of Asian women is 158cm (5'2"), Uzuki and Konishi are also absurdly tall compared to the tallest of Neku's gang. |
| 284 | ** In the ending cinematic we see that [[spoiler:[[http://pics.livejournal.com/cherubi/pic/0011aq3p/g146 real Shiki]]]] is much taller than Neku and [[HugeSchoolgirl even rivals Beat in height]], but not so much as to obfuscate that adult height is still insurmountable for even the tallest of 15-year-olds. |
| 285 | * In ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'', the (entirely female except for the headmaster) faculty of Akademi High School tower over all the students, despite most of those students -- [[VillainProtagonist Yandere-chan]] included -- being old enough to realistically have equalled or surpassed them in height. At this point in their lives, the boys should be taller than the girls[[note]] (the male base model actually is taller, but the ingame version is scaled down to 94%)[[/note]], but in the game they are the same height as the girls so that the animations sync up properly. |
| 286 | [[/folder]] |
| 287 | |
| 288 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 289 | * ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': Compared to all the other high schoolers, Rachel Tice and Ashley Katchadourian are quite short (the former is even shorter than the latter). |
| 290 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' plays with this. Going by the [[http://web.archive.org/web/20150907045328/https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t31.0-8/10604608_651234038324805_1451554503241425760_o.jpg height chart]], most of the teenage characters are at reasonable heights for their ages... It's just that many of the adults are extremely tall, making both adults of normal height and teenagers look short. However, the show does denote the difference between younger teens and older teens through height. |
| 291 | ** Ruby is introduced as a 15-year old who is much shorter than most of her peers, who start the show as 17-year olds. Her height is only shared by the 17-year old Nora and Weiss, but Ruby main contrast is with her big sister, Yang. Her height therefore emphasises that she is younger than the rest of the main teenage cast. |
| 292 | ** Weiss is a subversion: although she's around Ruby's height (in heels), despite being two years older, she's much shorter than the other teens and especially her adult sister, Winter, who is in her mid-20s. However, the on-screen introduction of her mother in Volume 7, reveals that Willow is a short adult and barely any taller than Weiss. Despite the show's preference for unusually tall adults, some adults are depicted as being short thereby indicating that some of the short teens -- like Weiss -- will become short adults. |
| 293 | ** Oscar and Whitley are introduced in Volume 4 when Ruby is 16 and the other teens are 18. They're both much shorter than the adults, including the 18-year old male teens. Oscar is a little bit shorter than Ruby and Weiss while Whitley is a tiny bit taller than Weiss. Although Oscar is confirmed to be 14 years old when introduced, Whitley's age is vaguely implid to be somewhere between Oscar and Weiss's age, making him approximately 15-16 years old. The height contrast between the younger male teens compared with the older male teens is therefore much greater, and played straighter, than for the younger female teens. |
| 294 | * In ''WebAnimation/SubwaySurfersTheAnimatedSeries'', all the teens are short for their age. Jake seems between 13 and 14 but he's not even up to his mother's shoulders. |
| 295 | [[/folder]] |
| 296 | |
| 297 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 298 | * ''Webcomic/EightCicadas'' is a {{Machinomic}} that uses ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', so the shorter teenage characters are {{enforced|Trope}} by the game's mechanics. |
| 299 | * The ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' kids are 13, but are about half the height of their adult guardians. However their regular appearances are not supposed to be realistic, and the guardians' appearances are more an effect of how they kids perceive them than actual true appearance. When shown in "Hero Mode", they are significantly taller. |
| 300 | * In ''Webcomic/KakikomiMagicalGirls'', 26-year-old Shiori's high school senior of a sister Mikako is noticeably shorter than her. |
| 301 | * Inverted in ''Webcomic/LeifAndThorn''. Teenage Hyacinth is [[http://leifandthorn.com/comic/family-dinner-414/ a full head taller than her uncle]]. |
| 302 | * ''Webcomic/{{PHD}}'' takes this trope even further. One graduate student acquires a posse of tiny ''undergraduates''. |
| 303 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive,'' where the main kid character, Rory, actually starts growing very early. His petite stepmom is shocked when she comes home after several months and discovers the 12-year-old is now taller than her. |
| 304 | -->'''Rory:''' Haven't you heard of growth spurts? |
| 305 | -->'''Vanessa:''' ...Only in legends. |
| 306 | * ''Webcomic/StationSquare'': The three main characters are 16/17, but Graves and his buddies, who are adults, are all taller than them. |
| 307 | [[/folder]] |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 310 | !!!'''By Creator:''' |
| 311 | * Creator/ButchHartman often does this in his shows. |
| 312 | ** Most of the 14-year-olds in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' are ridiculously short for their age in comparison to their parents. All except bullies Dash and Kwan who are both at least as tall as Maddie Fenton. Danielle is an even worse example: apparently 12 years old and she's ''[[ArtisticAge half the height]]'' of Danny himself. |
| 313 | ** This is also present in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', though Vicky being more than a head shorter than either of the Turner parents isn't nearly as noticeable as [[PintSizedKid the enormous difference between teenagers and younger children]]. |
| 314 | * Creator/SethMacFarlane is a chronic offender in all his shows… |
| 315 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter and Lois tower over their kids Meg and Chris, despite them being 16-18 and 14, respectively. Chris's lack of height can at least be justified that he probably hasn't finished growing yet, but Meg would realistically have stopped growing at this point yet is a couple inches shorter than Chris, and nearly a head shorter than her mother. |
| 316 | ** ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Both used and subverted. Steve and Hayley are both towered over by their parents. Same goes for Steve's friends and Hayley's boyfriend/husband Jeff. Other teens depicted in the show are typically depicted as having realistic proportions. For example, Hayley's friends Zooey, Kristen and Danuta are all a few inches taller than her and most Pearl Bailey High School students outside of Steve and his friends are at or near the heights of the adults. Steve is only 14 so an argument could be made that he is just a late bloomer (the episode "Roots" more or less confirms him as a late bloomer and most episodes that take place in the future show that Steve as an adult is at least as tall as Francine, who is pretty tall for a woman). Hayley, however, is 19 and should be long done with puberty. If the [[https://clzmovies.r.sizr.io/core/covers/lg/1b/1b_d__0_AmericanDadSeason6.jpg cover]] of Volume 6 is anything to go by, Hayley is just barely five feet tall and Steve is about four-and-a-half feet tall. |
| 317 | ** ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'': Cleveland Jr. and Roberta are in their teens and are much shorter than Cleveland and Donna. |
| 318 | !!!'''By Series:''' |
| 319 | * When ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' started, Finn was somewhat short for a 12-year-old. Since then he's [[CharacterAgedWithTheActor aged more or less in real time]], but even at 15 he's still a full head shorter than the [[TheAgeless physically eighteen]] Princess Bubblegum. |
| 320 | * ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'': Angelica and Susie -- along with the rest of the students in their grade -- are 13 years old, but are still much shorter than the adults. |
| 321 | * ''WesternAnimation/ArloTheAlligatorBoy'': The titular Arlo, despite being fifteen years old, is shorter than most of the cast, who mainly consist of adults, as is Alia, who's implied to be the same age as him. Averted with Bertie, who is also a teenager, but is by far the largest of the main cast. |
| 322 | * The girls in ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' start off as 12-year-olds and age into high schoolers; however, they still don't even reach their mother's noses by the end. |
| 323 | * ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': |
| 324 | ** Straddling the line between this and NotDrawnToScale, even 15- and 16-year-old boys in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' find themselves more than half a head shorter than almost all but the oldest and most bent over adults. This is most obvious when Hakoda is onscreen. He's clearly shown to be about average when compared to the other Water Tribe men, and he's more than a head taller than his son (15 or above), daughter (14 or above), and Zuko (16 or above). |
| 325 | ** Most of the cast are a lot taller in the [[https://img.fireden.net/co/image/1486/37/1486379405700.png “Old Friends” poster]] and in their flashback appearances in '' Legend of Korra '' than they are in the original show. Aang grew to be quite tall but he was only thirteen when the original show ended so this makes sense for him. He and Zuko ended up about the same height but Zuko grew a lot too even though he was seventeen in the finale. Katara’s also taller despite being fifteen in the finale and having already hit puberty, meaning she shouldn’t have grown all that much. By the present in ''Korra '', Zuko, Toph, and Katara have all [[MiniatureSeniorCitizens shrunk because they’re in their eighties]]. |
| 326 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Robin (Tim Drake) is supposed to be 13 years old (according to side material), but he is at least a foot and a half shorter than Batman. Even during the flashback in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'', Tim should be at least in his late teens by that point, but still looks the same as he did before. Though the middle-aged Tim Drake has grown to a normal adult height, so maybe he was a late bloomer. |
| 327 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' does this with both Batgirl and Robin (Batgirl avoids this in ''BTAS'' due to her being a college student in the DCAU, thus an adult.). While Robin's exact age is unknown, Batgirl is explicitly a high school student, yet she is about two or three feet shorter than Batman. Even in the fifth season when she goes to college, she hasn't gotten any taller. |
| 328 | * Ben and Gwen play this trope in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' and ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien''. Both are at least a head shorter than both of their parents despite being 15 and later 16. Which is more than a little odd given that [[FutureBadass we'd already seen what they'll look like as adults]]; neither is short and adult Ben is downright huge. Cooper also played this straight as well in Alien Force as a 14-year-old, but in Ultimate Alien he subverts it stating he "got a growth spurt". Kevin and Max (as a teen) averted this trope as both are almost as tall or exactly as tall as most adults. |
| 329 | * ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': |
| 330 | ** Tina, despite being 13, is shown barely coming up to her mother's shoulders. Since she is only just a teenager, she may be still early in her pubescent growth spurt. All the teenagers at Wagstaff seem to suffer from this, despite height variations between them. |
| 331 | ** Oddly enough, this is averted in Linda's flashback to her botched high school talent show gig, where she and her band are all portrayed at their current adult heights, while ranging from 14 to 18 years old, respectively. |
| 332 | * Also the case in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko''. Most of the teens are between 13 and 14, yet they are all very much shorter than the adults. Even Yumi, who's reaching 15, is smaller than her parents (though she comes close to her father, who's probably of typical height for a Japanese male -- her mother on the other hand is quite tall). Also of note is that the girls are often taller than the boys, or about the same size. |
| 333 | * {{Downplayed|Trope}} on ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}:'' The title character, canonically 5'2, is [[ShorterMeansSmarter shorter than practically every non-kid character]], and most of the teenagers are shorter than the adults, but not by much. Mack, at least, is about on par with adults like Mr. [=DeMartino=]. |
| 334 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep2015'', Fonatine is 15 years old and 149 cm (4'10") tall. Her mother is 170 cm (5'7") tall. |
| 335 | * ''WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera'': The title character and his best friend Frida Suarez are both stated to be 13-year-olds, but their height makes them look more like they would be 9-year-olds. |
| 336 | * Played For Drama in ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'' after [[spoiler: Kevin sleeps with Vic's girlfriend. She hadn't realized Kevin is only 14, having thought he was just a short adult, and has a massive freakout over having accidentally committed statutory rape]]. |
| 337 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFlaminThongs'': Narelle is 14, but could pass for being the same age as her 12-year-old brother due to being only slightly taller than him. |
| 338 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Dwight and Cubert are both 12-13, but are only about half the height of the adult cast. Other instances of teenage characters show them to be about a head shorter than most adults, such as [[https://morbotron.com/img/S05E07/405554.jpg when the crew is de-aged to young teenagers]] (sans the Professor, who is de-aged to 52, and discounting Zoidberg, whose BizarreAlienBiology reverts him into some sort of small mollusk) in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles," or the flashbacks in "Cold Warriors" showing [[https://morbotron.com/img/S08E11/55389.jpg 13-year-old Fry as significant shorter than his father]] (though he's also hunched over in most cases due to being a HumanPackMule). |
| 339 | * Laney Penn and Kin Kujira on ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'' are both 13 years old, but they are quite small compared to their similarly-aged bandmates Corey and Kon. |
| 340 | * Harold Berman on ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' is 13 years old (due to having been HeldBackInSchool) but is only slightly taller than Arnold, who's four years younger than him, and he is dwarfed by the fifth and sixth graders, who are also younger than him. In fact, the fifth and sixth graders have the opposite problem, as most of them look more like highschool students than late elementary students. |
| 341 | * Ashley from ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' is thirteen yet only reaches Jerrica's shoulders and doesn't look much older than the 8-year-old Ba Nee. |
| 342 | * Despite being seniors and probably past puberty, neither Kim nor Ron in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' pass an adult's shoulders in terms of height. |
| 343 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', 14-year-old Bobby seems to be 3-and-a-half feet tall compared to his parents. All the kids are like this at first, but soon the others begin to grow to average height (note Joseph's growth spurt), leaving people to wonder if Bobby is a late bloomer. It turns out the animators didn't want to put him through puberty simply because they would have had to cast a man as his voice actor, and they had grown attached to [[CrossDressingVoices his current actress]] Creator/PamelaAdlon. Not to mention the fact that many people look small in comparison to 6'2 Hank. |
| 344 | * In ''WesternAnimation/LoliRock'', teens (most above 15) are all drawn at least a head shorter than most adults drawn. Especially girls. Iris herself is more than two heads shorter than her mother, one head shorter than her Aunt. |
| 345 | * Lynn from ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is 13, but is only slightly taller than her 11-year-old brother Lincoln and is a lot shorter than 14-year-old Luan. Most of the teenage characters are notably shorter than the adults. For example, Lori, the oldest and tallest of the Loud siblings, is half a head shorter than her parents. |
| 346 | * ''WesternAnimation/MajorLazer'': 18-year-old Penny is noticeably shorter than her father, President Whitewall, and Major Lazer. PlayfulHacker Blkmrkt is even shorter than Penny. [[AllThereInTheManual According to their character bios]], Penny is 5’3” and Blkmrkt is 4’8”. |
| 347 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': According to Creator/LaurenFaust, Luna is still a teenager by alicorn standards. This explains why she's so much shorter than her sister Celestia. This, however, is [[WriterConflictsWithCanon dubiously canon]] as [[VagueAge Luna is treated as an adult]] in-universe, and the extended universe has the sisters be teens at the same time. |
| 348 | * The girls in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' are easily half a head shorter than the adult characters. It's not stated in which grade they are, but since they can drive, they would be between 16 and 18 years old. |
| 349 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Luz and her classmates are all quite short despite being around 14. In flashbacks to their time at Hexside, Eda, Raine, and Lilith are also WAY shorter than they are as adults. |
| 350 | * In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Candace says explicitly that she's 5'8", which is taller than the average American woman. Despite this, she and her teenage peers are still shorter than every adult in the show (except the humorously short old people). |
| 351 | * Despite being about 14, Penny and her friends are at least a foot or more shorter than most of the adults in ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily''. The first episode of sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder'' shows Penny growing from 4'0" to 5'4", but she's still a few inches shorter than her mother Trudy. |
| 352 | * ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja'': The freshmen (i.e. most of the teen characters) are much shorter than the adults, while 11th grader Bash Johnson towers over the younger characters and is even taller than some adults. |
| 353 | * ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'': A minor character, Alisa Carmichael (Susie's older sister) is 16, but shown to be a head shorter than her parents. |
| 354 | * Despite being a spin-off of the trope picture, ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' subverted this with Hilda and Zelda, who are portrayed as teenagers (they are still centuries old, they are under a curse for undisclosed reasons), appear to be the tallest characters in the cast. While Sabrina and her friends are still significantly shorter than the rest of the cast, they are portrayed as much younger than the original show. The show's own spin-off, however, ''Sabrina's Secret Life'', goes back to playing this straight. Hilda and Zelda are back to being adults (presumably their sentence was lightened) and are still taller than Sabrina. |
| 355 | * Despite being 13 and 14 respectively, Eric and Trevor from ''WesternAnimation/{{Sidekick}}'' are much shorter than the adults and about the same height as Kitty (11) and Vana (12). Averted with 15-year-old [[HugeSchoolgirl Mandy Struction]], who actually is the same height as the adults. |
| 356 | * ''WesternAnimation/ShaolinWuzang'': Although the main characters look to be in their mid teens at least, their future selves in "The Wheel of Time" are much taller, with Tang and Cheng's future selves standing at least a head taller than their younger selves. |
| 357 | * ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'': Yumyulack and Jesse are high schoolers and both significantly shorter than Korvo and Terry (Yumyulack comes up to their mouths while Jesse is about a head shorter). Justified in their cases, since they're aliens and don't have the same growth cycle as humans, but their classmates tend to be not too far off in height. |
| 358 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Teen starlet Music/SelenaGomez was portrayed as barely taller than Cartman and tiny compared with the adults when she 'appeared' on the show, apparently solely due to this trope (in real life Gomez is 5'6 which is actually noticeably ''taller'' than the average American adult woman). |
| 359 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': As of "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E26StevensBirthday Steven's Birthday]]", Steven is 14 years old and Connie is about 3 months away from being 13. However, they're both half the height of an average adult. It's {{justified|Trope}} with Steven as he hasn't physically aged since he was 8, but not with Connie. By ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', 16-year-old Steven is significantly taller (according to his medical chart, he's 5'6"), but still about a half-head shorter than his father. The older teenage characters, on the other hand, tend to be about as tall as the adults, with the exception of Sadie, who's barely taller than Steven, but is actually fully grown. |
| 360 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Jimmy Olsen, despite being at least 16, is easily shorter than most of the cast. |
| 361 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'': {{Subverted|Trope}} (it's not really most teens in the show), especially for Robin (about 15 years) and Beast Boy (approximately 13 to 14 years). {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Cyborg in "Divide and Conquer" when he refers to Robin as being "4 feet tall and smelling like cheap hair gel". |
| 362 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'', several of the teen characters we meet like Zach the boy who wants to be the fifth ninja turtle, his friend Kaitlyn, and Buffy Shellhammer are so short especially compared to the turtles who are stated to be 15, the three of them could be mistaken for elementary students. |
| 363 | * The main characters of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' are supposed to be teenagers. But as the title makes clear, they're ''tiny'' compared with the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' characters that mentor them (except for Tweety, of course). This even carries over into ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonsLooniversity'', which is supposed to be set at a ''college''. |
| 364 | * Mostly averted in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', where many of the teens are as tall as, if not taller than, the adult host Chris, which is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Beth ("wow, you're much shorter in real life!"). The few adults mentioned on the show are usually the same height as the average height teens, with the exception of [[ScaryBlackMan Chef Hatchet]]. Some contestants, such as [[CasanovaWannabe Cody]], [[BracesofOrthodonticOverkill Beth]], [[TheEmpath Dawn]], [[BubbleBoy Cameron]], [[GenreSavvy Priya]] and [[LovableRogue MK]], do play the trope straight. |
| 365 | * JustifiedTrope in the [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Spark Short]] ''Twenty Something'': 16-year-old Gia has to be considerably shorter than 21-year-old Gia for the TotemPoleTrench metaphor to work. |
| 366 | * Zach and Ivy from ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'' are both teenagers. Their ages are [[VagueAge not specified]] but Zach seems to be in the younger bracket (13-15) while Ivy is older (16-19). Zach comes up to his sister's shoulders most of the time. |
| 367 | * Most of the main characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' suffer from this, most notably Cornelia, who is the tallest of the 5 girls, but still a head shorter than her mother. |
| 368 | * ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': Kaya is 16, but as shown in "Gift For a Fish," she's not that much taller than her 6-year-old brother [=JunJun=]. |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 372 | * In RealLife, this is only pronounced when the teens' nutrition is poorer than that of their elders -- the average height of French children decreased by 3cm during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, for instance. Static nutrition-levels (as throughout the world before 1850 and in some places such as modern-day Japan) result in teens who are only slightly (if at all) shorter. Since about 1850 the average height of north-western European and north American teenagers has however generally been greater than that of their elders, a trend that the rest of the world has begun to follow since. |
| 373 | * Can be TruthInTelevision easily enough; sometimes genetics can be tricky, and reasonably tall people can have short kids. Generally of course the shortness doesn't ''end'' at their teenage years and they remain short into adulthood (i.e., why so many twenty-something actors are able to pull off DawsonCasting so well). |
| 374 | * Up until the mid-[[TheFifties 1950s]], especially during the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian era]] where [[ArtisticLicenseChildLaborLaws child labor]] was still an issue, it was commonplace to still be prepubescent all the way into your teens, as puberty historically started much later than it does today -- in the 19th century it was 15 for girls and 16 for boys, essentially delaying height acceleration in teens. |
| 375 | [[/folder]] |
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