History Main / JustaKid

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'': Spoofed when Flash laments the rest of the League's reluctance to take him seriously... while playing Rock'em Sock'em Robots. It's also played straight in the season finale when Flash answers [[FanNickname Luthorac's/Brainthor's]] taunt of "Are you going to fight me, ''boy?''" by [[LetsGetDangerous deciding to get dangerous for once.]]

** Seventeen-year-old Shinichi Kudo turned seven-year-old Conan Edogawa finds this a serious problem in nearly every episode as no one will take his deductions seriously. Then again, he still makes the best of the situation by constantly exploiting his ability to be underestimated by the culprits. As the series has progressed, there are a growing number adults who recognize Conan's intelligence and take his deductions seriously without his having to go through a conduit like Kogoro Mouri or Professor Agasa.

** Another child soldier Togami is introduced as NewMeat, and a BoisterousWeakling who resents Akira due to Shirakabe placing him under Akira’s command, thinking himself the stronger. After Togami is proven wrong being stuck as TheLoad clinging for dear life to Akira’s car, this serves as a BreakTheHaughty moment and he develops into a HumbleHero ally, slowly earning Shirkabe’s respect and paying him to put him through TrainingFromHell to catch up to Akira.

* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' is notorious for this, as every single one of the main characters' families plays the Just A Kid card. [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Jenrya's]] mom was probably the most memorable -- she was the only one who never really supported the idea of her son fighting, even after seeing him in action.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan:''

* In a ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'' episode that guest starred ''WesternAnimation/TheHarlemGlobetrotters'', the two groups decided to play basketball for fun. The Globetrotters said they would go easy on Mystery Inc since they're only kids. They change their minds when Scooby easily gets the ball and scores a basket. "Looks like these kids got tricks of their own..."

* In ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 Final Fantasy X-2]]'', Shinra responds to questions he doesn't know the answer to with "I'm just a kid."

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'':

** Also in ''Earthbound'', the sea captain who is ferrying the group to Scaraba exclaims that he thought that the foursome were just a group of kids upon them defeating the Kraken.

* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney:'' Almost everyone in the cast brushes off Apollo and Trucy as kids trying to play as grown ups, even though Apollo IS a Defense Attorney and [[OlderThanTheyLook 22 years old]].

* In ''VideoGame/StarFox Assault'', Wolf continually calls Fox a "pup". [[AllThereInTheManual Nowhere do they explain]] they {{retcon}}ned Wolf's age to be 6 years older than Fox.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Eggman taunts Tails: "You're just a kid. You couldn't beat me in a hundred years!" This was extremely stupid of Eggman seeing that Tails may have managed to see him off once before in that story and actually managed to defeat him decisively when he was attacking station square in the previous game in a head to head... [[PintSizedPowerhouse without his mecha]]. Whether Eggman ends up eating his words depends on whether you're playing the Hero or Dark Story.

* If you have any elder siblings, they will always think of you as the baby, even if you qualify as a genuine badass CrazyAwesome.

Not to be confused with ''Just a Kid'', the Australian name for ''Series/CaitlinsWay''.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series: The younger Links occasionally get this treatment. In game, the general populace of Hyrule have various reasons for why they don't believe Link, despite him wearing the clothes of the hero, ranging from "nice fancy dress" to "you playing let's-pretend-we're-the-hero-of-time" to having it become tradition in various places that children wear the same clothes as the legends tell of and other such reasons. As a whole the series justifies people treating Link like he's not a hero in that, in real life, [[RealityEnsues if you saw a kid come up to you in Robin Hood's clothes, would you believe that they're the reincarnation of Robin Hood]]?

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', this trope is the reason for Andi's dislike of Bandana, as Andi once served as Bandana's babysitter and has never moved on from seeing the latter as an annoying child.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. When ComicBook/RasAlGhul finally meets Oliver Queen face-to-face, he's surprised how young the Arrow is. "You're just a boy." This is more a reference to Ra's being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld rather than to Oliver's age (who would be around 30 at the time).

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. When ComicBook/RasAlGhul finally meets Oliver Queen face-to-face, he's surprised how young the Arrow is. "You're just a boy." This is more a reference to Ra's being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld rather than to Oliver's age.

* Both Firo and Luck from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'' have a history of dealing with this. Because he started in the upper ranks of TheMafia at an age no greater than [[ImprobableAge fifteen]] (and potentially as young as ''thirteen'') thanks to family connections, Luck spent much of his career [[NobleDemon building up a front more ruthless than he actually is]] to counter it. Meanwhile Firo, while attaining his position at a somewhat later age and solely through his own skill, [[OlderThanTheyLook looks quite a bit younger]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld than he may be]] and tends to get written off as a brat because of it.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':

* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' is notorious for this, as every single one of the main characters' families plays the JustAKid card. [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Jenrya's]] mom was probably the most memorable -- she was the only one who never really supported the idea of her son fighting, even after seeing him in action.

* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', this was the reason why Mamori didn't want Sena to join the football team, as she still sees him as someone who needs to be protected by her. And this plays a major role in [[SelectiveObliviousness why she cannot realize]] that Sena is in fact Eyeshield 21.

* In ''FanFic/TheCaptainOfTheVirtualConsole'', Rocket Grunts consider Red to be a kid beneath their notice. He proves them wrong.
* The protagonist Ume in SelfInsert Naruto fanfic ''FanFic/SugarPlums'' is well aware of this despite being the driving force behind a lot of the decisions made she has Ao who is older and more established in the shinobi world present them in her stead while pretending to be a timid and damaged little girl.

* This is one of Izuku's [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]] in ''FanFic/IfIOnlyHadAHeart'', since people continually talk down to him because he's young and legally disabled due to his missing arm and eye as well as his damaged spine, no matter how many amazing inventions he creates.

* Downplayed in ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown''. Hughes is horrified that Edward Elric, an unsupervised and unaccompanied eleven-year-old child is joining the military. However, he respects Edward's intelligence and capabilities too much to say it to Edward's face. Hughes instead tries to support Edward and lashes out at Roy, who Hughes believed should have known better than make a ChildProdigy into a [[ChildSoldiers Child Soldier]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}''

* ''Videogame/BackyardSports'': This is the way Sally Dobbs acts toward her brother Ronny.
* One of the motivating factors behind [[spoiler:Naoto's]] Shadow in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''.

* The main protagonists of ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' frequently get underestimated on their abilities because they're "just a bunch of kids".

* Both Link and Zelda get this treatment to differing degrees in ''VideoGame/LegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. Zelda writes an official royal decree to the guard of the neighboring village to allow Link to go Death Mountain. The guard when finding out laughs loudly at the letter and situation, as both Link and Zelda are children he believes Zelda is just using her royal family authority to play a children's game and doesn't take Link seriously due to his age. He does open the gate but it appears to be more for his own amusement rather than listening to the princess of the land.

* ''Series/TheWire'': Omar Little, one of the lead characters, dismisses many young players in the Baltimore drug trade because they're "just kids", including using the phrase exactly to describe Michael, who is meeting with Marlo, in late season four. One such child, [[spoiler:Kenard]], is looked at by a Baltimore police officer as an example of how Omar's influence and brazen antics have spread to young, impressionable children, who view him as a hero. Near the end of the series, [[spoiler:Omar is unexpectedly gunned down by Kenard, and had dismissed the child as a threat when he walked into the store]].
** The trope is then used word for word in the season five finale. [[spoiler:Michael]] has become a stick-up boy in Omar's mould, and when he holds up [[spoiler:Marlo's "bank"]] is told "Shit, you just a boy!"; [[AC:blam]] "And that's [[OnlyAFleshWound just your knee.]]"

* In the ''Literature/TainBoCuailnge'', Queen Medb writes off Cu Chulainn when he first issues a challenge against her forces. Sure, Fergus says he's an unstoppable badass that outclasses all of her men, but he's just a seventeen-year-old boy - [[TemptingFate what chance could a single teenager possibly have against an entire army of battle-hardened soldiers?]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

-->'''Splendid Angharad:''' No unnecessary killing! We agreed!
-->'''Furiosa:''' This War Boy wants me dead!
-->'''Splendid Angharad:''' [[WouldNotHurtAChild He's just a kid]] at the end of his [[FutureSlang Half Life!]]

* In Season 2 of ''Series/{{The 100}}'', it takes a while for Abby to realize that, although she's both Clarke's mother and Chancellor of the Ark survivors, Clarke is actually doing a better job at forging alliances and planning a war than she is.