History Main / PubertySuperPower

* HaruhiSuzumiya gained her reality-warping abilities at age twelve. Itsuki got his PsychicPowers at the same age, though in his case it wasn't a real example since he got his powers ''because'' of Haruhi subconsciously creating espers, and he just happened to be around the same age as her.
** Alternatively, it's also possible that Haruhi has had the ability to warp reality since birth, but she had never really questioned the way the world works until the age of 12. [[EpilepticTrees Or perhaps that she has remade the world multiple times in the past, but the protagonists of the main series, being denizens of ''this'' world, are unaware of these prior universes]].

*** A fairly mild exception was Hank [=McCoy=] alias the Beast, who only had larger than average hands and feet when he was born.

* [[spoiler: Inverted]] in ''TransformersAnimated''. [[spoiler: Sari realizing her robot heritage and upgrading herself with the Allspark key actually ''causes'' her to go through puberty.]] It's never really explained how this works, nor is the disorienting nature of [[spoiler: going from eight to a teenager in an instance]] addressed in any way.

* Averted in Olaf Stapledon's ''Odd John'', where the title character had special abilities from birth. However, those abilities also came with a cost (including much slower childhood development and physical frailties)

* Horrifically inverted in the back-story of Billy Butcher from ''TheBoys''. After Butcher's wife was [[RapeAsBackstory raped by]] [[BewareTheSuperman a superhero]], she dies when the unborn super-powered fetus literally rips itself out of her womb.

* Danny in ''DannyPhantom'' made light that he was gaining "evil puberty" powers once he received the Ghostly Wail. His powers from the beginning onset also reacted to his growing teenage body (example: his nervous emotions towards a girl triggered an unexpected intangibility and cause his pants to fall down, poor poor Danny).

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' most [[MadScientist Sparks]] break through as teenagers or young adults.

* In ''MassEffect'', due to biotics being caused by a fetus undergoing Element Zero exposure whilst ''in-utero'', it's possible for newborn infants to manifest biotic abilities at birth, while others remain latent biotics until secondary exposure later in life.

* Played straight [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=72716 here]] in ''EverydayHeroes''.

* In ''GirlGenius'' most [[MadScientist Sparks]] break through as teenagers or young adults.

* Inverted in '''Webcomic/ToPreventWorldPeace''. {{Magical Girl}}s gain their powers as young children and are expected to lose them during puberty.

* Magical education starts in early adolescence (age 11) in the ''HarryPotter'' series (a coming of age story.)

* Cruelly averted in ''{{Scanners}}'', where the telepaths of the title are quite capable even [[FetusTerrible before birth]]. This guarantees that when they grow up, they will have [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity a host of psychological problems]], and - because they've been able to hear the thoughts of others their whole lives - a deeply flawed sense of self.

* For guys, the power to grow [[BadassBeard beards]] and [[BadassMustache mustaches]].
* And for girls, of course, the MostCommonSuperpower.

* Lampshaded by Molly Hayes in ''{{Runaways}}''; when her powers developed, she kept trying to talk to her parents and friends about the weird things her body was doing, but they all thought she was just talking about normal puberty.

Nearly all current "dramatic" superheroes with "natural" superpowers (such as [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] mutants) receive them as teenagers. In fact, the trope originated with the creation of ''[[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} the X-Men]]'' in the 1960s.

->''"And like all puberty induced superpowers, it comes at night, while thunder claps."''

The acquisition of superpowers or abilities at the onset of becoming a teenager, roughly between the ages of 12-16. This is probably to avoid the inherent danger of a child or baby casually using powers in a potentially destructive manner or, if there is one, blowing the {{Masquerade}}. However, more often, it works as a rather transparent metaphor for puberty.

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* ''OmamoriHimari'': Yuuto's demon-hunting powers were supposed to have awakened when he turned 16. His powers took a little longer to manifest, however.

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** The X-Men spin-off 'NewMutants' is explicitly this trope; all team members have powers that appeared with puberty, a varying number of years in the past (Xian's the longest ago (she's 19), Rahne's only a month or two before (at 13)).

* ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'' has many of the students manifest their abilities during teenager-dome, in extremely traumatic ways. Jennifer Takeda, for instance, discovers her abilities when making out with her boyfriend. Unfortunately for Jenny, her ability is to project and excrete hazardous, toxic and radioactive materials. He doesn't die, but the trauma haunts her.

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* Channelers in the ''{{Wheel of Time}}'' get their abilities as teenagers (or early twenties for men).

* The twin sisters in ''Literature/TWitches'' discover they have magical powers at age 14. In the the movie, it was curiously changed to 21.

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* Betazoids (a naturally telepathic race) in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' gain their mind-reading powers at puberty, except for a few rare exceptions who are born telepathic. Those tend to be mentally unstable from not being able to "tune out" the mental noise around them.

* ''{{Spaced}}'': The comic Tim is working on is about an orphaned kid who is exposed to some weird chemical by an amoral 'Doktor' as part of some twisted experiment. Absolutely nothing happened and the Doktor destroyed his research. Then when puberty hit, the dormant chemicals in his bloodstream activated and the orphan kid mutated into the comic's titular Bear.

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* Danny in ''DannyPhantom'' made light that he was gaining "evil puberty" powers once he received the Ghostly Wail. His powers from the beginning onset also reacted to his growing teenage body (example: his nervous emotions towards a girl triggered an unexpected intangibility and cause his pants to fall down, poor poor Danny).

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* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' averts this. Characters manifest their powers at various ages. Some, like Nathan Petrelli or Matt Parkman, manifest well into adulthood. Others, like Micah Sanders or Molly Walker, manifest before puberty. The youngest example is Donna, from the comics, who was unaware she had a power at all because she'd had it from ''birth''. She had simply assumed telescopic vision ''was'' normal. In fact, the only character confirmed to manifest during the teenage years is Claire Bennet, who manifests at 15.

* Notable exception: Characters in ''{{The 4400}}'' were granted superpowers by [[spoiler:people from the future]] at various ages, from childhood to old age. The one in-show exception is Isabelle, who was conceived and implanted into Lily's body during her abduction, and shows extremely powerful abilities as an infant and even some powers while still in the womb. Indeed, the character of Isabelle never really goes through puberty at all, as she is [[PlotRelevantAgeUp aged]] from an infant to adulthood in an instant at the end of the second series.