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10[[quoteright:300:[[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/young_mozart_prodigy.png]]]]
11[[caption-width-right:300:[[Film/BattlefieldEarth While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME, he was composing HIS OWN SYMPHONIES!]]]]
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17->''"I rocked harder than you when I was five years old!"''
18-->-- '''Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart''' to Music/{{Skrillex}}, ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory''
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20A young genius -- in their pre-teen year. Any genius below '''13''' and above '''3''' is eligible for the title of a Child Prodigy. Sometimes ignored or discriminated against by those who consider them JustAKid. Tends to be an InnocentProdigy at times due to their age.
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22In a setting with a mostly older cast, a Child Prodigy GradeSkipper might be introduced to appeal to a younger demographic.
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24Very often TheSmartGuy on TheTeam, particularly in SuperRobotGenre shows.
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26Note that although the character is likely to be both this ''and'' WiseBeyondTheirYears, they are two distinct tropes because intelligence and wisdom are two different things. This trope also may overlap with AdorablyPrecociousChild or InnocentProdigy. They may also be seen [[OnlyOneFindsItFun enjoying something that goes over other kids' heads]], which could be EntertainmentAboveTheirAge if it's a work of fiction.
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28For the record, despite some RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_prodigy uses of the term]], a teenage/high school-age character in college (13 -- 19) would be a TeenGenius, not this trope. See also BrainyBaby which is the even younger counterpart (3 years old and below).
29----
30!!Examples:
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32[[foldercontrol]]
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34[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
35* Katie Lindberg from ''Manga/{{Alyosha}}'' was one of these before maturing into a TeenGenius. She achieved a near-perfect SAT score at the age of 6 and graduated at the top of her class at MIT when she was 12.
36* Chiyo Mihama from ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' was smart enough to [[GradeSkipper skip several grades]] and start her first year of high school at only 10 years old. While she consistently gets the highest grades in her class, being five years younger than everyone else means she struggles to keep up during P.E. and anything to do with sex or romance [[InnocentProdigy flies right over her head]].
37* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': Nagisa Shiota is gradually revealed to have a natural, seemingly superhuman talent... for ''assassination''. In a setting where KillingIntent is a very real thing, his ability to appear completely, totally harmless right until he has a knife against your throat is treated as practically a superpower, and he rapidly picks up the advanced techniques the professional assassins around him use. Unusually for this trope, the adults in his life have to consider whether or not to encourage his prodigious abilities, since, despite the series premise, they don't want any of these students to actually become killers for hire, just stop Koro-sensei.
38* ''Manga/BlackClover'': From the moment he developed his PortalCut powers, Langris' parents refused to admit that anyone could be better than him, and while this was extremely unhealthy, they did have a point. Flashbacks reveal that he's a natural when it comes to magic, studies, athletics, and other types of hard work. His only weakness was (and still is) his anger and awful social skills. Other nobles criticized him for this while praising Finral for his natural talent at being a socialite. His parents telling him that he was perfect compared to Finral is part of what starts Langris' SanitySlippage.
39* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
40** Toshiro Hitsugaya is somewhere between 10 to 13 years old ([[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld biologically speaking]]) and has been recognised as a prodigy since a much younger age. Most Shinigami can never obtain [[SuperMode bankai]] but Hitsugaya is the youngest person to learn it in the history of Soul Society. However, his power is not fully developed and he lacks the experience of other captains and their emotional maturity (he still sometimes acts like a child trying to do an adult's job). Nevertheless, Kyouraku (one of the oldest and most powerful captains) has said that Hitsugaya will probably surpass him in the next 100 years.
41** Gin Ichimaru is a child when he entered the Shinigami Academy, but he completed the six-year programme in a single year, the first person to ever achieve that. His first act upon joining the Gotei 13 is to kill a Third Seat without sustaining injury, immediately replacing him in that post. It's implied he became a captain later than he could have because Aizen tried to keep him as his lieutenant for as long as possible. He eventually becomes a captain 50 years before the current storyline, although over Aizen's objections.
42** Yachiru is the Lieutenant of the most combat-capable Gotei 13 division despite being a tiny child who physically appears to be anywhere between 6 to 8 years old. Although Kenpachi's enormous reiatsu can floor even Seated Officers, Yachiru's been able to handle it ever since she was an infant. Her Zanpakutou is considered unique, manifesting beings to empower Yachiru's striking power and reach despite Zanpakutou not being able to do that. Her battle instincts are also considered incredible; she can adapt to even invisible opponents with so much speed it's considered uncanny. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed it's because she's Kenpachi's manifested Zanpakutou spirit.]]
43* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
44** Ai Haibara/Shiho Miyano is implied to have been one: if she has a [=PhD=] and already led TheSyndicate's lab before the age of 18, she must be one in her preteen years.
45** Hiroki Sawada from the NonSerialMovie ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet'' is more of a book example; he was a grad student in MIT at the age of ''ten''. However, a mixture of ParentalAbandonment and IntelligenceEqualsIsolation means his case [[StartsWithASuicide is not]] [[{{deconstruction}} played]] [[TearJerker for the ]][[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds laughs]].
46** The titular character Shinichi Kudo zigzags the trope around. He ''seems'' like a Child Prodigy to those who don't know his true identity but he's actually [[OlderThanTheyLook Older Than He Looks]] due to an [[FountainOfYouth 'un-aging' pill]], and even so he is a TeenGenius since he's technically 17. And ''then'', the flashbacks to his childhood show as an ''actual'' Child Prodigy: [[spoiler:the WholeEpisodeFlashback of manga chapters 921-924 show him not only reading the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' books at the age of ''four'', but making his first deductions around that time... [[SpannerInTheWorks which allowed]] [[GuileHero his father]] to foil a kidnapping plan that had Ran as the target.]]
47* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Patricia Birdway has a [=PhD=] at the age of twelve and has more than twenty published papers.
48* Minoru from ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'' is only 12 years old but he is a computer genius who is an expert on persocoms and knows the answers to almost all of Hideki's problems when he gets screwed over by technology.
49* ''Manga/Classi9'': Except for Ren, the main cast qualifies: Haydn is 12 and on the same level as 8 other students several years older than him, all of them music prodigies, Wagner started composing operas after seeing Beethoven perform when they were 5- and 6-years-old, Liszt and Chopin have known each other and played together for a ''very'' long time... Mozart is even lampshaded as a Child Prodigy since he is known as the "Wonderkind" (''kinder'' means child in German).
50* Falin from ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' is this. As a child, she was capable of taking on a spirit with no training whatsoever while resisting possession and communicating with it -- a rare trait that set her towards the path of being a cleric when combined with her endless compassion.
51* As a fourth grader, Ryoko in ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'' is already reading kanji-heavy ancient war manuals such as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Secret_Teachings Six Secret Teachings]]'' and ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Strategies_of_Huang_Shigong Three Strategies of Huang Shigong]]''. While the version she reads has been rewritten for a modern audience, reading those books requires a level of abstract thinking few people possessed at her age.
52* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Muichiro Tokito suffered his own tragedy at the hands of a demon when he was 11 years old, got personally scouted after the immense potential he showed by killing that demon in a fit of rage; blazed through the Demon Slayer Corps’ ranks in just 2 months. To compare and contrast, Muichiro was a Hashira by the age of 11, while series protagonist Tanjiro had to wait 1 year before his tragedy even began, and 2 more years before he even officially became a Slayer.
53* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Koushirou Izumi has impressive computer skills for a fourth grader (who also looks younger than his peers). His expertise in computer science, information gathering, and analysis become handy on multiple occasions, making him the most valuable ally the new Chosen Children have in the sequel series ''02'', and taken to much higher levels in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' and ''Anime/DigimonAdventureLastEvolutionKizuna'' as he gains more resources. While his skills are acknowledged and deeply appreciated by other characters, he is extremely humble about it.
54* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': Ken Ichijouji is introduced as a nationwide known child prodigy, who is TheAce in academics and sports. As it turns out, Ken wasn't originally a prodigy; the real genius in the family was his older brother, Osamu. Shortly after Ken's first adventure in the Digital World, Osamu died in an accident, and Ken began to increasingly emulate his brother out of a mix of grief and misplaced guilt. Eventually, he activated the Dark Seed, an implement of that was embedded in his neck during his time in the Digital World, which enhanced his academic and athletic abilities to the prodigy level. As a side effect, it changed his personality from kind and gentle to cruel and apathetic, and led him to treat the Digital World as a game and try to take over it as a tyrant. His increased intelligence allowed him to create control devices, evolution blocks, and even create his own artificial Digimon, Chimeramon. One WhatHaveIDone realization and a HeelFaceTurn later, the effects of the Dark Seed are nullified, and he returns to being a normal kid. However, he remains very intelligent and athletic, and retains a lot of the skills he learned during his time as a prodigy, such as a proficiency in Spanish.
55** Later, Yukio Oikawa scans and copies the Dark Seed from Ken and implants the copies in other children who wish to become child prodigies like Ken himself. They quickly gain Ken's former academic prowess, as well as the cruelty and disdain for the rest of humanity. Luckily, the copies are nullified a short time later.
56** Taiki Kudou in ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' is not aware that he is this. He is both exceedingly athletic and intelligent, and has engaged in various sports like a pro. Furthermore, he is a brilliant tactician, capable of forming winning strategies within a flash of a second in the heat of battle.
57** In ''Anime/DigimonUniverseAppMonsters'', TeenGenius Rei Katsura spends much of the series thinking [[BigBad Leviathan]] kidnapped his younger brother Hajime because he was after Rei's hacking skills. Turns out, [[spoiler: Leviathan was after ''Hajime's skills''; Hajime is on a whole other level, to the point Leviathan compares his intelligence and abilities to the likes of Alan Turing and John Mc Carthy. When Leviathan forces Hajime to create a powerful Appmon, Bootmon, Hajime manages to engineer his escape and hides Bootmon from Leviathan for ''months''. Once rescued, he becomes a key ally to the Applidrivers, with his computer skills being crucial to helping them locate Bootmon and win the final battle against Leviathan.]]
58* Kotoko from ''Anime/DivergenceEve'', [[spoiler:since she's an advanced android]].
59* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
60** PlayedWith. When Goku was a kid in the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', he was often hailed as a prodigy for not only his natural strength and talent for fighting but his ability to learn advanced techniques after only seeing them once and being able to adapt quickly while fighting. Then, it's {{Subverted}} at the start of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' when it's revealed that he's a Saiyan and that he's actually pretty weak by his race's standards. However, this trope is PlayedStraight again when Goku's quick adaptability and natural talent far surpasses any in his race, even the Saiyan prince [[PrivilegedRival Vegeta]], to the point that his low power level compared to other Saiyans at the start of the series could easily be chalked up to him being raised on Earth and not fighting strong opponents like the other Saiyans.
61** According to ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'', Bulma had already surpassed her father at the age of five and single-handedly repaired an alien spacecraft in a matter of minutes.
62** A {{Downplayed}} example with Krillin. He never was as talented as Goku, who is a HumanAlien from a fighting race, but compared to other humans he was an exceptionally strong child. He was able to survive [[TrainingFromHell the Muten Roshi's training regimen]] and would have been second only to Goku in the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai if Muten Roshi hadn't entered. He also learned the Kamehameha on the fly with no prior training at the age of sixteen when it took his master fifty years to develop it. The only things that really held Krillin back were his lack of self-esteem, which was an effect of the bullying he received from the monks at his former temple and his occasional bouts of arrogance.
63** Son Gohan is a prime example, both physically and academically. He's smart enough to study advanced biology at age 4, builds an amphibious sandsurfer/boat a few months afterwards, and by the time he's 10 years old, he has enough latent power to unleash the equivalent force of a ''Supernova''.
64** Vegeta's talent was so well known that Freeza immediately takes a liking to him and [[SparingTheAces spares him specifically]] when he destroys Planet Vegeta. After that, Freeza more or less raises him as one of his elite soldiers. In the Bardock Special, Vegeta is able to take on ''six'' Saibamen by himself with little trouble. Keep in mind, each one of those Saibamen are as strong as Raditz. It's been stated that even as a child he was one of the strongest Saiyans at the time.
65** Freeza himself can count as well. The overwhelming power by which he became the Galactic Emperor? His power which only needed Super Saiyans to even scratch him? He was born as that, and he didn't train for a single day in his life. Still he gave a personal CurbStompBattle to almost everyone (barring Goku and Trunks, the said Super Saiyans), before he made the fatal mistake of [[KickTheDog killing Krillin]]. He was outright born as a mutation among his strong race as well. Also counts as a Subversion, as if he DID focus on training like the other examples on this page, he would have been [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools near damn unstoppable]], with probably Super-Perfect Cell and even Buu (literal monsters), being either equal in power or weaker.
66** Goten and Trunks. At the age of eight, Trunks is able to become a Super Saiyan, much sooner and more easily than Future Trunks, and Goten became a Super Saiyan at seven, making him the youngest Super Saiyan in history.
67* Wendy from ''Manga/FairyTail'', despite only being biologically 13, has been able to learn many of her offensive spells just by seeing Natsu use them once, learned several more, including a [[LimitBreak Secret Art unique to her brand of Dragon Slaying Magic]], in just three days with nothing but handwritten notes to go on, and mastered [[SuperMode Dragon Force]] in only a year's time whereas Natsu still hasn't despite having obtained it far earlier than her. [[spoiler:She even figured out how to copy an Enchantment spell [[GrandTheftMe that transfers one's consciousness to another body]] in the middle of a battle after only seeing it once ''while it was being used on her''. Said possessor, [[TheArchmage Irene Belserion]], outright admits she's amazed by the latent potential Wendy has as she starts using Wendy's magic in combat and manages to badly injure ''[[ActionGirl Erza]]'' with it]].
68* Kai of ''Manga/ForestOfPiano'' is a musical genius who started play at three and doesn't receive any formal lessons until he is ten. He can play almost any piece perfectly after hearing it once.
69* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
70** May Chang is about thirteen, but she has the mentality, mannerisms, and [[CuteBruiser fighting skills]] of an adult. She was even able to [[spoiler:decode Scar's brother's research notes mostly by herself]]. Justified in that she is a child prodigy out of necessity rather than genetics, as being the FallenPrincess and only hope of a dying clan and being charged with such clan's future, ''besides'' probably dealing with assassination attempts that Ling says are common for people in such position, makes you mature fast.
71** The Elric brothers. They learned to read at a very young age and started teaching themselves alchemy using their father's books at ages 4 and 3. The two learn far more advanced alchemy (and martial arts) under the tutelage of Izumi Curtis, and by the time they try to resurrect their mother, they are still only 11 and 10. Edward proceeds to become the youngest State Alchemist in history just a year later at age 12.
72** Winry probably also counts -- c'mon, were you able to make mechanical limbs when you were eleven? While valid, that makes it sound even more extraordinary than it is in context; the FMA universe is more technologically advanced than ours [[SchizoTech in the area of]] ArtificialLimbs, so it's not just a matter of Winry being a GadgeteerGenius. The FMA manga clarifies that automail "mechanics" are actually closer to surgeons than the people fixing your car. So a more real-world applicable question would be "Were you successfully performing surgery on amputees when you were 11?" And ''neuro''-surgery at that, since they have to link up all the nerves.
73* Leonard and Tessa Testarossa of ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' once qualified, having solved some of Einstein's more famous equations before the age of six. By the time of the story, they've aged up to TeenGenius.
74* ''Manga/GiantOjouSama'': Nakano Giraffe joins the main cast as a 9 year old taking high school classes. However, even this is overshadowed by his idol, Oriko Fujidou, who [[ImprobableAge started studying university-level material at 4 years old]], and finished two years after that.
75* ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'': Urumi was doing calculus as an elementary schooler, and speaks at least 5 languages by the time she's in high school. She left school because she found it boring until she came back to see what the deal was with Onizuka, and he convinced her to stay.
76* [[spoiler:Triela's]] daughter Speranza in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' doesn't seem older than twelve, but is already in medical school.
77* In ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', while most of the qualifiers are 13, and thus TeenGenius material, Maria entered the school at 10 and graduated at 13. Nagi, Isumi, and Sakuya are most of the way through their first year of High School, meaning that they were Child Prodigy material. Nagi doesn't even attend classes and is still considered one of the top students before Hayate comes along.
78* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
79** As a pre-teen nation-tan, Japan started working on ''his own alphabet'' a few moments after his brother China taught him to write.
80** Belgium was already a trading and business whiz as a little girl nation, according to the ''Manga/HetaliaBloodbath2011''.
81** A young Greece is depicted attempting to discuss "[[http://aph.starry-sky.com/blog-entry-146.html the concept of time and our relation with moussaka]]."
82* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
83** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'': Joseph Joestar was able to effectively use [[PowerOfTheSun Hamon]] since he was a child without any formal training. However, he still had to go through TrainingFromHell in order to defeat the Pillar Men.
84** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'': Panacotta Fugo was accepted into a prestigious university when he was 13 years old. However, he ended up getting expelled for assaulting his professor, who either attempted to molest him (anime) or insulted his dead grandmother (''Literature/PurpleHazeFeedback'').
85* In Manga/JujutsuKaisen, not only do all the indicators of Mahito's age paint him as a child (Nanami's observation after first encountering him, plus [[spoiler: his reaction while running from Itadori at the end of Shibuya being distinctly child-like]]), he is also incredibly powerful, able to use Domain Expansion in his second on-screen battle (something that Nanami, 26 years old, admits he could never manage to achieve). He is also able to only open his Domain for less than a second, something he copied directly from Satoru Gojo, the strongest sorcerer in modern times, and pulled off first attempt without a hitch.
86* Subverted in ''Anime/KaleidoStar''. May Wong was an ice skating prodigy in the past, but she kept it only as a hobby and pursued becoming an acrobat in the Kaleido Stage instead.
87* Kanon Hayashi in ''Manga/{{Kanon|ChihoSaito}}'' was a violin prodigy when she was a little girl, able to play brilliantly even without proper training.
88* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
89** The 10-year-old Erio Mondial, who had already achieved a [[RandomPowerRanking Mage Rank of B]] before the show started while his teenage companions were still struggling to achieve the same rank.
90** [[CassandraTruth Rumor has it]] that Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate were even sillier examples, being AAA-Rank Mages under the TSAB's employ when they were younger, but eh... who believes such rumors?
91** It's revealed in the [[ComicBookAdaptation supplementary manga]] of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' that the math used on Earth and Mid-Childa is very similar, and using advanced magic requires a firm grasp of mathematical formulas. Needless to say, Nanoha and Fate are math geniuses who always ace the subject in school, much to the chagrin of the competitive [[ThoseTwoGuys Arisa]], and Fate even helped Nanoha's teenage sister Miyuki with her school work when she was ''nine''.
92** In the movie continuity, Shario was already a liscenced device meister (someone who builds and maintains {{Empathic Weapon}}s with ArtificialIntelligence) before she turned ten.
93* [[ChildMage Shouta]] from ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' is rarely seen casting any magic, but he appears to be very skilled for his age. Despite only being 10 years old, he manages to score 8th on the practical portion of a mage ranking exam that was mostly filled with adults and only three steps removed from being considered an archmage, and he's also implied to do fairly well on the practical portion as well despite refusing to accept aid from his familiar.
94* Subverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE''. The Unknown Enemy has 7-year-old Desil Galette, who at his "tender" age shows massive talent to pilot mechas as well as [[spoiler: PsychicPowers-like abilities, making him an X-Rounder.]] So what do his bosses do? They completely overlook that he's a sadistic CreepyChild ''and'' has the mood swings proper of a child his age, making him a ''battle commander'' without any supervision or proper training/education. [[spoiler: Desil then orders a retreat from a certain victory ''merely because he got bored'', and when in charge of the second X-Rounder that they conscript... he uses her recklessly in battle and accidentally kills her.]]
95* A whole slew of characters from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. To name a few: Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Neji Hyuga, Gaara, Itachi Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, [[spoiler: Naruto's DisappearedDad]] Minato Namikaze, Killer Bee, [[spoiler:and both of Naruto and Hinata's children, Boruto and Himawari Uzumaki]]. For example, Kakashi was ''six'' when he graduated from the Ninja Academy and became a genin.
96* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
97** Negi. He graduated from WizardingSchool at the age of nine, became a teacher in Japan, and mastered the language [[note]]in two weeks[[/note]], too. Later on, when he starts learning combat techniques and training seriously, it takes him about 9 months to become one of the most powerful combatants alive. To be fair, Negi spent an inordinate amount of time in [[YearInsideHourOutside magic resorts, scrolls, and the like]], to the point where he's now actually 12 years old. Oh, that is only the beginning. As the first volume pointed out -- remember, back when he was only 9! -- Negi has a degree from Oxford. A college degree, in one of the foremost schools in the entire world, at NINE.
98** Kurt Godel is also explicitly stated to be one of these. (Or at least, he was when he was still a child.)
99** Negi's father, Nagi, also qualifies, at least in regard to combat. [[IdiotHero And only combat]]. He was one of the strongest men alive when he was about twelve, culminating with him [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeating a god in single combat]] when he was seventeen or so.
100* The [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Professor]] in ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'', despite being 8 years old, has managed to build, among other things, a speech-giving scarf and a RidiculouslyHumanRobot (which she constantly modifies without the robot noticing).
101* Megumi "Nodame" Noda in ''Manga/NodameCantabile'' is shown to have been a piano prodigy as a kid.
102* Nami from ''Manga/OnePiece'' was able to draw impressive maps by the time she was only ten.
103* Child Emperor from ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', who, at only 10 years old, is already an S-Class Hero (the most elite and powerful superheroes, considered skilled enough to protect an entire city by themselves). Not only he has supergenius intellect that he uses to create his fighting devices (most noticeably, the huge robotic SpiderLimbs he keeps inside his [[BagOfHolding seemingly normal schoolbag]]), if he's forced into hand-to-hand combat he's stronger than a bear.
104* Becky from ''Anime/PaniPoniDash''. Graduated from the MIT and is teaching high school girls... at ''11''-years-old.
105* In an episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', the trio meets Eve, an archeologist who has earned her [=PhD=] at the age of ''eight''.
106* ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'' revolves around this premise. The orphans at Grace Field are all (or at least most of them) taught to be smart... because [[IAmAHumanitarian the demons]] find human brains tastier the more intelligent there is as it allows the demons to stay sapient. Though not all the children are ''exceptionally'' smart (as such, these ones are [[DeadlyEuphemism "adopted"]] as soon as the tests indicate their limit), but the ones that are have a chance at [[spoiler:becoming Mamas (for females only) to use their intelligence ''against'' kids who also discover the conspiracy or being brought to the main facility for more testing]]. The three main characters, Emma, Norman, and Ray, are this trope.
107* Sou Touma from ''Manga/{{QED}}'', likewise, is MIT-graduated before high school age; he is now in a HighSchool for the needed socialization to prevent IntelligenceEqualsIsolation.
108* Yukari Sendo from ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' is an 11-year-old genius in a class full of teenagers.
109* The main protagonist of ''Literature/TheSagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' zigzags and subverts this trope, in that while Tanya ''is'' a child physically and is certainly a surprisingly ruthless and highly resourceful tactician for her age, and seems brilliant from people on the outside, it is only because she has the ''mind of an adult'', as she was reincarnated with all her memories from her past life intact. Even Tanya herself admits that she was never a genius of any sort during her previous life and she simply has the benefit of a lifetime's worth of experiences.
110* Edajima Heihachi from ''Manga/SakigakeOtokojuku'' is capable of fighting a group of monkeys at the age of 7. When he is 10 years old, he read and remembered the content of a whole shelf of thick books, which includes some higher level of Mathematics. At the age of eleven, he is specially admitted to Tokyo Imperial University and is capable of breaking prison bars.
111* Vladimir from ''Manga/ShonenNoteBoySoprano'' is a talented, 12-year-old boy soprano well known in the music world.
112* Rimone from ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'' is extremely young even for a Sybilla, which doesn't prevent her from being an AcePilot rivaled only by Aeru and Neviril.
113* ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'': Ryuu is a fully-fledged court pharmacist by age twelve. Having caught the court's attention when rumors about a genius kid herbalist spread he was invited to take the entrance exam at some point prior to the start of the series. He has trouble understanding people and tends to creep out his patients but he is slowly growing out of this as he matures into a TeenGenius.
114* In ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'', Mametchi is a young boy (in contrast to the [[Toys/{{Tamagotchi}} virtual pets]] where he's classified as an adult breed) who has an IQ of [[ImprobablyHighIQ 250]] and often puts together his own inventions, often [[SmartPeopleBuildRobots robots]], at home. In the show's ''Yume Kira Dream'' arc, Mametchi takes the Robotics class at Dream School.
115* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'':
116** Since toddlerhood Kousei has shown a skill for the piano thanks to his mother being a pianist. She was reluctant to teach him however her friend encouraged her to. He received the nickname "Human Metronome" because of how accurately he played from the music score no matter how difficult it was, despite being a mere child. Kousei's mother eventually became physically abusive towards him, refused to let him play with his friends, and sometimes made him skip school in order to practice. After her death, Kousei broke down and due to the trauma became unable to 'hear' his own piano playing due to [[spoiler:telling her he wish she'd die before she died]], and it takes a lot of time for him to get into piano playing again.
117** Takeshi and Emi have been playing since age six, were also very good for their young age, and are still good pianists at age fourteen. They weren't quite as talented as Kousei though and thus were largely overshadowed by him.
118* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
119** Seto Kaiba is not only a TeenGenius, but in the anime he beat Gozaburo in a chess match in order to get him and Mokuba adopted. When he was TEN. In the manga he cheated, though considering the kind of person Gozaburo was, he might have been just as impressed if Seto did cheat.
120** Rebecca Hopkins; she's taking College classes by the time she reappears for the Doma arc... Even in the dub, where she was ''eight'' as opposed to twelve in her initial appearance.
121* The Nishigori triplets from ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' are only 6 years old, but they're often shown to be much smarter than any 6-year-old ought to be. They're highly knowledgeable about figure skating and how competitions work (due to being figure skating {{Otaku}}), are skilled at using various electronics, and were responsible for organizing the "Hot Springs on Ice" competition that takes place in Episode 3. WordOfGod says people tend to forget they're only 6 years old since "they can do anything", and "their potential is bottomless".
122[[/folder]]
123
124[[folder:Asian Animation]]
125* ''Animation/BalalaTheFairies'': While Meixue is a decent student, Xiao Qian far surpasses her despite being 9 to 10. It surprises people in how a young girl like her can attend middle school. Justified by how she’s the future Queen, so she’s destined to learn far faster than the others. It's also deconstructed early in the series; many teachers and the sisters see her as a problematic child who fails to learn anything in class. However, that’s because she learns ''too quickly'' in class that schools can’t keep up with her learning curve. She easily becomes bored since they never gave her any new content.
126* Doctor H. of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' was quite the inventor even as a child. In the first episode of Season 9, he's shown building a working TimeMachine ''out of cardboard'' in an unsuccessful attempt to save his father from an AlienAbduction.
127[[/folder]]
128
129[[folder:Comic Books]]
130* ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'': Actually, calling Barry Ween a child prodigy is kind of like calling [[Film/TheOmen Damien]] a naughty kid; Barry has invented dimension travel devices, working lightsabers, time machines, jetpacks, and ray guns. He secretly runs several multinational corporations in order to finance his experiments, and he can plan and execute a break-in of a top-secret (and heavily guarded) government facility in the space of an afternoon. He's ten.
131* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Valerie "Val" Richards, the toddler daughter of Reed Richards and Sue Storm; she has exhibited an aptitude with science and technology rivaling that of her father and that of ComicBook/DoctorDoom.
132* James-Michael from Creator/SteveGerber's ''ComicBook/OmegaTheUnknown'', thanks to having been [[spoiler: raised by robots]].
133* Jack B. Quick from ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'' is a rural Black Comedy version of this.
134* In ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'', Reed Richards built a teleporter when he was a child. It's how the Baxter Building found him.
135* Sapientín from ''ComicBook/ZipiYZape''.
136* In ''ComicBook/Robin1993'', [[Characters/RobinTimDrake Tim Drake]] started out as a PlayfulHacker amateur photographer who had figured out Batman and Robin's secret identities by accident when he was ''nine'' and is expected to eventually surpass Bruce as the World's Greatest Detective. Tim also takes after Bruce in regards to being a CrazyPrepared ScienceHero who relies on {{Batman Gambit}}s against foes he knows he can't take in a fair fight.
137* Subverted in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2022''. Bailey uses web fluid dissolver to get out of Peter's webbing when Peter tries to ditch him. Peter's first assumption is that Bailey made the dissolver. Bailey balks at the notion. He's only ten years old and wouldn't have the know-how to make something like that on his own. He shows the dissolver's capsule to Peter to prove that it's Peter's handiwork as evidence of their previous partnership after Bailey was RetGone from memory and record.
138* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Gerta von Gunther is something of a MadScientist prodigy, whose youthful inventions include ''shark mermaids''.
139 [[/folder]]
140
141[[folder:Fan Works]]
142* In ''Fanfic/ForgivenessIsTheAttributeOfTheStrong'', a My Hero Academia fanfiction, the eleven-year-old version of All for One who travels forward in time is a child genius. In some cases, he's just smart enough to get himself into trouble.
143* In ''Fanfic/CustodyBattle'', a My Hero Academia fanfiction, Izuku uses his genius to use One for All early after receiving the quirk in elementary school.
144* In ''Fanfic/HeirToTheBruceQuest'', Rhiannon's sister is a math prodigy [[spoiler: So much so she ends up inventing a version of double heat sinks at age fourteen.]]
145* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'':
146** The Nameless Filly was incredibly brilliant in both magic and tactics, being said to have the potential to surpass Starswirl the Bearded and possibly become an Alicorn one day. Unfortunately, she ended up developing [[EnfantTerrible a psychopathic obsession with killing love itself]] due to her inability to form a relationship. As a result, she put her incredible intelligence to the task of making the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Concept Killing Spear]], a weapon capable of [[RetGone erasing whomever it kills from existence]], resulting in one of the single most cataclysmic events in the history of creation when she killed Cupid with it.
147** Sunset Shimmer, who was incredibly talented in magic as a filly. In fact, Elements of Magic in general seem to be this trope.
148* The ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'': Diamond Tiara evidently came into her magic quite a bit before the norm for earth pony foals, as she's capable of what is implied to be a rather advanced maneuver. [[WordOfGod Word Of Fanfic Author]] is that her field dexterity score is rather high: in essence, she's very good at micromanaging.
149* The ''WebVideo/ScootertrixTheAbridged'' versions of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are secretly '''generals''' in charge of the entire Equestrian Military, who somehow got into a military school[[note]]Which also, somehow gave Applebloom an English accent[[/note]] and graduated while still at elementary school. Though this is likely largely due to [[BunnyEarsLawyer Celestia's... questionable philosophy on leadership.]] Hilariously enough, despite being generals who can quote ''Literature/{{The Art Of War|Sun Tzu}}'' by heart, they somehow still struggle with even [[EverybodyHatesMathematics the most basic math to the point of being both scared and confused about the thought of negative numbers.]]
150* Having been trained by Carnelian and the other Quartzes since he was five, Steven/Rhodonite in ''Fanfic/GiftOfADiamond'' has become a well-trained and condecorated Quartz officer who has succeeded at a number of daring and dangerous missions and has influenced Homeworld politics so much that he was able to convince all three Diamonds not to shatter gems and give second chances into his teens. He was even able to defeat Garnet and Pearl easily, two gems with thousands of years of fighting experience.
151* In ''Fanfic/MasterPotterOfKamarTaj'', after [[spoiler:saving Hamir from an invading Mordo]], Stephen decides to teach Harry sorcery, where he manages to master it despite being far too young to be learning their ways.
152* ''Fanfic/OfSiblingsAndMasks'': Siblings Lelouch and Nunnally were both prodigious as children. Their friend Suzaku didn't mind Nunnally's intelligence much, but Lelouch annoyed him because he seemed so intellectually superior to Suzaku.
153* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, the youngest of three daughters of Wizard Ponder Stibbons and Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes is set to go this way. With one older sister a witch and magic-user, and the middle sister a student Assassin who is graded "[[{{Tykebomb}} one to watch]]", the youngest daughter is developing a talent for art and music, and creativity in general. An outside observer asks "Are you ''sure'' she's not related in any way to Leonard of Quirm?".
154* In ''WebAnimation/DanganronpaHushedWhispers'' this is the case for Momo Chiisa, the Ultimate Vetenarian.
155* ''Fanfic/TheDevilsInTheDetails'': At a young age Peter was a technological and scientific genius, being able to properly comprehend advanced theories and Stark's technology. When Peter starts applying his scientific expertise toward magic, he becomes a natural as a ChildMage (or Teen Mage).
156* ''Fanfic/BetweenTheLinesMrQuestionMark'': [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10979729/15/Between-The-Lines Chapter 15]] calls Nunotaba Shinobu a child prodigy.
157* ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy'':
158** Oprah began her fruit stand when she was eight years old, alongside her friend Yucks Shmumbers, who was four. While Oprah was already incredibly smart in the realm of mathematics and entrepreneurship, Yucks had the organizational and managerial know-how -- Oprah told her to organize all the fruit in stock and left, and Yucks organized them not just in alphabetical order, but also priced by the kilogram, and sorted by color, size and amount. Put together, the two girls made a dream team, and their juice business gained a lot of traction very quickly.
159** Both Opal and Oscar are qualified to fill Head of Department roles due to their smarts. Oscar in particular was enrolled in, and graduated from, the Odd Squad Academy in only six months, whereas Opal graduated from the Academy in four years' time due to the Head of Department position in the Medical department requiring four more years of working in Precinct 13579 before she can get the job instead of spending eight years at the Academy. Opal also manages to pass all three exams in the Odd-ology Finals with flying colors.
160** Otto, a "lost-cause student" who has trouble focusing in school, gets a 140 on an IQ test that he takes when he's nine years old. The school faculty are so taken aback by this that the principal immediately calls a board meeting to discuss the next course of action for him, and he is eventually sent to the Odd Squad Academy to attend as a student there rather than at a regular elementary school.
161* ''Fanfic/OversaturatedWorld'': ''Fanfic/{{Oversaturation}}'': "Tones": Barely TeenGenius Twilight Sparkle is called a "prodigy" and she likely started being prodigial at a younger age, so she'd be a child prodigy.
162* ''Fanfic/TooMuchTooMuch'': [[GirlNextDoor Vallea Endrizzi]] is a young girl who is already quite an accomplished AdventurerArchaeologist.
163* ''Fanfic/OniGaShikuSeries'':
164** Hisashi Midoriya was incredibly intelligent since he was a young child, which is one of the reasons why [[spoiler:his father Musashi did not want him to be in the Yakuza like he was.]] Nowadays he's a head researched in I-Island.
165** Discussed in regards to Izuku. He has AwesomenessByAnalysis skills in combat and PhotographicMemory, but his intelligence and emotional maturity do not match. During the [[spoiler:Akatani arc]], Izuku bitterly remarks that for all he's supposed to be so smart, he keeps falling for schemes that should be obvious. When he's a teenager, All Might says that Izuku is impressive, but not a genius.
166** Katsuki learned how to perfectly read at four, cook at seven, and was always on top of his class in all subjects from eight years old to thirteen. His position starts being challenged after Izuku re-enters his life.
167* ''Fanfic/QueensOfMewni'': Helia the Light of Power showed an aptitude for magic at the age of four, and by six already mastered levitation spells (with no wand!) and used magic to map the universe, terrifying her mother. When tested she turned out to be the most powerful of the queens.
168* ''Fanfic/ThePixieOfTheHiddenLeaf'': Tanya was five years old when she graduated from the academy, becoming the youngest person to ever create an original ninjutsu when she was seven years old, going on to reach the rank of Jonin at the age of thirteen, becoming one of the youngest shinobi in world and the youngest kunoichi to ever reach the rank.
169[[/folder]]
170
171[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
172* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', even at the age of 9, Manolo showed a natural talent for bullfighting.
173* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Miguel is an ''excellent'' performer, guitar player, and singer despite having few opportunities to practice due to his family's traditions, making a crowd go wild in his first live (well, not live as in living) performance after getting over his initial stage fright. Frida Kahlo is soon asking him for musical advice, which Miguel provides, much to her delight. Lee Unkrich also says that the finale song, "Proud Corazón", was written InUniverse by Miguel.
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
177* In ''Film/{{Amadeus}}'', a biopic about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he is shown as a child who is composing and performing harpsichord at an advanced level.
178* ''Film/AntoniasLine'': Danielle's daughter Therese says "I'm a child prodigy," and she is, having been able to do arithmetic since she was three and being able to figure out squares and square roots of four-digit numbers while she's in grade school.
179* ''Film/ArmyOfFrankensteins'': Igor, Finski's assistant, looks to be about twelve, and is already CreatingLife.
180* The title character of ''Film/AugustRush'' has savant-like musical abilities as a composer and performer that get him admitted into Juilliard by age 11, although most of his achievements are well into ArtisticLicenseMusic territory.
181* ''Film/{{Gifted}}'': Mary is 7 years old and fully able to work out advanced calculus problems, even noticing where the problems are deliberately written incorrectly. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triviality_(mathematics) Non-trivial zeroes]] are used as an example of the level of mathematical concepts she understands.
182* ''Film/HarryAndTheButler'': "Heisenberg", a 10-year-old boy who ransacks the junkyard where Harry lives, ransacking car parts for use in his homemade rockets. He eventually succeeds in launching a rocket. Earlier in the film, Harry asks him to calculate 3300 divided by 286 (Harry has 3300 kroner to hire a butler who gets 286 kroner per week). Heisenberg answers immediately, to three decimal places (it's about 11.5) and then asks if Harry needs more decimals.
183* In ''Film/{{Humoresque}}'', Leon, who is about 12, can instantly play a violin the moment he's given one. Sure enough, he becomes a concert violinist.
184* In ''Film/IronMan1'', one of the first things we learn about Tony Stark is that he built his first circuit board when he was 4, his first engine when he was 6, the world's most advanced A.I. (at the time) when he was 7, and at some point in his childhood designed and built his mechanical lab assistant DUM-E. He later matured into a TeenGenius when he graduated top of his class at MIT when he was 17.
185* Near in ''Film/LChangeTheWorld'' is a mathematical genius and solves Maki's homework for her, which turns out to be the secret of the antidote to the virus she carries.
186* From ''Film/LittleManTate'', Creator/JodieFoster's directorial debut, Fred Tate (played by Adam Hann-Byrd, also known for ''The Ice Storm'') reads at age two without having been taught, and in second grade paints with a mature grasp of art history.
187* The title character of ''Film/{{Matilda}}''. At the beginning of the film, she starts school and, due to her voracious appetite for books, is already able to multiply large numbers in her head and has an extensive knowledge of literature.
188* ''Film/RealGenius'' is about a school full of these, including the main character Mitch, his friend Chris, and Lazlo, the [[ClosetSublet guy in the closet]].
189* That kid from ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' attending college (and joining a frat!) at age 10, his name was Wormser.
190* All the children in ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' has some exceptional talent that Dewey (played by Creator/JackBlack) utilized to help the band out (e.g. Billy with costume design, Tomika with singing) but Gordon and Summer are traditional examples. Gordon with computers and Summer with organizational skills. Also RealitySubtext applied to the kids in the band. The actors and actress who play bass, guitar, and drums all started musical training at an early age.
191* Josh Waitzkin in ''Film/SearchingForBobbyFischer'' is a small child and a chess genius.
192* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
193** Anakin Skywalker, thanks to his robotics and piloting skills (which are themselves considerably empowered by the Force).
194** Most of the Old Republic Jedi probably count as they were trained from birth (or not long after).
195* Willie from ''Film/WheresWillie'' is an 8-year-old who invented a computer.
196-->'''Charlie''': He has an IQ of 180. His hobby is calculus. He's building a bionic rabbit, and all by himself, [[HackTheTrafficLights he tied up every car in Kerrville in a traffic jam!]]"
197[[/folder]]
198
199[[folder:Literature]]
200* Bertie Pollock, 5-year-old, Italian-speaking saxophonist in the ''Literature/FortyFourScotlandStreet'' series by Alexander [=McCall=] Smith. He [[IJustWantToBeNormal Just Wants To Be Normal]], but has a [[MyBelovedSmother Beloved Smother]] who, despite being an amateur child psychologist, cannot understand this (and also sees an ''actual'' [[TheShrink child psychologist]] who's even worse).
201* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' counts, being an evil criminal mastermind at age 12. He began his schemes at ''the age of 10''. He also struggles to relate to people and spends most of his time tracking down his missing father from his mansion with only his bodyguard for company. As the preface to the second book wryly remarks, his adventures were good for getting him outside and meeting new people, even if most of them wanted to kill him.
202* Rosie Wilder from ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub''. Naturally the kid gets paired with Claudia.
203* Prince Gareth from ''Literature/BekaCooper: Mastiff'' is far more articulate and intelligent than Beka thinks a four year old should be. He can already read and write and think about some ramifications of the future. Of course, as the ''heir to the throne'' he's been the beneficiary of a degree of attention, favor, and tutelage that Beka, who grew up in grinding poverty, is completely unfamiliar with, plus the circumstances in which she encounters him have put him in a [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior very serious state of mind]].
204* Garrett Durrell from ''Literature/{{Boot Camp|2007}}'' was reading at two and solving square roots at six. His parents and teachers lavished praise on him until he was eight, when he started using his intelligence in ways his parents disapproved of. He couldn't connect with his classmates because IntelligenceEqualsIsolation, and when he was twelve he started SkippingSchool because he could get good grades with very little effort. His problems ultimately lead to his parents sending him to Lake Harmony, an abusive boot camp, when he's fifteen.
205* Sophie from ''Literature/ChildOfTheHive'' is shown at the age of seven capable of speaking near-perfect German after only three lessons. She also has knowledge of Latin by that age and is later shown reading a book in the original French. As a teenager, she is acknowledged as being a mathematical genius and being extraordinarily good at computer programming.
206* Richard "Clever Dick" Cleaver in "Literature/ClublandHeroes" by Creator/KimNewman is an 11-year-old genius who made his fortune as an InventorOfTheMundane at age 7 and [[GradeSkipper graduated from Oxford]] at age 10. He's a KidDetective and TheSmartGuy of a superhero team. He's also a humorless, arrogant, sexist, racist jerk who suffers a karmic set-down when TheGreatDepression wipes out his investments and the humiliations of puberty force him to retire from public life. He has a cameo in ''Literature/TheHauntingOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'' as the leader of an entire team of child prodigies, the Brain-Boxes, who seem to spend most of their time devising unnecessarily elaborate mechanisms and squabbling with each other. A sequel, "Literature/ColdSnap", revisits him as a bitter adult who's become an unimpressive supervillain.
207* Sam Wilson from ''Literature/CountingToD'' is a math prodigy who passed algebra in fourth grade.
208* Jon Masters from Creator/DaleBrown's books was a child prodigy in the past who's retained his genius in adulthood. In ''Wings of Fire'' it turns out that [[spoiler: Dr. Kelsey Duffield]] is actually a 9-ear-old girl.
209* In J.R. Lowell's 1972 thriller ''Literature/DaughterOfDarkness'', Willie is this, and a sometime DeliberatelyCuteChild, allowing her to do her RitualMagic in peace.
210* ''Literature/{{DFZ}}'': Opal is an attempt at invoking this. Her parents genetically engineered her to be the greatest mage alive, and then brought in the best teachers in the world when she was 6 years old -- most children don't even find out they're magical until they're teenagers. Unfortunately, this all backfired; a child that young simply doesn't have a brain developed enough to handle magic, the teachers weren't used to teaching children so young, and Opal kept blowing up the spellwork [[spoiler:because she was more powerful than the spellwork could handle]]. By the time of the series, she's in her twenties and has accepted that she will always be a failure of a mage. She ends up with a shaman teaching her, who first chance she gets tears into Opal's father for expecting so much from a child and not noticing that her teachers were bashing her against a brick wall with no success.
211* ''Literature/EgilsSaga'': At age three, Egil is "as big and strong as other boys of six and seven" and already "clever with words". When his father Skallagrim does not want to take him to a feast at Egil's maternal grandfather Yngvar's, Egil rides to the feast all alone. At the same feast, he recites his first poems.
212* The ''Literature/EndersGame'' series. Half the IF is commanded by a bunch of prepubescent kids. Judging from Alai, puberty wreaks havoc with your political and military judgment.
213* Ernest from ''Literature/EyeOfAFly'' taught himself calculus when he was eight.
214* ''Literature/FlightToTheLonesomePlace'': While 12-year-old Ronnie's PhotographicMemory allows him to learn quickly, he also is shown doing advanced physics equations to disprove the concept of parallel universes.
215* The title character of ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' is a 7-year-old girl who is a MadScientist. Quite often, she tries to conduct experiments that will revolutionize the world, only to have to find a way to fix them when things go awry.
216* A disturbingly large percentage of the Remillard clan of the ''Literature/GalacticMilieu'' trilogy start out at this -- and that's not even counting their incredible psychic powers.
217* ''Literature/TheGatesOfSleep'': A minor character is a child chess prodigy who was driven into a mental breakdown by his father (who was [[FinancialAbuse living off the fees he charged for the kid's exhibition games]]).
218* Annie Bellis in ''Literature/GeorgesSecretKeyToTheUniverse'' is definitely this. It helps that her dad Eric is a scientist who also owns the world’s most intelligent supercomputer, Cosmos.
219* ''Literature/GhostbustersAParanormalPictureBook'': Egon is only about eight in this story, but he still manages to invent a bunch of technology.
220* In ''Literature/TheGiver'', Benjamin, a classmate of Jonas', spent so much time volunteering (between the ages of eight and eleven) at the Rehabilitation Center that he came up with machines to facilitate the rehab and knew almost as much as the directors.
221* [[MeaningfulName Computer Jack]] from the ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series could hack into a complex police-computer by the age of nine and was only six when he became his school's official tech support. He's so adept in computer science, that in HUNGER he [[spoiler: managed to operate and turn off the ENTIRE town's electricity permanently via the 60-year-old power plant computer in less than two hours with a bullet in his leg!]]. He hasn't even hit puberty yet.
222* OlderThanTheyThink: one of the first novels to feature a Child Prodigy was ''Literature/TheHampdenshireWonder'' in 1911. The protagonist is not only a genius, but a truly [[SuperIntelligence superintelligent]] little kid who judges the whole human culture an "elementary, inchoate, disjunctive patchwork"... at age ''four and a half''. He's right, and Website/TVTropes proves it.
223* [[TheHero Otto]] of the ''Literature/HIVESeries'' was tinkering with the phones at his orphanage at the ripe old age of four. He asks to be homeschooled because his teachers are too slow for him. He can program a fully functioning robot by the age of twelve.
224* Hoshi from ''Literature/HoshiAndTheRedCityCircuit'' memorized the names of all 4000 of Red City's original settlers when she was two.
225* ''Literature/Hours2012'': Although all the children at Bethel Woods Orphanage are above average, Seth takes the cake. By age 9 he had to purposefully dumb down his algebra schoolwork so as not to destroy the bell curve, and by age 11 he invented a machine that defied known physics (out of duct tape and spare parts, no less).
226* The classic psychological science fiction novel ''Literature/InHiding'' by Wilmer Shiras is all about this. Following a vaguely described nuclear accident, many hyper-intelligent kids are born. The narrator first encounters a TeenGenius, but then finds younger ones. Like Star Holmes in ''Star Bright'', they are InnocentProdigy types. Rightly fearing both TheyWouldCutYouUp and TorchesAndPitchforks, they employ pseudonyms, misdirection, and mail drops to publish their authoritative works in a variety of fields.
227* Ollie of ''Literature/InTheKeepOfTime'' ''was'' a very precocious reader for her age; after her jaunt into the past, this has to be re-taught to her.
228* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Zettai has an affinity for magecraft. In the course of a day-long walk, she learned everything Eric knew on the subject and he had been studying for months. Her age is vague but Eric guesses that she couldn't possibly be older than ten.
229* ''Literature/LegendSeries'':
230** June Iparis. Though not a child at the time the story is told, being this is her most notable trait. It's even the title of the second book in the series.
231** Eden, Day's younger brother, is a straighter example. In one particular instance, Day reminisces about asking him for help fixing an old radio. Eden was four at the time.
232* In the final book of the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Tavore Paran, whose motives are anything but clear for most of the series, is said to have been a prodigy in military strategy. By the age of five, she was able to recreate historic battles with toys based on books. By the age of seven, she was able to defeat current military commanders in mock battles, and shortly thereafter went on to be able to take the losing side in her recreation of historic battles and ''win''.
233* The Blue Children from Stephen Baxter's ''Literature/ManifoldTime'', transformed through the influence of a civilization in the distant future. "Prodigy" doesn't even begin to describe how frighteningly advanced (and creepy) they are.
234* The titular character in ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' is so smart, she can multiply large numbers in her head [[spoiler:and develops psychic powers]].
235* ''Literature/MillicentMinGirlGenius'' by Lisa Yee is about an 11-year-old high school senior who is forced to tutor her archenemy who flunked the 6th grade and play volleyball over the summer in order to socialize with normal people her age.
236* Nathaniel from ''Literature/{{Mindblind}}'' graduated high school at eleven. He's now a TeenGenius college graduate.
237%%* Euphemia in ''Literature/MyGodawfulLife'' by Michael Kelly
238* ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'': All four members of the Mysterious Benedict Society (with the possible exception of Kate, who is less book smart, but has plenty of skills and general intelligence to make up for it) were chosen specifically because they were some version of this trope. Constance, however, takes the cake. Sure, she's stubborn, sleepy, and slightly bratty -- she's also [[spoiler: 2-YEARS-OLD.]]
239* ''Literature/TheOutside'': As a child, Yasira Shien threw herself into dusty physics texts and ran around the house in excitement when she solved a problem.
240* Leonard Stecyk in ''Literature/ThePaleKing''. At 11 years old, he participates in the Meals on Wheels charity, volunteers as a crosswalk guard and hall monitor, donates his ice cream money to UNICEF, has been to origami camp twice, writes letters to publishers about textbook errors, fields all calls and inquiries with regards to his mother's hospitalization, attempts to reorganize his homeroom's seating structure for maximum efficiency, and writes individualized letters of apologies to his bullies. He also intentionally gets a few Bs on his report card solely to ensure he never gets too prideful of being an overachiever.
241* ''Literature/TheSagaOfRagnarLothbrok'': At the age of three, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye composes his first impromptu poem and joins his brothers in their attack on King Eystein, and goes with them to raid Southern Europe right after that.
242* ''Literature/TheShipWho'''s [[WetwareCPU shellpeople]], as some result of the enshellment process, tend to be highly independent and intellectual starting at very young ages and "graduate" at sixteen, decidedly earlier than "softshells" of the same age. Helva of ''The Ship Who Sang'' can clearly remember things that happened when she was [[NoInfantileAmnesia less than a year old]] and was "walking" (wheeling) and talking by then.
243** Tia of ''The Ship Who Searched'' regarded any attempts to treat her like a child as CondescendingCompassion. Her large vocabulary and impressive test scores help convince Child Services that her situation is actually fine; she's [[ParentalAbandonment left alone constantly]] with a ''library'', after all. At one point, after ParentalNeglect leads to her [[ICantFeelMyLegs paralysis]], she bitterly thinks, "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?", which is a ''bizarre'' thought for a girl of less than ten. All this means that at the age of seven, older than any other candidates, she's put into the shellperson program.
244** Joat of ''The City Who Fought'' acts and talks a lot more like the child she is, but is extremely good with machines and improvises a number of very useful pieces of technology.
245* Star Holmes, in the Mark Clifton novella ''Literature/StarBright''. At three, she constructed a Moebius Strip and while she didn't know what it was called, she knew what it did. By age five she was an accomplished time traveler. Clifton wrote many stories and novels but is remembered for this one. It became an ''X Minus One'' [[http://www.archive.org/download/XMinus1_A/xminusone_560417_Jaywalker.mp3 radio play]].
246* A spinoff of ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote'' features Aya's little sister, Nako. At that timeline, she's a fifth grader of IQ260.
247* ''Literature/TarzanOfTheApes'' makes it clear that the young Lord Greystoke was one; with no help (or indeed contact) with any other human, between ages 10-18, he teaches himself to read and write English, and invents his own system of pronunciation for the letters!
248* ''Literature/TerraIgnota'': Although Mycroft's birth bash' was only the one responsible for maintaining the premises of the bash'es chosen as an experiment to raise especially bright and capable young people, the Emperor reveals that he was the one to choose Mycroft's bash' because the children therein showed promise despite being only the children of 'janitors'. He turned out to be right and [[spoiler:before his crime spree,]] Mycroft was being groomed to become a high-ranking government official based on his intellect. He also was the first to deduce the current Anonymous's real identity while he was still a teenager.
249* In ''Literature/TheTerribleTruthAboutThirdGrade'', Babette constantly slacks off on her homework because she finds the third-grade-level reading she's expected to do utterly boring and prefers to read full-length novels like ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' instead. When her teacher finds out about this, she excuses Babette from having to do regular homework and gives her the alternative assignment of writing her own story and presenting it to the class.
250* ''Literature/ThirdTimeLuckyAndOtherStoriesOfTheMostPowerfulWizardInTheWorld'': In "The Last Lesson" at twelve years old Magdelene could already see through a spell her master Adar used to disguise himself that several fully qualified wizards could not.
251* ''Literature/ThoseThatWake'''s sequel has Aaron, son of the CEO of Intellitech,
252* The Literature/ThursdayNext books have Tuesday.
253* ''Literature/UniversalMonsters'':
254** In book 1, when Captain Bob asks Dr. Dunn how a 23-year-old is a fully licensed dentist, Dunn claims to have been one of these who finished high school when he was twelve.
255** Book 4 has Hannah Tucker, one of Professor Tovar's graduate assistants -- only twelve, but she's already earned two degrees, in ancient languages and anthropology. Unfortunately, she's also obnoxious.
256* ''Literature/AnUnkindnessOfGhosts'': At age twelve, Theophilus Smith reinvented the polio vaccine, becoming ill himself and losing part of his leg in the process. At age thirteen, he invented a better artificial heart than the one that already existed, saving Sovereign Nicolaeus's life.
257* Marcus from ''Literature/WhenYouReachMe'' reads Einstein's General relativity for fun at age 11. He also debated temporal paradoxes from the book ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' in second grade with his teacher.
258* Charles Wallace Murray in the Madeline L'Engle book ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' is this, though only his family knows it. Since he refused to talk until age four and refuses to talk to those who aren't family, he is labeled as "dumb" by the townsfolk. In reality, he's incredibly bright. His mother reads him medical journals as bedtime reading, and he is also able to decipher people's emotions. As a result, he has a hard time relating to his peers. When he does display his intelligence, he is told he is a liar or to stop showing off. He also has a problem with being bullied. However, he still shows signs of being a child; he is incredibly proud of his intelligence and thinks himself, at times, infallible. He is warned against it by the Ladies, though it eventually leads to his possession by IT.
259* Dairine from the ''Literature/YoungWizards'' series. At age 3 she decided that she was going to learn '''everything''', by age 4 she taught herself to read, and by age 5 was reading from encyclopedias all by herself.
260[[/folder]]
261
262[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
263* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' has two examples of the child Prodigy all grown up.
264** Zack Addy, Brennan's former assistant is mentioned to have an IQ of 163. It also stated in one episode that he graduated from college at age 16.
265** Lance Sweets is the show's other example; in an episode it is revealed that he is a Chess Prodigy, even starting as one of the youngest chess masters in the world.
266* ''Series/{{Alphas}}'': Zoe, the daughter of GadgeteerGenius Skylar, is the only second-generation Alpha seen, and she manifested a distinct ability when she was a toddler without any obvious downsides. Specifically, she's a mathematical savant capable of writing an encryption code that the greatest espionage agencies in the world can't crack. Her room is covered in childhood doodles of mathematical fractals drawn perfectly by hand in crayon, and her mother complains that she seems to wake her up every night with stories about discovering new prime numbers or solving differential equations.
267* The Creator/DisneyChannel show ''Series/ANTFarm'' is all about 11-year-old child prodigies who are allowed to skip to high school. ANT stands for "Advanced Natural Talents".
268* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
269** The backstory for Sheldon Cooper as he went off to college at 11. Another TeenGenius turned OmnidisciplinaryScientist when he went to Germany at age 15, he was a visiting professor, not a student, and he got his first [=PhD=] (he has two at present) at age 16. May possibly be seen as a Deconstructed adult version of this trope. His early successes have fueled his large ego, making him quite insufferable to those around him. He's around 30 but still has the emotional capacity of a kid since he didn't have a normal childhood. And his vast intelligence alienated him from his own family.
270** The single-camera spinoff ''Series/YoungSheldon'' follows Sheldon in his Child Prodigy years, already well-versed in advanced scientific methods and history, and splitting time between normal high school and college. The show notably flips the premise of ''The Big Bang Theory''; where that show was about a normal person surrounded by genius geeks, ''Young Sheldon'' has Sheldon as the odd man out in an average-intelligence family, and mines comedy and drama from that. Sheldon is an InsufferableGenius prone to talking down to his parents and teachers, with no qualms pointing out being above their intellectual level, while his parents fret about his social abilities and mental health, and his siblings sometimes feel insecure for not being as bright as Sheldon.
271* Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter from ''Literature/TheChosen''. Especially Danny.
272* ''Series/TheChosenTVseries'': Matthew knows less of the Hebrew scriptures than the other male disciples [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining because he was skipped ahead in school and apprenticed out to a bookkeeper]] when he was 8. By 13 he had been employed by the Romans as a tax collector and was subsequently [[IHaveNoSon kicked out of the house by his father due to his new position]].
273* This is Reid's BackStory in ''Series/CriminalMinds''; currently he's a twenty-something (triple) Ph.D. (making him an OmnidisciplinaryScientist). Definitely suffered a bit of the IntelligenceEqualsIsolation (or at least bullying), as seen in at least one episode where he explains that he was "a 12-year-old child prodigy at a Las Vegas public school", which is how he knows that TeamMom Hotchner "kicks like a 9-year-old girl." (ItMakesSenseInContext) This is also why at least Gideon, the team's PapaWolf, insists on calling him ''Dr.'' Reid in front of people meeting the team so they won't see him as JustAKid.
274* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' featured a rather twisted example: when a teenage boy Marlon West is on trial for killing the AlphaBitch of his school, his sister Hannah West, a 12-year-old who's skipped grades and attends the same high school with him, confesses that she really did it. Unfortunately for CSI, she's not just book-smart; she's also TheChessmaster and manages to manipulate all the facts and people involved in the case. She finally tells Sara [[spoiler: her brother did do it all along after her brother's been acquitted]]. The siblings are involved again in the episode "Goodbye and Good Luck" at a university crime scene where Marlon is a student and Hannah is a [[ImprobableAge grad student and Teacher's Assistant]]. [[spoiler:This time it's Hannah who killed Marlon's girlfriend but on her own accord, and frames him for it because his imprisonment means he can't have other girls in his life]]. CSI Sara points out that while Marlon's life was actively changing growing up, Hannah's life didn't as even with her prestige she was still viewed as some anomaly.
275* The Doctor from ''Series/DoctorWho'' is implied to have been one, even by [[HigherTechSpecies Time Lord]] standards. He's mentioned as having sealed the Medusa Cascade by himself when he was "just a kid" at the age of ''90'', which factoring in the natural Time Lord lifespan lasting anything from hundreds to thousands of years, was probably equivalent to a TeenGenius. However, a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen flashback]] during Twelve's tenure showed that his father tried to encourage him to join the military, not thinking he was smart enough for college.
276* ''Series/DoogieHowserMD'': The titular character in his backstory. In the present, he's a TeenGenius instead. ''Series/DoogieKamealohaMD'' gives the pseudo-titular character, [[GenderFlip Lahela]], a virtually identical backstory as Doogie. Both characters received perfect scores on the SAT at age 6, completed high school in nine weeks, graduated college at 10 (Doogie from Princeton University, and Lahela from the University of Hawaii), became the youngest licensed doctors in the country at 14, and both series begin with the leads as second-year residents at 16.
277* River Tam from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. In the show's present and the R. Tam Sessions, she's a TeenGenius. She was definitely a Child Prodigy when she was younger, but the only time this shows up ''on-screen'' is the flashback at the beginning of "Safe".
278* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': On the one hand, Jaime's dyslexia made him a slow learner in some aspects, but on the other hand, he was already a brilliant swordsman during his childhood. He tells Bronn that he hasn't used sparring swords since he was nine. He became the youngest Kingsguard in history, joining the order at the age of 16.
279* ''Radio/GoodnessGraciousMe'' has an utterly hilarious take on a child prodigy [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cpp71tpehg in this video]].
280* ''Series/HannahMontana'': Rico was a side character, till he joined high school at the same time as the core cast.
281* Janice in ''Series/HeadOfTheClass''.
282* Micah Sanders from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' shows incredible political prowess and was able to [[spoiler:lead the resistance against a GovernmentConspiracy]] at the age of eleven. Oddly enough, his actor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Gray-Cabey Noah Gray-Cabey]] is somewhat of a prodigy in real life too. By the time he was 4, he was on Ripley's Believe It Or Not for his amazing piano skills -- notably being the youngest soloist to perform with an orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. By the time he was 9 years old, he was in a 9th grade math class.
283* Major Nelson had to babysit a kid with a 153 IQ once on ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie''.
284* Gary Coleman's character in the TV movie, ''The Kid With The 200 IQ''.
285* Will Robinson of ''Series/LostInSpace'' was an electronics prodigy.
286* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''. A young boy appears to be a prodigy, but it's eventually revealed that while he did have above-average intelligence, he wasn't a true academic prodigy in the way everyone thought he was. His father had become convinced his son was a genius when he was little and had basically forced him to pretend to be one for years (albeit unwittingly, as he [[BelievingTheirOwnLies still believed it was true]]). Played straight with some of the other kids in the advanced academic program the boy was attending; it's comparing their work with the boy's that leads Goren to realize the boy isn't on the same level as the others.
287* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' had the detectives investigating the death of a 14-year-old math prodigy. [[spoiler:It turns out the killer was another prodigy, a fellow student from the elite school the victim had attended.]]
288* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'':
289** Malcolm in the earlier episodes, also his younger brother Dewey (though he [[ObfuscatingStupidity plays dumb]] so he doesn't get the same harsh treatment as Malcolm). Stevie, Lloyd, Dabney, and Cynthia also fit.
290** In one episode, Malcolm has to work with another child genius who's [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter so smart, he makes Malcolm feel inadequate.]]
291--->"The way my brain works is like a beehive. And every one of the bees is like your brain."
292* Howie from ''Series/MaxAndShred'' is 9-years-old and is a helpful assistant to TeenGenius Alvin. She even installed an incredibly complex home security system at the Ackermanns' house.
293* The backstory of Charlie of ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' is that he is a math child prodigy. When he was three or four, he was able to multiply four-digit numbers in his head.
294* John [=LaMarr=] from ''Series/TheOrville'' was a prodigy who grew up in an agrarian colony where intellectuals weren't appreciated. As a result, he used ObfuscatingStupidity as a coping mechanism.
295* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
296** Justin Stewart from ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo''.
297** Dr. K from ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' starts out as this. In fact, her drawing scientific equations on the sidewalk was what attracted Alphabet Soup agents to kidnap her and raise her in their think tank to develop weapons -- ''at age five''. It gets worse, a lot worse, from there.
298* ''Series/TheQueensGambit'': Beth displays her genius at chess when she is only 8 years old. When she starts playing in tournaments as a teen, she's still referred to as a child prodigy.
299* The backstory of Walter O'Brien on ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'' has him as one of these. The opening scene of the first episode (and used in the opening monologue of each episode since) had him being arrested at the age of 11 for hacking into NASA's computers to get their blueprints for the space shuttle (he wanted a copy for his bedroom wall). In the present, Paige's 10-year-old son, Ralph, is shown to be one as well.
300* The show ''Series/SmartGuy'' was centered around this type of character, a 10-year-old in high school.
301* In the episode of TheFifties ScienceFiction series ''Series/TalesOfTomorrow'' "A Child Is Crying", Lily is a 9-year-old genius who is also an EmotionlessGirl. She is so smart she can make predictions with stunning accuracy based on calculations and the US government takes her from her parents to devise defense strategies against a nuclear attack by the Russians. Unfortunately [[spoiler: she predicts the world will be destroyed by a nuclear war and that it is unavoidable.]]
302* ''Series/OddSquad'': Most any agent of Odd Squad could qualify as a prodigy to some extent or another, but there are some that stand out from the rest.
303** Olympia is an Odd Squad historian who knows anything and everything about the organization up to the very ''second.'' Prior to being picked by Oprah as Otto's replacement, she studied every single case Odd Squad has ever solved and even inquires about cases before time even began when she frets about being ready to become an agent. She's also gotten straight O's (the show's equivalent to A's) on every single test she's ever taken. If she weren't on the heroes' side, she'd be a genuine DistaffCounterpart to [[EvilGenius Odd Todd.]]
304** Dr. O, the Odd Squad Doctor of Precinct 13579, claims that she went through eight years of medical school just to become an Odd Squad Doctor. Going by the events of ''Film/OddSquadTheMovie'' and how she ends up working as a doctor at an actual hospital after getting laid off from Odd Squad, the claim has quite a bit of merit attached to it.
305** Odd Todd was Precinct 13579's best agent for a good reason -- he was exceptionally GoodWithNumbers to such an extent that it only took him a couple seconds to solve a math problem that others took a couple ''minutes'' to solve, and could solve any case thrown his way with ease whether he was with his partner or not. Unfortunately, he was a {{Jerkass}} and a SmugSnake who eventually underwent a FaceHeelTurn and began to develop a love for causing oddness instead of eradicating it, but his smarts and knowledge of Odd Squad make him one of the organization's toughest foes.
306%%* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Wesley Crusher. %% Zero Context Example
307[[/folder]]
308
309[[folder:Music]]
310* Gabriel Garcia, vocalist and lead guitarist of Music/BlackTide was just 11 years old when he and his band (then called Radio) recorded [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHEr0qFlf0 these demos]].
311* [[TheHeart Noodle]] of the Music/{{Gorillaz}} arrived in the UK in a Fed-Ex crate at age ten, with nothing but the clothes on her back and speaking no English. She promptly stepped out and began playing guitar like a virtuoso, and instantly won her position in the soon-to-be-famous band. [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist Despite technically being an underage illegal immigrant living with a bunch of dysfunctional rockers]].
312* Music/JethroTull's ''Thick As A Brick'' revolves around a fictional child prodigy named Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock, an 8-year-old boy who, according to the album cover, wrote the lyrics for a poetry contest.
313* Music/LadyGaga taught herself how to play piano by ear at the age of four. She went on to become classically trained and wrote her first ballad at thirteen (after prodigy age, but still)
314-->''She taught herself piano at 4, wrote her first song by 13, and was playing in bars and nightclubs by 15. While that seems illegal, she had breasts, so no one cared.'' --'''''{{Website/Cracked}}'''''
315* Music/StevieWonder started singing when he was four, playing harmonica for audiences before he was ten, and was signed to Motown at 11 based on his original songwriting. He still holds the record for youngest-ever artist to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhmq8JuPfJA "Fingertips"]], recorded live when he was 12 and hitting the top not long after his thirteenth birthday in 1963. And [[DisabilitySuperpower all this]] on top of being [[BlindMusician born blind]], mind you!
316* Music/{{Liberace}} reportedly started playing the piano at age 3 and was performing complicated pieces by age 7.
317* Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart is one of the most famous examples of all (more information is below under RealLife).
318* Music/YoshikiHayashi of Music/XJapan began writing for piano while still in his single digits, and composed the song "Tears" upon his father's death at age ten. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTNybXzqb-g Listen to this song. A 10-year-old wrote that.]]
319* Alma Deutscher is an English composer, pianist, violinist, and child prodigy. At age six she composed her first piano sonata. At age seven, she completed a short opera The Sweeper of Dreams. Aged nine, she wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra. At the age of ten, she wrote her first full-length opera, Cinderella, which had its European premiere in Vienna in 2016 under the patronage of conductor Zubin Mehta.
320 [[/folder]]
321
322[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
323* Calvin from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' counts; even though he performs badly in school and misbehaves, he has an amazing vocabulary, an endless imagination, and is amazingly aware for a 6-year-old kid.
324--> '''Calvin:''' I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an impenetrable fog! Want to see my book report?
325--> '''Hobbes (reading Calvin's report):''' "The dynamics of interbeing and monological imperatives in Dick and Jane: a study in psychic transrelational gender modes."
326--> '''Calvin:''' Academia, here I come!
327* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': Jason Fox builds model rockets that provoke diplomatic incidents with China, can write viruses that crash the Internet, does math equations (involving ''integrations''), ''for fun'', apparently built a "miniature warp engine" during science camp, and is 10 years old.
328* Eda and Amos’ twin daughters Polly and Loly from ComicStrip/NineChickweedLane have been aged up to be about four or five years old, they have very advanced vocabularies and have knowledge of things most kids their ages wouldn’t understand like politics and people’s relationships.
329[[/folder]]
330
331[[folder:Roleplay]]
332* This is common among the Technocracy in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension''. In ''Roleplay/PanopticonQuest'', Serafina Awakened at age nine -- and was a little bit put out to find that Henriette had beaten her by Awakening at five. The Damien Academy is a high-stress hothouse school designed to encourage the children of high-ranking Technocrats who go there to Awaken.
333[[/folder]]
334
335[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
336* ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' suggests this as an archetype for a PlayerCharacter.
337[[/folder]]
338
339[[folder:Video Games]]
340* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': Ann's friend, Ayane, is an incredibly skilled PlayfulHacker who can perform all manner of hacking and finding information. Her character bio mentions that she won an illustrious hacking competition at the age of ten.
341* Kira Daidouji from ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' is only 11-years-old, but already has a [=PhD=]. In elemental science, and has since constructed her own [[BlobMonster sentient ball of slime]] that can do anything she wants it to. [[BellisariosMaxim Don't ask.]]
342* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'':
343** Commander Keen himself is an 8-year-old genius. He's already built a rocketship capable of interstellar travel (Dubbed the 'Beans-with-Bacon-Megarocket!) According to the first game, the thing runs on (Dad's) everclear, gets power from (Mom's) car battery, and uses (Mom's) vacuum cleaner (modified) for ion propulsion. Other things Keen built include an interstellar transceiver (the reception was bad, but it did get a signal worth investigating) and a fully-functioning wrist computer (complete with a Pong clone!).
344** Keen's archenemy Mortimer [=McMire=]. The final boss in the original trilogy; Keen's got an [[UsefulNotes/IQTesting IQ]] of 314, Mortimer has an IQ of 315.
345** His spiritual successor, Andy of ''VideoGame/HeartOfDarkness'', one-ups him by building an INTERDIMENSIONAL craft... and a plasma-cannon. (Keen's zap-gun is not his own invention -- he 'borrowed' it from the Vorticon base on Mars.)
346* [[spoiler:Jennifer]] of ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' is said to have been a child prodigy and quite a technology genius, but by the time the plot happens [[spoiler:she]]'s no longer a child.
347* Jeff Andonuts and Apple Kid in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', who are both inventors. Jeff has no psychic abilities, but he's a tech whiz who can fix broken items if you stop to rest at hotels. Apple Kid is a legitimately good inventor who later [[spoiler:helps Dr. Andonuts build a time machine so the Chosen Four can challenge Gigyas in the past.]]
348%%* Lloyd in ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
349* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' backstory, Reman Cyrodiil, [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder]] of the Second Cyrodiilic Empire, [[AChildShallLeadThem was a child when coronated]]. According to the heavily stylized in-game book ''Remanada'', Reman was still an ''infant''. (Other, more realistic, sources still state that he was no older than 13 at the oldest.) In any case, this proves well-justified. Reman was very much a child prodigy who, along with his status as TheChosenOne (having been born possessing the [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield Amulet of Kings]]), quickly brought both halves of Cyrodiil back together (Colovia and Nibenay) and then the other kingdoms of Men, High Rock, and Skyrim.
350* ''VideoGame/EXTRAPOWERAttackOfDarkforce'': Ivan, brilliant enough to have already [[UsefulNotes/GermanEducationSystem graduated gymnasium]] and become the team mechanic for the SPICA mercenary team, all while still an innocent young boy.
351* Ryoko Kano from ''VideoGame/FightersHistory'' is a judo user who started doing it when she was 3 years old.
352* Relm from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. She's so good at painting that Owzer, the world's biggest art collector, wants a painting from her. She's also the best Magic user of the game, but to many, this doesn't make up for her otherwise useless attributes in battle.
353* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'':
354** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', we meet Prince Innes as an adult in his early-to-mid 20s, but Moulder's supports with Vanessa explain that he was one of these. At age 10-12, he was already defeating famous adult archers with ease ''and'' doing so via his own efforts. (i.e., he refused help or advantages when he was offered., etc.)
355** Nino from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' is a 13-year-old DarkMagicalGirl who, by the time we meet her, has a foot here and another on TeenGenius. This is because, despite being ''illiterate'', she taught herself magic almost completely on her own through the prior years, via watching and memorising her LadyOfBlackMagic [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]]'s spells.
356* Xingqiu from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is well-learned and prodigious, with not just school subjects but also martial arts. His father was surprised that he would turn out to be talented in the Guhua Clan's martial art style when the former first tried admitting his son there. He even struck the Guhua Clan's head with awe when he wrote his view on martial arts; on how the Vision is an extension of its owner's body, and the weapon that they wield is an extension of the Vision.
357* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Though it doesn't come up much, the children who were kidnapped to become Spartan-[=II=] {{super soldier}}s were selected not just because of their physical capabilities but also because they were already among humanity's brightest. The [=IIs=]' creator, Dr. Catherine Halsey, was herself a child prodigy.
358* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has Ienzo, an orphaned child who's taken in by Ansem the Wise and becomes one of his apprentices.
359* Ezreal in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' was named Grandmaster Explorer of Piltover at the age of eight, after mapping out his hometown's supposedly unmappable AbsurdlySpaciousSewer. His title in-game is "The Prodigal Explorer."
360* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
361** Link from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' was incredibly skilled with a sword from a young age. Reading through Mipha's diary in "The Champions' Ballad" DLC reveals that he was already able to best grown men in single combat by the time he was ''four.''
362** The sequel ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' has two:
363*** Tulin, Teba's son. Despite still being a kid, Tulin was able to develop his own [[BlowYouAway gusts of wind]] and quickly managed to be far more reliable than any other Rito adult (even his ''dad'') as a Rito warrior. [[spoiler:It really helps that Teba's side of the family turns out to be the descendant family to the Rito Sage of Wind, whose title Tulin inherits.]]
364*** Josha is a young Sheikah girl who is in charge of the team researching the ruins and other artifacts in the [[BeneathTheEarth Depths]]. She had been mentored by Purah and Robbie, who are both over a century old and thus have many years of experience, yet her brilliance lets her lead a team of adults.
365* ''VideoGame/LEGOStuntRally'': [[AllThereInTheManual The manual]] says that Barney was so smart that he left school at the age of five to pursue a career in mechanics.
366* ''VideoGame/MariAndTheBlackTower'': Sera is a child with a lot of potential in magic, since she can use a short-range teleportation spell and a spell that can reveal an invisible enemy. In the endgame, she creates a warp stone that can activate the west portal in Halonia's castle.
367* Dr. Liara T'Soni in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' was one of these, having gotten her doctorate in archaeology and spent over fifty years uncovering Prothean ruins, becoming one of the foremost experts in the galaxy when it comes to all things [[{{Precursors}} Prothean]]. Unfortunately, her theories and research are often dismissed by her peers, since as the asari can live for over a thousand years, being only ''106'' makes her "[[TeenGenius little more than a child]]" in their eyes. An inverse of the same issue comes up when Mordin mentions his nephew; while he ''is'' a brilliant scientist, for the short-lived salarians, being a tenured professor at 16 isn't unusually young.
368* Sunny from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' is a computer prodigy. She was raised by a computer for most of her developmental years. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', she's an engineer who has designed and overseen the construction of an aircraft capable of travel at Mach 23. Revengeance takes place in 2018. She is ''ten''.
369* ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'': One of the bosses, Yinu, is a 9-year-old piano prodigy, known as "The Golden Maestro of Vinyl City". Her talent is encouraged by her well-meaning but overbearing (and prone to HulkingOut) StageMom.
370* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', you can buy and sell one of Deok Gong's violin compositions from when he was 6 years old, which you can confirm by using the Year Estimator on it.
371* The protagonist is apparently a battling prodigy in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''. S/he begins their journey years before most other people, at age 10-14 ([[WordOfGod 11 in]] ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and their remakes). You not only beat everyone in your region (two for ''GSC'' and ''HGSS'') with ease, including the EliteFour and [[ToBeAMaster Champion]] but take down a gang of terrorists (two gangs in ''Emerald''). There are also various Gym Leaders who seem to be barely older than the protagonists, or even younger in the case of Tate and Liza from ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', Iris in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' (who has become the Unova Champion two years later in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'') and Allister in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Pokémon Shield]]''. One particularly ridiculous example is Poppy in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', who's '''an EliteFour member''' at the age of nine ([[OlderThanTheyLook while looking and acting much younger]]).
372* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'':
373** Luke Triton is a bit of a puzzle master for his age.
374** It is assumed that [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture Clive]]]] was a Child Prodigy, as well, as after his adoptive mother died, he went straight into business with a newspaper and then used the woman's money [[spoiler:to create an underground London.]]
375** Also in ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheAzranLegacy Azran Legacy]]'' Hershel [[spoiler:i.e. Descole]] was mentioned to be one.
376* Raz from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is often considered one, what with all of that [[MillionToOneChance "one in a million"]] talk from Oleander, and Sasha's willingness to work with him. He is only ten when he [[spoiler:becomes a Psychonaut]]. To make it even more obvious, he only snuck into camp a few days prior while other kids have been going for years and aren't half as good with handling their psychic abilities as Raz is.
377* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
378** [[MagnificentBastard Albert Wesker]] is eventually revealed to have been one of these.
379** Alexia Ashford became a top Umbrella scientist at the impressively young age of ''ten''.
380* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
381** In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', the highest aspiration ranking[[note]]A sort of mood-meter that measures how many of their wants and/or fears have come true lately[[/note]] for child Sims is "Child Prodigy". However, the game's not programmed to let children do things like go to college or write novels, so it's not really possible to make a legitimate Child Prodigy without using mods.
382** Sim children in ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' can write novels, become a chess master and build time machines.
383* Tails from ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. At only 8, he is able to pilot ''and'' maintain his own biplane (which can also transform into a MiniMecha) as well as create several inventions, like an alien translator.
384* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'''s ''Octo Expansion'' reveals that [[spoiler:prior to leaving Octo Valley and becoming an IdolSinger, Marina was an engineer for the Octarian military. She graduated from training at the age of ''nine'' after skipping several grades and was designing war machines by the time she was ten. Inklings and Octolings don't even physically mature enough to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shift forms at will]] until they're 14.]]
385* Leon Gheste from ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' is a prime example of this trope. Aside from being a doctor at age 12, he is also the sharpest mind in the largest country on the planet and the creator of the [[WavemotionGun Lancour Hope.]]
386* The Jedi Consular in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' was one of these according to their master, who comments on their being stronger and more adept at using the Force at ''six'' than she had been until her late teens. Their lifelong affinity for the Force is implied to be the reason why in cutscenes, they occasionally don't even bother using their lightsaber when being rushed by attackers, preferring to simply use the Force to casually blast them clean across the room.
387* Genis from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' is right on the border between this and TeenGenius. Somehow he is the best friend of BookDumb Lloyd Irving and is 12 years old. In the Japanese version, his name was [[MeaningfulName very obvious]] ("Genius").
388* Rita from ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' ''is'' a TeenGenius, but she started researching blastia technology and magic when she was ''ten''.
389* Mechanic Puck from ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits''. He works faster than the best engineers in a nation and is small enough to fit under the seat of one of the [[AMechByAnyOtherName ATACs]] he works on.
390[[/folder]]
391
392[[folder:Visual Novels]]
393* This is something of a trademark of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, especially the games written by the series' creator Shu Takumi.
394** Pearl "Pearly" Fey. Her cousin Maya has said that she's the most powerful medium '''ever''' in the Fey clan, and she's ''9''. [[spoiler: Too bad her mother Morgan is a total EvilMatriarch[=/=]StageMom who tries to use Pearl as her ticket to take leadership of the clan...]]
395** Franziska von Karma became a prosecutor at the age of just 13 and didn't lose a case once during the next five years. And from a flashback case in the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' game, it's clear that she was almost as talented a prosecutor as her older adoptive brother, only being brought down by her more impetuous nature.
396** Trucy Wright from ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' was already an incredibly talented magician at just 8-years-old. It's implied that she had a lot of help from her birth parents and grandfather, all of whom were famous magicians in their own right, but she also clearly had a lot of natural talent even at a young age and continues to develop as a magician even after being adopted by Phoenix, who has ''no'' magical talents.
397** Also from ''Apollo Justice'', Klavier Gavin, who becomes a prosecutor at the age of just 18, and it's implied so utterly humiliated and discredited Phoenix in his debut trial that it resulted in the latter being disbarred. This ends up subverted later on however since we see in a flashback that [[spoiler:Klavier was actually quite prone to making hasty guesses and missing obvious contradictions during his first trial, and his getting Phoenix disbarred was actually the result of him being the UnwittingPawn of his older and far more experienced brother, Kristoph]].
398** Athena Cykes from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' is a bit more of a deconstruction of this. We see in flashback that at just 11 years old she has incredibly sensitive hearing and the ability to find a person's emotional state... but can't put what she finds with her abilities into terms people can understand, meaning they aren't terribly useful. Like Klavier, she becomes an attorney at the age of just 18... but her inexperience and lack of confidence result in her first trial nearly ending in an instant guilty verdict until Apollo bails her out, and she later freezes up in what would have been her second trial, forcing Phoenix to take over.
399** ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'': Iris Wilson is a fully-qualified medical doctor, an infinitely more competent investigator than [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Herlock Sholmes]] himself, and a successful author who wrote up all of Sholmes' stories, all at the age of ''10 years old''.
400* In ''VisualNovel/MajikoiLoveMeSeriously'', Monshiro has skipped grades to enter Kawakami High. She also accepts challenges from, and bests, everybody in her class (1-S, so no pushovers) at everything from running a race to a cooking duel. The only thing she's no good at is fighting, for which she has her [[BattleButler overwhelmingly powerful bodyguard]] to cover for.
401* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': Kazuki and Makina. Kazuki was always a genius, but after realising that this alienates her from her peers, she starts toning down her talents. Makina was also considered this in the past before traumatic experiences halted her development. In the present, she considers herself an idiot, but that is far from the case.
402* ''VisualNovel/CiconiaWhenTheyCry'': The GK raising system deliberately invokes this, selecting a handful of children that show promise and pitting them against low-performing opponents in order to build up their confidence and convince them that they're incredibly talented.
403[[/folder]]
404
405[[folder:Web Animation]]
406* Sudoku in ''WebAnimation/BananananaNinja'' is a GadgeteerGenius who fights with a TransformationRay. In later episodes, he might be a TeenGenius since the voice actor sounds like he's hitting puberty.
407* ''WebAnimation/MangaSoprano'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqm7uPsRzds Haru]] is a genius girl who invented an app that is used by the Soprano company. She humiliated Casino by solving a math problem that he couldn't. He tried to get Haru and her mother ejected from a restaurant. In response, Haru cut off the contract with the Soprano company, which his father Baccarat runs.
408* ''WebAnimation/ManiManiPeople'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpQApUDQIJI Sakuya]] is a genius that can memorize everything he learns and knows a lot of languages. He was able to even run a business with his father after he got fired because his boss's daughter stole his work and pull ''all'' the employees from said company.
409* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Professor [[BigGood Ozpin]] is famous for having been a child prodigy, which enabled him to become one of the youngest headmasters ever appointed to a Huntsman Academy. [[spoiler:He was a child when the immortal Ozma became paired with him. Whenever Ozma's [[ResurrectiveImmortality physical body]] dies, his soul [[BodySurf migrates]] to a [[SharingABody new person]], [[FusionDance merging]] with the new host's soul. This allows his memories, abilities, and powers to travel with him, [[GhostMemory imbuing]] each new host with [[PastLifeMemories thousands of years]] worth of experiences, knowledge, power, and combat prowess. At the end of Volume 3, Ozpin merges with Oscar's soul; although the baby of the group, [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is 14 years old and therefore enters TeenGenius territory instead.]]
410[[/folder]]
411
412[[folder:Webcomics]]
413* Felix from ''Webcomic/{{Cloudscratcher}}'' in regards to machines, to the point where CoolOldGuy Scotty is ''his'' apprentice.
414* ''Webcomic/FiveNightsAtFreddysLostSouls'': Downplayed with Bridget. In a conversation with Cody she mentions she got As in all of her classes, but she's a very regular little girl otherwise and doesn't display any extraordinary talents, apart from her penchant for sewing.
415* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has Gil. When most Sparks (AKA {{Mad Scientist}}s) break through as teenagers, he manifested his powers as a young boy. Agatha originally started breaking through as a 5-year-old girl, but her uncle put a PowerLimiter on her, stopping her from acting like a Spark. She lost it thirteen years later resulting in a TeenGenius instead.
416* ''Webcomic/MageAndDemonQueen'': Malori has power way beyond what she should for a student who isn't actually a licensed adventurer yet. This is because a masochistic demon captured her and made her fry him with fire magic repeatedly just so he could get off on it. After two weeks of this, she was massively overpowered from all the experience gain.
417* Scarlett from ''Webcomic/PlusEV'', who's following in her father's footsteps as a professional TabletopGame/{{poker}} player.
418* ''Webcomic/{{Rosebuds}}'': Maricela excels in her classes to where she gets into high school at eight years old.
419* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Bun-Bun is initially reluctant to let little girl Jaya onto the pirate crew he's setting up, 'til he finds out about her hereditary knack for it.
420-->'''Bun-Bun:''' Little girls can't be pirates! What do you know about robbing and plundering?\
421'''Jaya:''' Well, my dad's an investment banker and my mom's a lawyer...\
422'''Bun-Bun:''' Welcome aboard, First Mate!
423* ''Webcomic/ZokushoComics'': Jack is awfully young to be throwing around so many powerful combat spells. Especially when one character has already been assassinated for having access to combat magic.
424* ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'' revolves around a neighborhood where most of the local children are this.
425* Sergio in the ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' SpinOffBabies strip "Li'l Mell". Ironically, he initially has no ''idea'' he's gifted; he assumes reading Shakespeare and Dante at the age of six isn't just normal but possibly ''backward''. After all, a look round the bus on his [[FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode first day of school]] confirms that all the other kids are doing ''much'' more complicated things, like ''[[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation socialising]]''.
426[[/folder]]
427
428[[folder:Web Original]]
429* ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'': Jane's student Adele is 8 years old, and she has these classes as her post-curricular activities: ballet, opera, intermediate Latin, advanced marine zoology, and she went to applied physics boot camp. She's bilingual in English/French, though that might not be that special for a Canadian child. She also likes analysing art and she draws beautifully.
430* In ''Literature/{{Brennus}}'', there's a rather heartwarming relationship between two Child Prodigies, the GadgeteerGenius Macian and the artistic RealityWarper Ember. They're both incredibly powerful metahumans and together, they fight crime. Less heartwarmingly, they're fighting a group of merciless psychopaths called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Savage Six]].
431* Much like the original anime, Gohan of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' is one of these. He's already studying theoretical physics at age ten (although, since Future Trunks' presence demonstrates its application, he supposes it's just physics now) and correctly explains multiverse theory (or at least, TheEarthPrimeTheory).
432* In the prequel comic to ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'', it's established that Dr. Horrible skipped at least three grades in school when he was 8 and is still considered smart relative to his classmates.
433* ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'''s "Mozart vs Skrillex" has Mozart boasting to Skrillex about how he's a musical prodigy, finally topping his verses with the final line as seen on the page quote.
434-->'''Mozart:''' I'm a prodigy, Sonny, and I'm about to [[Music/TheProdigy smack a bitch up]]!
435* ''ARG/ILoveBees'' (a ''VideoGame/Halo2'' ARG): Yasmine Zaman was a 6-year-old prodigy who never lost at backgammon because she could gauge the way the dice came out of her hand and roll anything she wanted. [[spoiler:There's a reason why she was kidnapped by the government to become a [[SuperSoldier Spartan]], after all.]]
436* ''LetsPlay/ScottManley'''s daughter Skye, who has made several ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' videos.
437 [[/folder]]
438
439[[folder:Western Animation]]
440* Anais Watterson, the younger sister of the title character to ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', is only four but attends junior high with her 12- and 10-year-old brothers (in fact, she's their upperclasswoman and they're too dumb and self-centered to know that for most of their lives, as shown in the episode "The Others"). She's one of the smartest characters in the world of Gumball (more often than not, [[StraightMan the only character who has any sense at all]]), known for being a physics club member, even though she's still playful and childish, and she at first struggles to stoop down to enjoy hanging out with her idiotic father and brothers. There are a couple of episodes in which she fools the whole family into fighting each other, while she's at home reaping the benefits that everyone else is too oblivious to realize and a flashback In "The Choices" even shows her correcting a spelling mistake on her armband ''as a newborn'', much to family’s astonishment.
441* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': Mere weeks after ending up on Earth [[spoiler:because her family just had to flee there from Newtopia Castle]], Polly Plantar, a tadpole who [[spoiler:only just grew legs]] and has only previously been exposed to Earth culture through her adoptive big sister Anne, is fluent in Thai just from watching Mrs Boonchuy's romantic comedies and, motivated by [[spoiler:wanting the wrecked Frobo back]] and with guidance from internet tutorials and eventually those tutorials' creators, has become proficient in robotics.
442* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' all the kids act like the Brain is a super-genius, and he uses big words his parents have to look up, but he's really just much more knowledgable than average for his age.
443* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has Aang, Toph, Katara, Azula, and debatably Zuko, each of whom is shown to be extremely talented in their respective superpowered martial arts. All of them become {{Teen Genius}}es as the series progresses.
444** Aang is the youngest Master Airbender in history and a PhysicalGod who mastered all three remaining bending arts within a span of twelve months, a feat that took many years for the previous Avatars.
445** Toph is 12 years old and already the self-proclaimed “Best earthbender in the world”. She backs this talk up by beating the crap out of people twice her size and who have much more experience. [[BeyondTheImpossible She is also the inventor of metalbending, a skill previously thought to be impossible.]] And to top it all off, she's blind and uses Earthbending as a way for her to "see".
446** The only thing that was holding Katara's waterbending skill back was lacking any sort of tutelage. Every single waterbender in the Southern Tribe was wiped out by a war of attrition, leaving only her; she wasn't surrounded by Earthbenders like Toph, she literally had no one but herself to teach her. Once she traveled the world and had to improve her bending to keep up with various opponents, she became a rather strong Waterbender, and when she overcame endemic male chauvinism in the Northern Tribe and properly studied under the tutelage of [[OldMaster Master Pakku]], she became his favorite student in a very short time and was even entrusted by Master Pakku to complete Aang's waterbending training once Team Avatar departed the North Pole.
447** At a very young age, Azula was shown easily pulling off firebending techniques her older and relatively skilled brother, Zuko, struggled with. She is also one of three characters in the original series who know how to use lightning and the only one known to generate hotter, blue fire. This is in addition to being [[TheChessmaster a genius strategist and tactician.]]
448** Zuko isn't ''quite'' the prodigy his sister is -- a fact his father makes sure he [[TheUnfavourite greatly laments]] -- but by the end of the series, he is still one of the best Firebenders in the world at the tender age of sixteen, comparatively making him more of a late bloomer than anything else. He is also a brilliant swordsman, able to take on swarms of groups without using any bending whatsoever due to his knowledge of dual-wielding broadswords, to the point that even his father recognized he would have no chance against him purely on that level.
449** The sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' episode "Welcome to Republic City" shows us Aang's successor, young Avatar Korra of the Water Tribe. She is introduced having taught herself rudimentary [[MakingASplash Waterbending]], [[DishingOutDirt Earthbending]] and [[PlayingWithFire Firebending]] by the tender age of four, in a universe where an Avatar is traditionally not notified of their status and multiple ElementalPowers until their Dangerous16thBirthday. By the age of sixteen, she has already mastered three of the four elements -- although airbending proves to be a rather significant hurdle for her to overcome.
450** Aang's grandchildren Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo are also airbending prodigies despite starting the series being respectively 10, 7, and 5 years old. Jinora in particular is a skilled airbender and very smart for her age, [[spoiler:to the point that in the Book 3 finale, she was anointed an airbending master at the age of 11, becoming the ''new'' youngest master airbender in known history, beating her grandfather by a year. It's even more impressive considering that Jinora ''isn't'' the Avatar like Aang was]].
451** [[spoiler: Amon is considered to be one of the most powerful water benders ever. He mastered traditional waterbending around the age of 11. He mastered his father's forbidden bloodbending technique by the age of 14.]]
452%%* Chester [=McTech=] of ''WesternAnimation/BeverlyHillsTeens''. %% Zero Context Example
453* The subject of the ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' episode "Prodigious Clamus" is about how [[HiddenDepths Clam is a child prodigy]] who can play symphonies on a bottle and paint masterpieces in a few seconds. Naturally, the opportunistic Scoutmaster Lumpus tries to cash in on Clam's hidden intelligence.
454* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'': Inez. Case in point: this 9-year-old girl knew the scientific family that hawks belong to.
455* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cybersix}}'': [[TheHeavy José]] has an intellect far beyond anyone would expect from a kid his age. He can create mutant creatures by himself, or enhance Von Reichter's creations in order to destroy Cybersix.
456* [=PeeBee=] Kappa from ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'' is one of Dennis' friends, and is very smart for his age. Among the things he's invented are a brain wave scanner, a super growth formula, an extremely polite fly swatter, a solar-powered race car, a ShrinkRay, and a robotic goose.
457* ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}'' has Ruby Kwee, Tina's 11-year-old sister who's intelligent enough to have [[GradeSkipper skipped to the eleventh grade]]. However, her intellect has led to her parents putting a ''lot'' of pressure on her to do something with it when she just wants to be a normal kid; in fact, in her debut appearance, she willingly takes the blame for the huge prank Lee was framed for to keep them from sending her to a prestigious university.
458* Dexter of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' along with his [[TheRival rival]] Mandark. And Dee Dee, for all her kookiness, is a ''really'' good dancer. She can dodge lasers while doing ballet!
459* Lincoln Clark and Fenwick in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dogstar}}'' are both scientific geniuses.
460* Gabi from ''WesternAnimation/{{Doki}}'' is the wisest member of the team.
461* Edd in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is a preteen who is highly intelligent and even has the ability to make complex inventions out of simple junk.
462* A.J. of the ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents''. He is in fifth grade and only 10 years old and not only does he have the highest I.Q. in his school and his town of Dimmsdale, he frequently invents items that are futuristic such as a suspended animation tube in one movie. He also can make several clones of himself and is apparently an adviser to the government concerning technology issues, and can be an InsufferableGenius at times.
463* Poindexter, the nephew of the [[BigBadWannabe Professor]] in the 1950s ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'' TV cartoons.
464* Dipper Pines from WesternAnimation/GravityFalls is very intelligent for his age and loves math equations and solving mysteries. This is something he has in common with [[spoiler:his great uncle Ford]], who is a certified genius.
465* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' gives us both of the Pataki sisters.
466** Older sister Olga was this as a little girl, as a piano prodigy and a straight A+ student. Since the Patakis turned out to be [[StageMom stage parents]], she became ''[[StepfordSmiler extremely]]'' [[ShrinkingViolet emotionally]] [[NervousWreck stunted]] because of it -- though being a StepfordSmiler, she has only told Helga about this.
467** Younger sister Helga is a much more subtle version of this trope (and it's never really ventured on). It's only revealed in bits in pieces such as being the only one (other than Olga) to score a 100 on the school's aptitude test, learning a Shakespeare play in one night (though not seeming particularly interested in anything he's written earlier on), winning poetry contests several times and having her shrink bring up her above average knowledge.
468--->'''Dr Bliss:''' "That's very astute for a 4th grader."
469* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'': Inspector Gadget's niece Penny, so much so that she and their dog Brain are the ones who actually do most of the work.
470* ''WesternAnimation/JellyJamm'': Mina, who is no older than ten, runs a successful lab and has built many inventions, including an invisibility ray and a [[RobotMe miniature robot version of herself]].
471* Elroy from ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', who is 6 1/2-years-old, and an expert at all space sciences, studying space history, astrophysics, and star geometry at the elementary school level, no less. He invents a dog training device, an evolution accelerator that turns Astro into a genius, and develops a program to fix R.U.D.I.'s malfunctioning short circuits.
472* Jimmy Neutron from ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius''.
473* The titular character from ''WesternAnimation/JuliusJr''. He appears to have mastered space compression, cross-dimension traveling, teleportation, artificial intelligence, the laws of physics, and much more. Did we mention that he's the age of an average pre-schooler?
474* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
475** Quack Quack. While he's otherwise a complete moron, he has very impressive skills in science and math, and can even solve a complex math problem in seconds inside his head, despite being a baby who still wears a diaper.
476** Mr. Cat. He's less than 13 years old, [[VagueAge though his exact age is unclear]], and he can [[GadgeteerGenius build robots and gadgets]], repair broken machines, and possesses a great wealth of scientific and historical knowledge.
477* Wade and the Tweebs in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''.
478* The show isn't called ''WesternAnimation/LittleEinsteins'' for nothing when it comes to this group of kids.
479* Egghead Jr. in the WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts.
480* Lisa Loud from ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is only four and is mentioned to have already finished school up through getting a [=PhD=] (a type of doctorate degree). She still goes to kindergarten however, seemingly for no other reason than because [[ItAmusedMe she enjoys the nap times and snacks available]].
481* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': Oscar is 11, and is an AcademicAthlete, expert fiddler, and quite levelheaded despite his age.
482* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
483** In the episode "the Cutie Mark Chronicles", Twilight Sparkle was shown to be one, after [[ItMakesSenseInContext a loud explosion]] caused her to have a major case of PowerIncontinence. She was so magically powerful that Princess Celestia decided to take her on as her personal student. Presumably, the first thing Celestia taught her was how to keep her powers under control.
484** The Cutie Mark Crusaders are shown to be this in "One Bad Apple". Not only do they build a motorized parade float from scratch AND rig it with a timer-activated booby trap to send it careening off of a cliff at ''exactly'' the right time, they also are able to manipulate [[TheBully Babs Seed]] into stealing it so perfectly that when she shoves them from it, ''they land on a mattress they placed earlier to cushion their fall''.
485* Gus from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is noted at multiple points to be incredibly gifted when it comes to illusion magic despite only being 12 years old and has already skipped two grades by the start of the story. [[spoiler:"Labyrinth Runners" shows just how powerful he is when he manages to both cover almost all of Hexside in a highly realistic illusion and put the head of the Illusion coven out of commission ''by accident''.]]
486* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'': Squidina, despite being eight years old and still in elementary school, has a job producing a television show. She is singlehandedly responsible for budgeting it, ordering props, and contacting people to be on it, and is exceedingly competent at it.
487-->'''Squidina''': Yeah, [[ItMakesSenseInContext being a witch might be cool and all]], but I realized I'm much happier producing our television show. ''Like a normal kid.''
488* ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'': Edmond Elephant is around George's age, but can easily correct adults when they get various facts wrong (for example, pointing out an example of ArtisticLicensePaleontology in Mr. Potato's theme park).
489* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', perhaps due to the show rule that nobody is "a jerk or an idiot", all the kids are shown to be gifted in some way. Even [[FriendlyEnemy Buford]], whose theme song claims that "he's got the IQ of gum", is shown to have [[GeniusBruiser a fondness for Voltaire and existentialism]]. Considering that gum in this universe is the thing that ''comes'' with existentialist trading cards ("I'll give you two Satres for a Nietzsche!"), [[FridgeBrilliance perhaps the comparison makes sense...]]
490* Blossom is the brains of ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls''. This becomes subverted in [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998 "Him Diddle Riddle"]] when the villain makes the girls take their UsefulNotes/SATs (as part of a series of real-time challenges to find the Professor), and Blossom scores a measly 10 while [[TheCutie Bubbles]] aces it with a 1075 score.
491* Velma on ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' is pegged as the brains of Mystery Inc., but this is amplified with her as an 8-year-old on ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo''. She carries a whole computer system on her person which she whips out to deduce clues and is usually the one to explain whodunnit and how.
492* ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' has Bentley Raccoon, who is a master of computing at the age of eight.
493* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'':
494** Almost every kid in the show. They are all very smart for their age, especially Sean. However, this is because all the parents in Boxwood Terrace are scientists who work at the Deep Space Array, so it's possible that they could've passed down their knowledge to the children at a young age.
495** Jet himself also deserves a mention. He has repaired a satellite, named all the moons of Jupiter, quickly calculated how many Earths could fit inside the sun, built his own flying saucer, and has even built a working time machine! He's also only around 10.
496* Gretchen Grundler from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''.
497* Edwin Carmichael, Susie's 6-year-old brother from ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'' is the brains of the Carmichael family. His room is designed from the idea of a wealthy man's library, as he is an avid reader. Although he is the most quiet of the Carmichael siblings, he is extremely intelligent, as he is known for wearing Einstein pajamas, playing computer games, and he once built a laser with his friends at his birthday party.
498* ''WesternAnimation/SavingMe'': Bennett Bramble is a tragic deconstruction of this trope. On paper, he's a genius prodigy with a bright future ahead of him. Bennett comes from a good family with loving parents who care about him and an older brother and younger sister who love him, and he will become one of the world's most successful and influential men. But in his old age, he's burned bridges with his friends and family and became one of the world's most hated and lonely old men. Bennett is very regretful about where his life went, and he made a time machine to change his fate; he went back to his younger self to guide himself into being a better person. And as we see the younger version of Bennett Bramble, we see that he's a good enough kid who does love his friends and family; he's also selfish and inconsiderate, causing him to neglect his family and be selfish with his friends. And from what we can take from the comments from Bennett's little sister Sophie and his friend Nira, it's rare for him to be overly affectionate with his friends and family. And it's not that he's trying to be cruel to his family and friends. It's just that he's not considerate of them and takes them for granted. This shows that a kid like Bennett Bramble may be a prodigy and may have a bright future, but without someone to guide him into being a better person, his genius will cause his negative traits to increase, which would eventually cause his relationship with his friends and family to deteriorate leaving him alone and bitter as an adult. Showing that a child prodigy is still a child in need of guidance so that he can learn from right and wrong and be a better person as an adult.
499* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Lisa Simpson is extremely intelligent and a talented saxophone player. She has a great interest in science and the environment.
500* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
501** The Broflovski brothers. Ike moreso and more blatant than his older brother. Ike's entered kindergarten 2 years early, watches conservative political commentary, makes a macaroni replica of The Last Supper, has been hired to help cover up a massive jewel heist, and is a knight in Canada. As of Seasons 15ish, he's only 4.
502** Kyle's also no slouch. He's regularly portrayed as the top student in his class, has the highest capabilities with the computer, including photoshopping a photo to fool the Japanese government to stop whaling and get his best friend out of trouble and single-handedly thwarting a terrorist attack with some inspired Google-fu. He's also shown more than a slight capability with philosophy and managed to remove himself from reality.
503** Cartman is a Child Prodigy only, and ONLY when motivated by evil.
504* ''WesternAnimation/TeamGalaxy'' has Brett, a serious boy genius. Unlike his partners, he actually enjoys homework and mental exercises, and is often annoyed at the lack of intellect the other marshalls possess. Early on, he also detested being called a "kid", although that aspect was later dropped.
505* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': Rafael "Raf" Jorge Gonzales Esquivel is a master computer programmer and hacker. He's been able to understand code since he was three.
506* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', there is Master Billy Quizboy, who is a Quiz Boy, that being an underrated branch of Boy Genius. It is revealed in one episode that "Master Billy Quizboy" is actually over 30 and was this during his youth.
507* Chloe from ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'' is 12-years-old and is admitted into a university. She hates being known as "the prodigy" though.
508* ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'':
509** GadgeteerGenius Tobey, the self-proclaimed "world's most formidable boy genius".
510** Wordgirl herself counts, too. In a bookish sort of way.
511** Victoria Best as well. She's insanely
512[[/folder]]
513
514[[folder:Real Life]]
515* [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369595/Jacob-Barnett-12-higher-IQ-Einstein-develops-theory-relativity.html This dude.]] Jacob Barnett, age 12 in 2011, reportedly has a higher IQ than Einstein and has developed his own theory of relativity.
516* In 1955, the poet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minou_Drouet Minou Drouet]] rocked France with her semi-surreal poems. She became [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdbvTTFa0s a world-renowned]] [[http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-child-poet-and-prodigy-minou-drouet-dressed-in-a-news-photo/57199518 celebrity]], and [[https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/40/mavor.php objectified into fairytale nymphet status]]. Her early childhood was [[https://pigtailsinpaint.org/2017/05/minou-drouet-a-forgotten-child-poet/ heavily mythologized]] to add to her mystique. Controversy raged around her and [[https://www.dawn.com/news/840653 she was repeatedly tested]] to ascertain that [[http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/40/mavor.php she, not her overbearing stage mother]], had written the poems. The constant demands for proof [[http://theleafexplorers.blogspot.com/2018/08/p_17.html wore her out]]. From "My Friend the Tree" and "White road, where do you go?" she started writing stuff like "My heart has become nothing but a stupid little mayonnaise whisk". To a friend, she confided: "Our street is vomiting journalists nonstop. It feels like the whole world is after me. I wish I were dead. They keep on and on at me with their questions. I think the only words I can utter are fear, pain, death." [[http://johnshaplin.blogspot.com/2012/03/minou-drouet-by-richard-gottlieb.html She was 9-years-old]]. Today she lives in complete hermitage in the house where she was born.
517* [[http://www.farksolia.org/ Barbara]] [[http://www.teenagefilm.com/archives/dear-diary/barbara-newhall-follett-vanished-novelist/ Newhall]] [[http://www.dreamshore.net/bluejay/barbara.html Follett]] ([[http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/vanishing-act.php?page=all born March 4, 1914]] to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follett%27s_Modern_American_Usage literary parents]]) who at four demanded her own typewriter and at eight had nearly completed her first novel, ''The House Without Windows'', about a little NatureHero girl who finally becomes a NatureSpirit and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence disappears in a cloud of butterflies]]. When the manuscript was destroyed in a fire she rewrote it from memory and it was published when she was twelve.[[note]]For the record, she said at the time that the second version was better.[[/note]] Also at eight she began [[WorldBuilding creating]] a ConstructedWorld, Farksolia, with a ConLang to express feelings and experiences in nature. She became an [[PluckyMiddie apprentice sailor]] on a schooner and wrote ''[[SeaStories Voyage of the Norman D]]'' at fourteen, along with a series of travelogues. When her father deserted the family, CountryMouse Barbara moved to New York City and became a clerk-typist. She married at 18, tried to make it work, and failed. Her novel ''[[http://www.farksolia.org/lost-island-part-1/ Lost Island]]'', written when she was 20, concerns an adventurous clerk who is shipwrecked with a friend on a DesertedIsland; they're subsequently "rescued" when a big fuck-you corporation arrives to bulldoze paradise and put up luxury condos, and by the end she's back in NYC, restless and miserable. On the evening of December 7, 1939, Barbara left her home and was never seen again. Nobody really knows what happened that night.
518* Composer [[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/60minutes/main2205521.shtml Jay Greenberg]] (b. 1991) has been compared to [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]] and other musical prodigies. He entered the Juilliard Conservatory at age 11 and had written five symphonies by the time he was 13.
519* Music/MarvinHamlisch had shown musical aptitude at a young age, enrolling in what is now the Julliard School Pre-College Division at age 7. One of his earliest songs written in his teens was sung by Creator/LizaMinnelli on her debut album.
520* Creator/YokoHonna, who was around 10 when she started her career.
521* [[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19640425&id=wbZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HOkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1800,3502466 Somerset Hughes]] of London was cited along with Ung-Yong in the ''Guinness World Record Book'' as having an IQ above 200.
522* Seiyuu Creator/HirokoKasahara debuted in a lead role when she was 12 years old.
523* Akiane Kramarik, the daughter of atheist parents (who sent her to parochial school), began painting religious visions as young as age 8, often in a realistically photographic style. Her art has a restful quality [[DamningWithFaintPraise reminiscent of Thomas Kinkade]], especially the way she uses light effects. Allegedly completely self-taught, she revealed that her mother actually trained her as an artist, partly to raise money. Her paintings routinely fetch hundreds of dollars. (She is considered a commercial artist rather than a fine artist like TeenGenius Amanda Dunbar, who started painting at 13.)
524* John Stuart Mill had one of those Make Your Child A Genius dads. He was crammed from an early age and while he enjoyed a lot of his studies, his emotional health suffered and he had a nervous breakdown at twenty. It took him years to recover, but eventually he became one of the preeminent philosophers of the 19th century.
525* Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart. If not the outright TropeCodifier, he's certainly the most famous example. He started playing piano at age 3, was composing by age 5, and wrote his first symphony at age 8. He was also known to have been challenged by famous musicians during his youth in improvisation contests, where the performer would compose on the spot and try to outperform his rival in this manner. He disposed of all of them. It's said that after they gave up, he would say, "any more?"
526* Music/JacquesOffenbach started playing the violin at six and was a composer and had learned the cello by age nine. He quickly got too big for his home town and when he was 14 his father sent him to Paris to study cello. Offenbach was such a jokester and goofball he could never really focus on his studies, although he was widely recognized as a truly virtuoso cellist. He was booted out of the conservatory at 15 and the next year found a permanent appointment at the Opéra-Comique. This eventually led him to the career he wanted: writing the raunchy satirical comic operettas that made him famous.
527* Blaise Pascal started his mathematician career when he was nine.
528* Srinivasa Ramanujan. He made theorems at age 12 that you could get a [=PhD=] for proving today. He was an unparalleled mathematical genius. Especially considering that he started out working alone, using a little old reference book listing 6000 theorems with no discussion. And he flunked his school exams because his English wasn't good enough.
529* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Ruess Everett Ruess]] was an artist, diarist, poet and printmaker beginning at age 5. In his teen years he took to WalkingTheEarth in the American Southwest just to see what was there and write about interesting stuff. [Cue [[Series/UnsolvedMysteries Robert Stack]] voice:] On November 20, 1934, Ruess set out alone into the Utah desert, taking two donkeys as pack animals. He was never seen again. He was just 20 years old.
530* Actress Alicia Roanne Witt started out this way. Her high-IQ exploits were covered in several newspaper articles starting when she was five.
531* French composer Camille Saint-Saëns displayed perfect pitch and could pick out tunes on the piano by age three, was playing piano recitals by age five, and made his concert debut at age ten, performing concertos by Mozart and Beethoven. For an encore, he offered to play any of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 13.
532* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Shoken Masako Ichijou aka Empress Haruko aka Empress Dowager Shoken]], wife of [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Emperor Mutsuhito aka Meiji]]. She learned to read complicated poetry at age 4, started writing at age five, started reading Chinese at age 7, and by age 12 she was an expert koto player.
533* While undoubtedly gifted, William James Sidis had a Make Your Child A Genius dad as well. No one knows how intelligent he really was because his parents tended to exaggerate. He entered Harvard at age 11, graduated at age 16, and later taught math there. His much-publicized "mental breakdown" may actually have been his parents' coverup for his Socialist activism, which had gotten him arrested on May Day 1919. Sidis' friend said "had one great cause -- the right of an individual in this country to follow his chosen way of life".
534* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao Terence Tao]] started taking college-level math classes at 9 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees at 16. Breaking the mold of the burnt-out prodigy, he is still an active and notable mathematician in his forties and appears to have a happy family life.
535* Jazz pianist Music/ArtTatum learned to play church hymns and piano rolls at 3. Rumors would circulate that he played piano rolls meant for two people (and he was blind).
536* Music/GeorgPhilippTelemann: Despite being discouraged from music by his family (because music was then considered neither a really honorable trade nor a lucrative one), he taught himself to play the violin, recorder, and piano as a child. Composed his first pieces of music as a 10-year-old, at which age he already started to substitute for the cantor teaching the upper classes of his school. Composed his first opera, ''Sigismundus'', at age twelve, after which his mother confiscated his musical instruments and sent him to a school in another town in a vain attempt to stop him from "wasting his time" on music. "Unfortunately" young Telemann was encouraged in his musical endeavours there by the local church superintendent.
537* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ung-yong Kim Ung-Yong]] of South Korea was reported with an IQ of 210 in the mid-1960s. He was a guest student in physics at Hangyang University at three (both his parents were professors there) and appeared on Japan's "World Surprise Show" at four composing poetry, speaking four languages, and solving integral calculus problems. He describes himself as having an eidetic memory and using the "memory palace" technique. Although the story of his having studied for a master's degree at Colorado State is not true according to his father, NASA hired him at age 11. He worked there until he was about 17, later saying it was monumentally boring and he missed his mother. He went home and changed fields entirely. Today he is a professor of civil engineering at a college near his hometown. His wife Cho Kyung-ja is a researcher and they have two children.
538* Religious visions are also how [[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=565&q=Sulamith+Wulfing&oq=Sulamith+Wulfing Sulamith Wulfing]] got started, except she began at four and went to art school as a teenager. She was considered so gifted that the school interceded with German authorities to let her off mandatory UsefulNotes/WorldWarI-related service as a telephone switchboard operator so she could focus on her art.
539* Sho Yano, who started university by age 9 and was in medical school and studying for a [=PhD=] on the side by age 12. According to [[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-boy-wonder-20120603,0,7796464.story news reports]], he was (deep breath....) reading by age 2, writing by age 3, composing music at age 5, scored 1500 on his UsefulNotes/SATs (out of 1600) at age 8, entered college at age 9, entered medical school at age 12, finished his Ph.D. in three years, and in 2012 got his M.D. from the University of Chicago at age 21. His IQ is estimated at over 200. Oh, and he's also a concert pianist who's played at the Ravinia festival. And has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Do you have an inferiority complex yet?
540* Austrian pediatrician [[UsefulNotes/AspergersSyndrome Hans Asperger]] referred to the autistic children in his practice as "Little Professors".
541* Educator Howard Spicker believed child geniuses, what he called "bright" children, were actually relatively common, but went unrecognized because they don't fit the profile of what people think a child prodigy should be like.
542* A few TabletopGame/{{Chess}} grandmasters, specially world champions. Small example: Jose Raul Capablanca learned to play chess at the age of 4 and had beaten the Cuban national champion by the age of 12!
543* The German word for this is of course ''Wunderkind'' ("miracle or wonder child"), which also entered the English language as a loanword. It was coined by philosopher [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Immanuel Kant]] with reference to Christian Heinrich Heineken of Lübeck (1721-1725), who had mastered French and Latin at age two and at age three wrote a history of Denmark, and for years lived mostly on the milk of his wetnurse. His death at age four is attributed to the then-unknown Coeliac disease (he died when his diet switched to grain products like bread etc)
544* Schoolteacher Benjamin Heath Malkin (1769-1842) of the Suffolk village of Bury St. Edmunds, an acquaintance of Creator/WilliamBlake, was ''accused'' of force-educating his children when [[https://archive.org/details/fathersmemoirsof00malk his 5-year-old son Thomas]] died in 1806. Malkin homeschooled all his kids and by his account was less of a teacher than a referee. Thomas was your standard child prodigy who [[WorldBuilding ran an imaginary country]], Allestone (with maps) on the side. His death was prolonged and unpleasant. A doctor visited ''the day after he died'' to give Malkin a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about Thomas having died of "brain fever" from overstudy, citing Thomas' "[[MyBrainIsBig large head]]" as proof. Malkin actually had to request an autopsy to prove the cause of death was inflammatory bowel disease.[[note]]None of this stopped the novelist/folklorist Dinah Craik, best known today as the author of ''The Little Lame Prince & his Traveling Cloak'', from penning [[https://books.google.com.jm/books?id=E7ozAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=malkin&f=false a blistering essay]] ''sixty years later'' accusing Malkin of killing the kid through overwork.[[/note]] As if to bear this out, Malkin's other kids were also child geniuses and had fine adult careers.[[note]]Craik admits this in a postscript[[/note]] Thomas' brother Frederic wrote several history textbooks that were admired and imitated by TeenGenius Margaret Emily Shore.
545* Actress Amy Rutberg, best known for her role as Marci Stahl in ''Series/Daredevil2015'', entered college at age 13 and transferred to UCLA as a Junior when she was just 15.
546* [[https://i-lost-my-heart-in-republic-city.tumblr.com/post/185693983989/trans-jesus-uisce-bitch-im-so-proud Daniel Liu]] started helping college students with their organic chemistry homework to attending to Achem, and is now a researcher at the University of Toledo at 11.
547* American R&B singer Music/TevinCampbell was a singing prodigy as a child. He became a gospel soloist at a very young age and had an impressive vocal range for someone his age. His talents eventually got the attention of Music/QuincyJones, who gave him his mainstream debut at 12 years old with the single "Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)" in 1989. Tevin would soon become a successful recording artist as a teen, with multiple Platinum and Gold certifications to his name.
548* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CkSFWEfOvbJ/ Elijah Muhammad]] is attending college at the age of 12 and is majoring in cybersecurity. He made history by being the youngest Black student to attend an Oklahoma college.
549* [[https://twitter.com/TansuYegen/status/1582277208500244480 5-year-old Alberto Cartuccia Cingolani performing some Mozart]].
550* [[https://phoenixlionme.tumblr.com/post/647360443729477632/popmusic101-legit-incredible#notes Violin prodigy Karolina Protsenko]].
551* [[https://phoenixlionme.tumblr.com/post/658558996126613504/accras-odinsblog-so-much-yes-from-9-year#notes Rayssa Leal, 13-year-old Brazilian skateboarder, is now a silver medal winner of the first Olympic women’s street skateboarding event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics]].
552* [[https://phoenixlionme.tumblr.com/post/663776552181530624/randomslasher-molothoo-jaythenerdkid#notes Four girls created a generator that produced electricity for 6 hours using a single liter of urine]].
553* [[https://phoenixlionme.tumblr.com/post/671612741890506752/unbelievable-facts-quinn-callander-a-12-year-old#notes Quinn Callander, a 12-year-old Boy Scout from Vancouver, 3D-printed ingenious ear guards to help take the pressure off healthcare workers’ ears from wearing masks all day. He also made the 3D printing patterns available to everyone]].
554* [[https://phoenixlionme.tumblr.com/post/689272563742965760/lets-give-it-up-for-another-amazing-young 8-year-old Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz created a solar-powered device to heat water entirely out of recycled materials]].
555* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CmnOdD3gjT3/ Sugar Chile Robinson was widely known as a child prodigy in piano playing]].
556* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CnAOgA9KnTE/ An 8-year-old skateboarding prodigy]].
557* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CryoCX1AhpS/ 11-year-old from Côte d’Ivoire]] created a charging station from recycled goods that is able to charge phones and fans.
558* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CoM7Fn3oQF8/ 12-year-old Chika Ofili discovered a new mathematical formula]].
559* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl1CQfzIqmz/ 11-year-old from Nigeria built a model of football stadium.]]
560* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CexJ3Iio75x/ 10-year-old chess prodigy from Nigeria]].
561* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CtApfE_vom-/ Caleb Anderson and his various feats]].
562* [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CsrINLTJvQW/ Twelve-year-old Clovis Hung]] graduating his university with 5 degrees.
563* ProfessionalGambler [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stu_Ungar Stu Ungar]], widely regarded as one of the best poker, blackjack and gin rummy players of all time, won his first gin tournament at age 10, and after his father died, he dropped out of school to pursue gambling full-time, becoming the sole provider for his house at age 13. Prior to this, he had skipped a grade and was noted for his PhotographicMemory.
564* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jascha_Heifetz Jascha Heifetz]], widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists to ever live, got started early. The first time he played publicly, legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler is recorded as saying, "We may as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."
565[[/folder]]

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