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"She manages to dress like a grandmother and a toddler at the same time."
Kurt Hummel (on the fashions of Rachel Berry), Glee

Basically a character dressing in a manner that just doesn't fit the cultural norm for the character's age. It could be in clothing, hairstyle, makeup, or something else.

The reasons can vary, although dressing up or costumes wouldn't count for this. This is more a character either not realizing how they look dressed like that, or maybe even trying to pretend they are a different age (either as a disguise, or as a denial about one's age).

This can be justified when characters are Older Than They Look or Younger Than They Look, and dressing their actual age would look like this trope even though it isn't.

A Super-Trope to Adults Dressed as Children.

Compare Mistaken Age, Improbable Age, Dawson Casting and Age-Inappropriate Art. See also No Dress Code, I Was Quite a Fashion Victim. A common cause for a Parental Fashion Veto.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Kotoko-01, from Divergence Eve, wears a very Stripperiffic combat outfit when on active duty; her new one in the second season is even more extreme.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Chi-Chi in the first series. Her outfit, at age twelve, is a blue bikini with pink gloves and boots.
    • The outfit that Bra/Bulla wears in Dragon Ball GT (a tube top, miniskirt, and thigh-high boots) is definitely not appropriate for her age. In the Japanese version, she is not older than 10.
  • In the anime of Hidamari Sketch, Yoshinoya-sensei never reveals her actual age, preferring to say that she's eternally 17 (oi, oi!), but has been seen occasionally wearing outfits more suited to students, such as a sailor fuku (ironically, not the uniform style at Yamabuki), a cheerleading outfit, School Sport Uniform, and School Swimsuit.
  • How Not to Summon a Demon Lord: The demon lord Krebskulm has the form of a young child and the mentality of one too. Her outfit mostly consists of a skirt that barely covers her sides and back, and two tiny pieces covering her chest.
  • Of the Dekoration members in THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, it's 11 year old Miria that has the skimpiest costume.
  • In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki: A decent number of students wear clothing that shows a considerable amount of skin, and while none of their ages have been revealed, said students are shown to look like they are in their early-to-late teens. The worst offending examples is Itadori and Tanpopo, two of the younger students, sporting only a Sarashi as a top and nothing else.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Lucy Steel from Part 7 is only 14, and she shows a lot of cleavage. In one volume cover, she's even topless!
    • Yukako Yamagishi in Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: "Episode 8 — D.N.A." continues to wear a Sailor Fuku, despite the story taking place years after Diamond Is Unbreakable, making her 23 years old at the very least.
  • Fate of Lyrical Nanoha, whose Barrier Jacket when she was nine can best be described as Stripperiffic black leather. Interestingly, while she keeps the look for the first movie, Fate's costuming shifts more closer to her adult's look in the second.
  • A massive complaint of the Boruto manga is just how sexualised Sarada's outfit is despite the fact she’s no older than 11. Notably, this isn't a issue in the anime, where she has an appropriate outfit similar what her mother Sakura wore in Part 1 of Naruto.
  • Evangeline from Negima! Magister Negi Magi, who constantly dresses in a Stripperiffic Goth loli manner. She is considerably older than ten, but she does not look it. While Eva is the most obvious example, pick an outfit for the other girls apart from their school uniform or a casual after-school outfit of their own choosing and it's almost certain to be seen as "inappropriate" by someone in real life, considering that the vast majority of the cast are girls under the age of 16. And later on, a handful of boys under the age of 12 end up wearing elaborate tuxedos or business suits.
  • Dr. Kureha from One Piece is going on 140 years young, but dresses like a teenager. Though you have to admit, Kureha still has the body for the clothing, which is amazing all things considering.
  • Crystal from Pokémon Adventures switched outfits to match her game counterpart in the remakes... Well that's fine, except that the protagonist is an eleven year old girl who wears a overalls and a giant hat. Crys is a rather mature girl who is now at age sixteen, so the style really doesn't fit her. It was forced upon her by her mom, who is a Manchild and is also a prime example of this.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
  • Mii from Popotan wears an outfit for a Beauty Contest that looks like her normal Magical Girl costume if half of it was cut off.
  • Misao from Rurouni Kenshin and her very short shorts, which are also very out of place in the late 19th century setting. Kenshin even remarks to himself "A little young to show so much thigh?" when he first meets her.
  • The Amazon Quartet in Sailor Moon. While the Stripperiffic clothing they are wearing would not be out of the ordinary on a circus or performing act, the fact the Quartet are physically not much older than Chibiusa can be jarring.
  • This is used for its creepy factor in Serial Experiments Lain. Lain's thirteen year old friends go to adult-geared clubs dressed in too mature clothes for their ages.
  • In Sweetness & Lightning, Kotori's mom is seen wearing a sailor fuku on a variety TV show.
  • Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann dresses in a very Stripperiffic manner, including a bikini top and hot pants. In the first half of the series, she's stated to be 14, making it seem like this trope. However, due to decades of isolation, all the villages have different calendars, which means that Yoko is just as old as Kamina, around 17-18.
  • Übel Blatt has a Running Gag where Peepi, who looks about eight or nine (due only in part to being an elf), gets stuck in Stripperiffic clothing for chapters on end... And nobody cares. Something along the lines of "What's wrong, Peepi?" is the typical reaction. Ato's clothes, especially once she joins up with the main character full-time, cover a similar amount of skin. She's not that much older than Peepi.
  • Usagi-chan de Cue!!: The girls' uniforms at Haru's high school have tops cropped just below the breasts, and extremely short skirts that guarantee Panty Shots galore.
  • Yatterman Night: Doronjo keeps her usual Baroness garb as a 9 year old in that continuity.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS has Romin Kirishima, whose default outfit makes her look like a teen rock star (she's only in fifth grade, yet her outfit includes multiple belts, full tights, and red-and-black t-strap high heel pumps). The rock-star part is at least somewhat accurate, as she is a good guitarist...

    Comedy 
  • Ed Byrne comes close to identifying this trope by name, in his rant about encountering an 11-year-old girl wearing a tracksuit with "Gorgeous" printed across the arse.
    And I thought that was inappropriate, because she was a fucking minger.

    Comic Books 
  • The Boys: MM's daughter Janine is an odd case: Going by outward appearances, there's nothing inherently wrong about how she dresses, the problem is that due to the Compound V in her system, she has the body of an eighteen-year-old (and acts like one) but is actually twelve.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: In "Deja View," Bubbles' Evil Counterpart from the Powerpunk Girls, Brat, is a five-year-old who has her midriff exposed. The attire of Buttercup's equivalent Brute includes a more modest dress, but also fishnets and spiked wristbands.
  • The Sandman (1989): Delirium's clothes would fall into this by default. Since she's been around since the earliest sentient life in the universe, she's really too old for pretty much anything she wears. She is also the youngest of the Endless, so anytime she dresses like a little kid is a subtle nod to what she used to be. In The Wake, she wears a fairy princess costume that looks like it's meant for a much younger kid; the skirt's very short on her.
  • Teen Titans: During flashback sequences in New Teen Titans, the characters generally wear the same or similar clothing as their present-day counterparts for ease of recognition. Doesn't cause a problem most of the time, but Starfire's Stripperiffic bikini-style outfit looks most unsettling on a ten-or-so kid. Though this seems to be regular outdoor wear on her home planet, where, it seems, nobody wears pants.
    • Beast Boy's Navel-Deep Neckline during his short-lived television career in the same sequence has shades of this as well, as he's a fairly young teen at the time.
  • V for Vendetta: Evey dressing up as a little girl to trap a pedophile. She was pretending to be just a year younger than her actual age, but her dress really was meant to sell it.
  • X-23: Laura Kinney almost never dresses appropriately for a teenage girl. It could be the fact that she was never reared to know what was appropriate, a call back to her time as a prostitute, or just fanservice.

    Fan Works 
  • Lampshaded in build your wings on the way down: Hughes is rather scandalized when he realizes the 12-year old Edward is wearing tight leather pants.
  • In I'll find him (Pursuit AU), Basil wears clothes similar to his old school uniform for five years in the hopes that Sunny will recognise him when he comes back to Faraway. Aubrey is the most outspoken about the gesture, and when Sunny does return, he's put off by Basil until he changes into something different; Sunny had previously been kidnapped and does not like seeing reminders of how much he hasn't changed compared to everyone else.
  • Khaos Omega pulls an interesting aversion with a splice of canon mixed in: The amount of midriff Anise exposes in her usual tube top is the part that comes from Galaxy Angel canon. The aversion is that she did her forced growing up in a much different way, leading to many more miniskirts and high heels (especially the high heels) appearing on her and less of her canon outfit's other parts.
  • Mob in the Mob Psycho 100 fanfic Off To The Races wears pretty much nothing but princess dress-up costumes long after it becomes age-inappropriate. This is due to a combination of not being allowed to grow up and not knowing any other kids her own age besides her little brother Sho.
  • Many of the female guests at Renesmee's wedding in The Wedding Crashers are vampires whose immortality started before 18, and the clothes they wear — as noted by the Winchesters — makes the younger ones look like kids playing dress-up in Mommy's clothes... if Mommy was a hooker. The bride herself (who looks 17 but is actually around 10) wears a dress with a huge, poofy skirt... and a bit of netting on the top. It's covered up a bit by the shawl-like necklace she's wearing, but it still creeps the boys out.

    Films — Animation 
  • Big Hero 6: An off-screen example. Aunt Cass tells Hiro that, downstairs in the cafe, the 80-year-old Mrs. Matsuda is wearing something super inappropriate for her age.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • How the two protagonists of Thirteen (2003) dress, although it's not quite as jarring as it could have been since they're played by teenagers. Still, "no bra, no panties, Mum."
  • Alex's mother in A Clockwork Orange dresses like a Carnaby Street mod. Given that the film seems to be set 20 Minutes in the Future, it may simply be a riff on how current hip fashions will eventually become associated with older people.
  • In Dasepo Sonyo, Big Razor Sister likes to wear schoolgirl uniforms, despite being well past schooling age. This appears to be more of a fetish thing, though, as they later appear dressed in more age-appropriate attire while serving as Poor Girl's lawyer.
  • Aunt Ida in John Waters's Female Trouble is probably the Trope Codifier.
  • Brooke's mother Cindy in House Arrest. Unlike the other families whose parents are going through all kinds of strife, Cindy is a single mother whose main problem is that she wears her 16-year-old daughter's clothes. Tries to hang out with Brooke and friends, and insists that daughter Brooke, call her "Cindy" and not "mom".
  • In F the Prom, Principal Statszill dresses like a teenage girl headed to a party despite being in her 30's/40's. Made even more inappropriate by the fact she's the school principal, but happily wears revealing minidresses and stilettos in her office.
  • Little Miss Sunshine during the titular pageant. Even more disturbing, this pageant was portrayed realistically by real pageant girls wearing their actual costumes.
  • In The Major and the Minor, Ginger Rogers pretends to be 12 years old to get a child fare on a train.
  • Played straight in Mystery Team, where the characters dress up like little kids.
  • In Orphan, 9-year-old Esther puts in a sexually provocative cocktail dress and tries to seduce adoptive father John. Right afterwards, there's the reveal she's a psychotic 33-year-old that only looks like a child.
  • Downplayed by Uncle Charlie in Stoker. He dresses in smart polo shirts, sweaters, slacks, and suits, but the particular styles and colors he chooses make him look much more like a teenager fresh out of prep school than a thirtysomething world traveler. The costumer confirmed in the behind-the-scenes features that this was deliberate, chosen to reflect Charlie's status as a Psychopathic Manchild.
  • In the final third of They Might Be Giants, forty-something Mildred Watson wears a poofy white party dress that would look much better on someone a couple of decades younger. Likely justified, as she is having Justin/Holmes over to her apartment for dinner, and it is pointed out earlier in the film that she has virtually no social life.
  • In Too Young To Kiss (1951), June Allyson is a pianist pretending to be 12 to impress a concert promoter.
  • This trope is obvious in Tricky People, when Reginald Charming gives the band kids a makeover for their photo shoot. The "cool" clothes make the kids look too mature. Especially the girls, who end up looking like school-aged prostitutes.
  • This is Played for Drama in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Jane wears ringlets in her hair just like she did as a little girl due to lingering troubles brought on by her missing being a childhood star. Near the end she starts dressing increasingly childishly as she has a Villainous Breakdown.
  • The German boy costume worn by Mugatu during the brainwashing sequence in Zoolander.

    Literature 
  • The Baby-Sitters Club:
    • Mary Anne's father Richard, as part of his overprotectiveness and worry, picks out Mary Anne's clothes—she's only allowed to wear penny-loafers, jumpers and blouses, or dresses, and has to keep her hair in two Girlish Pigtails—specifically, two long braids. She's finally able to dress a little more "teenage" after Mary Anne Saves the Day, where she proves to him she's responsible enough to dress how she'd like to.
    • It isn't given much of an in-depth description in but Stacey's swimsuit in the second book might count. It's mentioned that "it was skimpy (and we're talking ''very'' skimpy) and yellow, with tiny bows at the side of the bottom part". Claudia even mentions that "the top part was filled out pretty nicely".
  • Every Heart a Doorway: Lundy looks like an eight-year-old but dresses and speaks "like a middle-aged librarian". Subverted when the protagonist learns that she's a 50-something with Merlin Sickness.
  • In The Help, Aibileen describes Hilly’s wardrobe as consisting of bright floral dresses and hair bows that would look more appropriate on a ten-year-old than on a grown woman with children of her own. This is supposed to symbolize Hilly’s pettiness and immaturity that drives most of her actions in the story.
  • At one point in Lola Rose, Jayni, who is around ten or eleven, dresses up in some of her mother's clothes and make-up, and actually goes out like that, hoping she looks older. This includes high-heels, a tight T-shirt and a bra (stuffed with tissues), as well as "half of Boots' make-up counter" on her face. She does actually succeed in getting a bit of attention from a few boys, though it doesn't so end well when one boy, Ross, kisses her against her will to show off to his gang. She also gets in trouble with Nikki for wearing her clothes without her permission.
  • The Last Hero: Inverted with Vena the Raven-Haired, a white-haired grandmotherly woman stated to dress "very youngly" (i.e., in a manner appropriate for a Frank Frazetta painting) and it turns out hasn't lost any of her Action Girl qualifications.
  • A Summons to Memphis: Phillip's Old Maid sisters, Betsy and Josephine, are pushing 60 but to his mortification still dress like young women. He writes about how they dress in miniskirts or Sexy Backless Outfits or show Absolute Cleavage, long after they've grown fat and saggy.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Nearly every drama, and some comedies, that are set in a high school feature female students in outfits that would never fly in a real high school, no matter where they supposedly take place. The students are usually played by women in their early 20's, and they look like they're headed to a rave. Buffy the Vampire Slayer might count as the worst example, as Buffy's school garb included micro-minis, cropped tops and strapless tops that no school would allow.
    • This is actually referenced in universe in the season 2 episode “Go Fish”. After a swim team member tries to sexually assault Buffy, she slams his face into his steering wheel, breaking his nose. When confronted about the incident by the coach and the principal, the swim team member says “Look how she dresses!” Principal Snyder tells her to dress more appropriately, commenting “This is a school, not a rave!”
    Joyce: You're just too young to wear that.
    Buffy: Yeah, and I'm gonna be too young to wear it until I'm too old to wear it.
    Joyce: That's the idea.
  • In one episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick starts dressing in fashionable clothing and leather pants in a desperate ploy to appear youthful.
  • One episode of 30 Rock has a new cast member on Liz's show doing the baby stripper act in both dress and action and honestly seems to be her real personality. Turns out she's been trying to get close to other men and take on a new identity in order to avoid her insane husband who wants to kill her. Liz trying to help her backfires INCREDIBLY BAD.
  • Joe Besser as Stinky on The Abbott and Costello Show wore a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit as a bratty man-child character.
  • An episode of The Bob Newhart Show had Emily getting very upset about getting middle-aged as her birthday approached. She starts dressing in faddish youth clothes, and only snaps out of it when Carol innocently buys her an identical outfit...as a gag gift.
  • Dance Moms may have managed to make it even more disturbing. One episode featured the girls, who were generally between ages 8 and 13, being instructed to perform a burlesque-style striptease, complete with giant pink feathers to cover themselves and the Nude-Colored Clothes they were given to wear to imply toplessness. The episode is even outright titled "Topless Showgirls". The show understandably received heavy backlash and the episode was pulled from rotation.
    Cracked article covering the episode: It would, through a very small technicality, not be child pornography.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Twelfth Doctor starts wearing T-shirts and hoodies in series 9, which is not only unusual wear for the Doctor but also for what looks to be a man in his seventies. Though, the fact that it looks very out-of-place for a man his age does give it that egocentricity the Doctor's costumes have. His hoodie trenchcoat however does look like it might be the most comfortable and functional piece of clothing The Doctor has ever owned.
      • Even his Iconic Outfit is based on the kind of mod fashion that young people wore in the Swinging London era. The effect makes him seem either like a slightly underdressed Edwardian gentlemen or a Disco Dan who doesn't know the 60s are over.
    • Of course, that was an intentional inversion of the Eleventh Doctor, played by a man in his late 20s (and who frankly could have passed for younger), but dressed in a tweed jacket and suspenders like a dorky turn-of-the-century university lecturer.
  • In an early episode of The Drew Carey Show one of "the most difficult customers" Winfred-Louder had was an old woman who dressed herself in pre-teen clothes.
  • In Freshoffthe Boat, the younger two Huang children dress too formally in comparison to their peers. This is to portray how children of immigrants don't have the benefit of parents who know how to dress them appropriately.
  • In Glee one character says of Rachel "She manages to dress like a grandmother and a kindergartner at the same time."
  • From Hemlock Grove, Sherrif Sworn's twin daughters, about 15, both qualify. In fact, their determination to grow up too fast, including losing their virginities and partying like they're already in college, is part of what drives their friend Christina to drastic action...
  • British reality show Hotter Than My Daughter focuses a lot on mothers who dress (and sometimes act) like they are still teenagers, and where the host makes them over so they wear more age-appropriate outfits. Occasionally it would flip the formula and make over daughters who tended to dress like their mothers, making them look like they were in their thirties or forties.
  • In Killing Eve Vilanelle, who is an international assassin, shows up wearing a pink tulle dress that looks like something a small child would wear while meeting with her handler Konstantin. It repents her emotional immaturity and fixation on material goods.
  • The original character description for Marina from Last of the Summer Wine described her as wearing a skirt "at least ten years too short". This was faithfully depicted on screen.
  • Kelly, the daughter on Married... with Children, typically is dressed quite literally like a hooker, already qualifying for this trope since this began in Season 2 when the character is 16, though unlike many examples here, it's deliberately over the top for comic effect. However, one episode gives us a flashback to Kelly when she looks about eight or nine...and is already dressing this way.
  • 44-year old Shirley Henderson's character in the comedy-drama May Contain Nuts dresses as an 11-year old girl in order to take a school entrance exam in her daughter's place. Although she eventually goes for a lank-haired, dowdy appearance on the grounds that "nobody notices ugly children", she had previously tried a colorful short-skirted, midriff-baring, pigtailed look that only succeeded in weirding out her husband.
  • UK television: Mini Pops was a 1983 show on -where else?- Channel 4, in which small kids would dress up like grown-up pop stars and perform their singles... without much editing of the lyrics, or consideration of whether an adult performer's stage costume would be appropriate for a preteen. It was on air for about six weeks before viewer complaints reached critical mass. Of course, with hindsight we should've been more worried about Jim'll Fix It...
  • One epiosde of Mind of Mencia had Carlos do a skit called the "Age Police" where one of his targets was ticketed for doing 40 in a 25, or being 40-years-old wearing something a 25 would wear, supposedly.
Carlos: "Know what doesn't go with your Hello Kitty backpack? Your Cesarean scar!
  • Never Have I Ever: The principal chews Devi out for her self-imposed makeover. She's a fifteen-year-old high school sophomore in a tiny skirt and strappy heels, dressed "like Erin Brockovich."
  • In Popular Emory Dick's twin sisters Emily and Emma show up at the high school asking Nichole and Mary Cherry to train them to be the alpha bitches at their junior high. The girls also wear tight tops and short skirts, and their age is roughly 12 to 13. Their least provocative clothes are their black mink jackets.
  • One episode of Reba has Cheyanne volunteering at a nursing home where she dresses some of the elderly residents in things that seem to be from her own closet (most prominently, a pair of sweatpants with "Juicy" across the butt). Everyone feels that it's a sign of Cheyanne being ditzy and out of touch, but she eventually reveals that the residents asked for it and enjoyed getting makeovers and putting effort into their appearances (and getting the attention of some of the male residents).
  • Jordan putting her hair in pigtails and dressing childishly to persuade her gynocologist that she's younger than she really is on Scrubs.
  • The Steve Harvey Show:
    • Regina (who is in her mid to late 30's) is accused of not being in touch with the students. Her solution? Dressing like them. She resorts to wearing shirts that show her belly button and wearing her hair in Girlish Pigtails with loud, colorful accessories. She goes back to normal when Cedric reminds her of how embarrassing her parents were when they tried to act and dress young when she was a teenager.
    • This is played with when it comes to Lovita. She dresses inappropriately for her job but not necessarily her age as she is portrayed as younger and more hip than Steve, Cedric, and Regina. No one really calls her out on it, except Steve (when he wants to make fun of her) and Regina (when Lovita takes it too far).
  • Toddlers & Tiaras is a reality show about beauty pageants for little girls, which shows them in outfits like bikinis, and them even getting spray tans. Already seen as more than a little unsettling, criticism of the show spiked noticeably when it featured a girl dressed in Julia Roberts' prostitute outfit from Pretty Woman. The mother defended it by claiming it wasn't as revealing as some of the other outfits in the competition, an argument that helps no-one. Said little girl was on again, the mother complaining about the backlash she'd gotten over the costume. What's the girl wearing this time? A crop top and a tulle, poofy black skirt, okay. Sure, the boots and stockings are a bit risque but it's not that bad... and then she rips the skirt off during the routine to showcase her underwear-like bottoms (that match the top) and garters. Yes, that was scripted, they practiced a lot. And she won.
  • The Wayans Bros..: In the episode "Hip-Hop Pops", Pops is depressed about turning 50. Shawn and Marlon take him out to a nightclub and get a female acquaintance of theirs to dance with Pops in an effort to cheer him up. It works a little too well: Pops starts dressing (and acting) like someone in his 20's, basically the age range of his sons.
  • Several episodes of What Not to Wear feature a woman who, in her late 40s, continued to wear the same kind of clothing she wore as a young teen and only that clothing; because she could not buy the fashions and styles she was comfortable with she made all her own outfits from scratch and looked somewhat like a demented circus clown.

    Music 
  • Eminem mocks his own predilection for wearing hip-hop clothing in middle age in "So Far...":
    Turned 40 and still sag — teenagers act more fuckin' mature, Jack

    Tabletop Games 
  • All the Traptrix monsters wear revealing clothing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, even though they look like prepubescent girls.

    Theatre 
  • In The Glass Menagerie, when Jim comes for dinner, Amanda wears an old-fashioned dress from her youth, much more appropriate for a younger woman, as if he were calling on her instead of her daughter.
  • In The Madwoman of Chaillot, one of the other Madwomen is an ancient woman who still thinks she can pass for a young maiden. She cannot.
  • At the beginning of Spring Awakening Wendla tries to convince her mother to let her continue to wear a dress that's too small for her as she's too innocent to realize why this is inappropriate for a pubescent girl in 1891 (her reasoning for wanting it is more of the clinging to your childhood variety, as she says it "makes [her] feel like a little faerie-queen").

    Video Games 
  • Catherine Kyohbashi of Arcana Heart is only 12 years old, but she wears a swimsuit and Playboy Bunny outfit.
  • Alyssa, the protagonist of Clock Tower 3, has several revealing alternate outfits. Keep in mind that she only turns fifteen at the end of the game.
  • Dead or Alive had such a bad case of giving revealing outfits to the girls, that the localized version of the Volleyball games left all of the girls who were not at least 18 years old as N/A. Ayane herself had some pretty revealing outfits herself in her first appearance of the second game, despite being 16.
  • Disgaea:
  • Fate/Grand Order:
    • Abigail Williams's profile states her to be 12 years old, making her increasingly Stripperiffic outfit quite inappropriate for a girl her age. Her Summer version's First Ascension wears a very skimpy and inappropriate swimsuit. As she ascends further, she wears more sensible and modest swimsuits.
    • The second and third ascensions of Assassin of the Nightless City aka Wu Zetian consists of an open robe, a small ribbon bra, and a Loincloth.
    • Beast VI/S's young form looks like a preteen girl, but is wearing a modified version of her adult self's Barely-There Swimwear
    • Chloe von Einzbern's outfit consists of what amounts to lingerie, not something one would have a young-looking girl like her wear.
    • Although Jack the Ripper is implied to be Older Than She Looks, her outfit is still unusually skimpy. Thankfully, she has a cape she can throw on over it.
    • Ushiwakamaru's wears just scant sleeves, a bikini bottom, and later a Chainmail Bikini. Her age is never approximated in-game, but Ushiwakamaru was the historical Minamoto no Yoshitsune's childhood name, and traditional Japanese naming convention has children receiving their adult name in their mid-teens, meaning this girl is about 14 at the oldest.
    • Utsumi Erice is 14, yet wears a very revealing short dress that has two side slits up to the shoulder.
  • In Final Fantasy X Rikku, for being 15 years old, wore some very short shorts, which is really nothing compared to her Stripperiffic outfit in Final Fantasy X-2, which takes place only 2 years later.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • As demonstrated in the page picture, the roughly 1,000-year old manakete Nowi from Fire Emblem: Awakening wears a dragonscale bikini top and garters that aren't terribly appropriate for her pre-teen looks and childish mannerisms. Based on other manaketes in the series, it'll be thousands of years before she actually looks old enough for such an outfit to be appropriate.
    • Speaking of manaketes, an Older and Wiser Tiki from Shadow Dragon and Mystery of Emblem appears about midway through Awakening, and it's clear that the two millennia between games have been very good to her. In the Harvest Scramble DLC map, a conversation between Tiki and Lucina has the latter try to get Tiki into the spirit of the festivities by dressing Tiki up in a replica of the clothes she wore as a child (her main outfit is now a short red dress and matching high-heeled thigh-high boots). The end results aren't shown on-screen, but Tiki is nothing short of mortified at how ill-fitting her old garments are on her adult body.
  • Genshin Impact
    • Fischl is heavily implied to be no older than a teenager. Yet her outfit appears to consist of what looks like some lingerine, a thigh high stocking on her left leg with a full legged stocking on her right, and a skirt that only covers her back.
    • Diona’s outfit shows off her midriff, and she wears some very short shorts. Problem is, she’s younger than Fischl, being no older than a preteen.
  • Rami Nana-Hikari from Keio Flying Squadron dresses in a Playboy Bunny outfit in most of the series, and she is only 14 years old. They gave her a more mature age in localization, however.
  • The Legend of Dragoon has Meru, a Wingly who looks like a 16-year-old girl and dresses like a go-go dancer.
  • Reco from Mushihime Sama. She's 15, but just look at the title image of that page.
  • Bad Girl from No More Heroes wears a cutesy little pink dress, despite being 20. It's apparently part of her mental issues.
  • Sherry Birkin of the Resident Evil franchise has an unlockable costume in Resident Evil 6's Mercenaries mode that appears to be her old outfit from 2. It doesn't fit her properly.
  • RosenkreuzStilette gives us Luste Teuber, a young and perky Magus who's entire outfit consist of a two-piece bikini as well as a choker. Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel makes her usual outfit look slightly more revealing. Lampshaded for laughs by Pamela.
    Pamela: What in God's name are you wearing!? There are limits to indecency!
  • Eddie from Silent Hill 2, a man in his mid-twenties or so, dresses like a bad caricature of a Dennis the Menace (US) character. Justified, as a lifetime of mockery regarding his weight and low intelligence seems to have seriously stunted his mental development.
  • Amy's Stripperific Elegant Gothic Lolita clothes in the Soul series, when she's only a young teenager at most. The Girlish Pigtails make it even more disorienting. Talim's skimpy midriff-revealing outfit from her debut in Soulcalibur II isn't much better.
  • Meracle of Star Ocean: The Last Hope wears a skintight and revealing outfit despite being a very young teenager - one who is childish and childlike in appearance.
  • More often than not, at least one of the costumes for the obligatory young party member in the various Tales Series games is of this nature.
    • In the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia, 12 year Karol gets a costume that consists of nothing more than tight leather pants and black shoes.
    • In Tales of Xillia, Elise's Star Driver and swimsuit costumes are rather skimpy for a shy girl of 13 years of age (who looks more like she's 10). The Star Driver outfit also gives her some rather flashy red lipstick, which does not help the dissonance.
    • Alice from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is 18 years old but wears an outfit you would expect from a 5 year old girl. For some reason she seems rather stuffy about her age when Marta points it out, despite still being very young.
    • Sophie from Tales of Graces can use Rutee's midriff bearing outfit as one of her costumes.
  • Tera is the king of this in the Korean version, with an entire race of girls with animal ears who never seem to grow past 8-10 years old. The outfit models for that race were little more than lingerie, and had to be toned way down for the American release. In fact, most of the cloth shown in the new models was added in for the exported version.
  • The Japan-only Sleeping Cocoon for the PlayStation features a Rare Male Example. Cirico, a Child Soldier who died young and became a Guardian Entity for the player, wears nothing but a single string of pearls from neck to (barely-covered) crotch should you choose his offensive evolutionary path.

    Webcomics 

    Web Animation 
  • Manga Women's Eden: Near the end of this story, Rika still dresses in jirai-kei fashion well into her forties and still posts selfies to get men's attention. Understandably, the men who see her selfies are grossed out by her immaturity and the fact no one would put up with a "minefield girl" in her forties.

    Web Videos 
  • Analyst Bronies React: Razor notes that Vice-Principal Luna's camping outfit in Legend of Everfree is more fitting for a ten-year-old Pokémon trainer.

    Western Animation 
  • This comes up, but is not explicitly-shown, in The Amazing World of Gumball. During the episode where Gumball, Anais and Darwin are Trapped in TV Land by being stuck in a JRPG parody, the four year-old Anais complains about looking like a Rummage Sale Reject, to which Gumball counters that she rejected an alternative outfit:
    Anais: Yeah, I don't think that was age-appropriate.
  • Alvin and the Chipmunks:
    • The Chipettes are often accused of this, with the two particular occasions that stand out as the episode "Goin' Down to Dixie" from the 80s series and the movie The Chipmunk Adventure. In the former, The Chipettes entertain on a riverboat that's also a floating hotel, where they sing Creedence Clearwater Revival's, "Proud Mary," while wearing New Orleans-inspired dresses. In the latter, The Chipettes find themselves in Egypt, where the Prince wants to marry Brittany, and they are later dressed in harem attire for the rest of the movie; the fact that they also charmed snakes by singing a song called "Gettin' Lucky" didn't help matters either.
    • In the Crocodile Rock music video from The Chipmunks: Rockin' Through the Decades, an unnamed chipmunk girl (often thought to be the original but later scrapped Chipette, Charlene) dresses in a tight red dress while wearing heels and make-up. She doesn't look much older than Alvin. The contrast is even more noticeable as Alvin is wearing a cutesy dinosaur getup for part of the video.
  • Invoked deliberately in the Big Mouth episode, "Girls Are Angry Too" with the "Slut Walk". The girls—around 12 to 14 years old, mind—dress in skimpy, sometimes borderline Stripperiffic outfits in the name of female empowerment and to protest school dress codes. This ends slightly more realistically than some examples, as the girls feel less empowered and more creeped out by the attention they're getting from both their male peers and certain older teachers.
  • In Bojack Horseman, Sarah Lynn dresses like a teenager despite recently turning 30, because of her inability to grow up. Later on, there's Wanda, who is at least in her forties, but dresses like she's still in her twenties, because she just got out of a long coma.
  • Daria: The episode "The Lost Girls" features Val, the middle-aged editor of a teen magazine who dresses like a teenager.
  • Downplayed by Pacifica Northwest in Gravity Falls, who is 12 or 13 but dresses like a high-school-aged valley girl.
    Grunkle Stan: Is it legal for a child to wear that much makeup?
  • Played for Laughs in the Hey Arnold! episode "Helga's Makeover". To fit in with the girls' slumber party, Helga puts on an outfit and makeup more reminiscent of a 16-year-old, even stuffing her bra to make her look more "girly". Eventually, after rejecting an equally age-inappropriate facial, she calls everyone out on the charade, pointing out they're only 9 years old.
  • Although it isn't intended as sexual, The Little Rascals first-season finale, "Class Act", has the Rascals dressed like adults: Alfalfa in a zoot suit with straw boater hat; Darla in a pink dress with high-heeled shoes, fancy hat and feather boa; Spanky in a Tacky Tuxedo, and Buckwheat with a tattered umbrella.
  • The Loud House: Lola Loud's regular outfit consists mainly of a pink dress that's too big for her.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Invoked as An Aesop in the episode "Lard of the Dance" where Alex, a new student and popular girl, persuades Lisa and other schoolgirls to imitate pop culture icons and wear age-inappropriate clothing.
    • Ironically, Lisa's red dress might be considered age-inappropriate to some, due to being strapless.
  • The South Park treatment of the "trend" of little girls dressing like skanky teenagers is the premise of "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset".
  • Fourteen-year-old Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars wears a very tiny tube top — on a battlefield, no less. George Lucas specifically requested that her original outfit be redesigned to show more skin. (And incidentally, George also intended her to be 11 in the Pilot Movie, although canon puts her official age at 14.) A Time Skip in the third season finally changes this; the older Ahsoka wears a more modest outfit that still features an open back and a Cleavage Window.
    • Incidently, Ahsoka's appearance only becomes more modest as she ages. She wears a jumpsuit in her walkabout arc in season seven, then a beskar plated dress during the Siege of Mandalore. She Then wore literal armor as an adult in Star Wars Rebels.
    • When Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi showed a training montage taking place across the span of her apprenticeship with Anakin, her outfit from the first two-and-a-half seasons of The Clone Wars was redesigned from the tube top to a padded sleeveless shirt with only a small bit of midriff exposed.
  • Similar to Ahsoka Tano, Wily Kit in Thunder Cats 2011 wears a shirt that is little more than a tube top.
  • In W.I.T.C.H. (2004), the Guardians when transformed wear skimpy, belly-baring outfits. A couple of characters bring this up in-universe, like Cornelia's mother in "W is for Witch", and given that the other side of the transformation involves a bit of an age boost...

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