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"We played Nintendo!
This was her very first date
I didn't wanna make it seem too fly.
We ate cereal!
She couldn't stay out late
Her mother told her to be home at nine!"
Another Bad Creation, "Iesha"

Awww! Don't they make a cute couple? C'mon! You know they were totally made for each other!

Yeah, we know they're only 8 years old, what's your point?

Sometimes, it happens that two characters display a startling amount of chemistry, even though they're both barely old enough to be interested in dating—heck, in an opposite-sex example they might even be making an exception to "Boys/girls have cooties!" (which may help explain their proneness to the Crush Blush; it's embarrassing!) It may be attempted by the authors if the show deals with characters of that age group, but still wants to add in a romantic subplot.

This trope can be Truth in Television as many people get their first crush sometime during elementary school. And sometimes this can turn into a lifelong marriage/relationship... although that is extraordinarily rare.

In most cases, those relations are completely devoid of sexual stuff, and won't qualify as squick for the audience. The simpler way is to ignore it completely, but it can also be used for humor. For example, the kids are so completely in the dark about sex, that they will do something completely trivial and think that that was sex. In other cases, they may discover what is sex really about, and react with some Disgust Tropes. Kissing? Who would want to taste the spit of someone else? The rare case where a kid couple knows exactly what sex is and/or participate in it is generally considered to be very unhealthy and cause for concern.

Sometimes, a couple that's a bit older will reference this as their backstory; one partner (usually a woman) says she started chasing the other (usually a man) back when they were kids, and that "it took me X years to catch him—but it was worth it."

May be due to a case of Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading or the fact that Most Writers Are Adults.

A Sister Trope to Toy Ship (the Shipping version), Childhood Marriage Promise, Kidanova. May develop into a Childhood Friend Romance as the characters age and subsequently cement itself as High-School Sweethearts.

Compare Precocious Crush (kid having affection for someone older), Father, I Want to Marry My Brother. Contrast December–December Romance and Affection-Hating Kid.

Not to be confused with Precious Puppy.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Asteroid in Love, Mira and Ao first met when they were elementary schoolers. The fact that Mira had a long-standing crush on Ao (after mistaking Ao for a boy) indicates this trope is in operation.
  • In the final episode of the 1980s version Astro Boy, Astro falls for a robot girl named Nyoka (Niki in English). Astro was sent on a spy mission in a foreign country to find the blueprints to a prototypical version of himself that had a bomb built in. The robot turned out to have already been built and was Nyoka. Nyoka doesn't make it past the episode due to being unable to disarm the bomb inside her. In memory of her, Astro decides to replace his legs with Nyoka's after her death. Considering Nyoka is based off an earlier version Astro Boy, this can be seen as Brother–Sister Incest.
  • Inverted in Black Lagoon with Hansel and Gretel. While they are two young kids in a pretty loving relationship, it is played purely for squick value.
  • The protagonists of Bokura no Hentai start the manga as middle schoolers. With just the main trio in mind, Ryousuke makes a girlfriend that he later dumps while Marika is in love with the slightly older Parou. The characters aren't presented as completely chaste despite their young ages, unlike many examples of this trope.
  • By the Grace of the Gods: Main character Ryoma is an 11-year-old boy who finds himself in this with 11-year-old girl Eliaria Jamil. Even when they are split off (since she attends a Wizarding School while he works on his own business), they keep sending letters to each other. Fans joke that Eliaria's family are helping Ryoma increase his standing so he can marry Eliaria when they become older. The first anime's opening makes things obvious from the get-go as it shows the two on a day-long date.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura and Syaoran fall in love and confess to each other when they're in elementary school. Although, the sequel confirms they don't officially start dating until middle school because Syaoran had to go back to Hong Kong for a while.
  • A flashback chapter in Case Closed reveals that Shinichi fell for Ran when they met in preschool, when he first saw her smile at him.
  • In Doctor Slump Obotchaman is deeply in love with Arale. (Both are Ridiculously Human Robots with the shapes and minds of children).
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku and Chi-Chi were very sweet together as kids in Dragon Ball though Goku misunderstood the Childhood Marriage Promise that Chi-Chi made him keep which caused some grief when they meet as teenagers. The anime expanded this with Filler of Goku and Chi-Chi meeting again when they were young and having an adorable fistfight together.
    • Kid Trunks and kid Mai in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Trunks boasts that she's his girlfriend and later they're seen in a tree watching the stars together. In Dragon Ball Super they got even more scenes together. Of course, depending on who you ask, this is cute or creepy as hell, since Mai was originally closer in age to Trunks' mother before getting de-aged into a baby around the same time he was born.
  • Fairy Tail: Natsu had a childhood friend named Lisanna who liked Playing House with him as the husband and Happy as their son. Lisanna said she wanted to marry Natsu for real when she grew up, but she died in an accident during a mission. Lisanna turns out to be alive, but she and Natsu don't show signs of any sort of romantic feelings for each other after their reunion.
  • Kisa and Hiro in Fruits Basket. They're both in their first year of middle school and are the youngest members of the Sohma clan's Eastern Zodiac. Hiro has a crush on Kisa and she's very implied to reciprocate, but the family head has forbidden the Zodiac members from having romantic relationships. Sadly, when Hiro admitted to liking Kisa, she was the one punished and he hasn't dared to act on his feelings ever since.
  • Al and May in Fullmetal Alchemist. May is a 13 year old but looks to be about 8 while Al is 14 but technically is the soul of a 10-year-old boy who got trapped inside a large armor. The ending seems to imply that they may have become a couple after growing up, as they're both shown in a family photograph along with Ed, Winry and their children.
  • Mamoru and Hana in GaoGaiGar. One episode even mentions a possible Childhood Marriage Promise… even though they're still in their childhood. At the end of the anime, all the other little kids get Hana into full wedding regalia to give him a kiss goodbye.
  • The five chapter manga The Gods Lie has two 11-year-old elementary schoolers falling for each other and running off together.
  • Avoided in Gunslinger Girl. One episode has Rico sparking a bond with a boy named Emilio on an assassination mission. Nothing ever becomes of it because she kills him later that day in order to Leave No Witnesses.
  • Hayate and Athena in Hayate the Combat Butler had this when they were 6. (Or at least he was. She might be Really 700 Years Old.) When they met again 10 years later, Hayate still loved her.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers: Chibitalia and the Holy Roman Empire. They even kissed in canon. And lots of hints point at them being together again as adults, Laser-Guided Amnesia and HRE apparently mistaking Chibitalia as a girl thanks to the maid outfit notwithstanding.
  • I Think Our Son Is Gay: Flackbacks to Hiroki's first and fifth grades show that he had unsubtle crushes on his male classmates at the time. Looking back to them, his mother muses that she could have worked out the truth much earlier if she'd been more open-minded.
  • In the anime of Inuyasha, Kagome's younger brother Souta hooks up with Hitomi, one of his elementary school classmates.
  • The kitsune Kon from Kemono Jihen developes a crush on the main character Kabane after getting to know him better. And while she is already fourteen years old, her abusive upbringing under Inari has stunted her emotional growth. As a result, she often acts more like a younger kid and has no experience with emotions like love or jealousy, causing her to mistake them for an illness note . Eventually, the two develope an innocent and very sweet friendship with each other.
  • Love Hina: When Keitaro was five years old, he had a crush on a girl around his age and they made a Childhood Marriage Promise. Turns out there were actually two girls who liked Keitaro back then; Mutsumi who is the same age as him and Naru who is three years younger. Keitaro can't remember which of them is the girl of his promise, but Naru thinks it must be Mutsumi because Naru was only two years old when Keitaro made his promise. However, Naru is eventually confirmed to be the girl of Keitaro's promise, but naturally forgot about it because she was a toddler at the time she and Keitaro first fell in love.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: Erio and Caro are set up as this, up to and including their Crash-Into Hello. This would make it one of the few overt (and straight) relationships in the fandom, and yet the theme of True Companions is so strong in the series they aren't even aware of being set up for a date at one point. Then again, Erio also doesn't seem to notice he's the only boy either… Subsequent stories make it clear that Caro was aiming for him all along, and has been managing a 3-year plot to get him. She succeeds.
  • The main couple of Man of Many Faces are the 9-year-old Gentleman Thief Akia and the 5-year-old Ojou Utako.
  • In both Mazinger Z and Shin Mazinger, Kouji's younger brother Shiro (no older than 10) has a huge crush on the New Transfer Student Lorelei Heinrich who's around his same age. And she quite likes him back, too! Then she turns out to be a Robot Girl and a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, built to fight Mazinger Z. It ends in tears.
  • Kanna and Saikawa from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, with a dash of Mayfly–December Romance. Although, their relationship is far more adult in nature than is the standard for elementary school kids. Saikawa Squees whenever Kanna does something adorable, and Kanna… well…
    Kanna: I wanted to ████ her.
  • Esteban and Zia from The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Although their relationship isn't overtly romantic, Esteban and Zia are an adorably inseparable couple. They're always holding hands, Esteban is always protecting her and whenever something scary happens they always cling together.
  • Nurse Angel Ririka SOS:
    • Ririka turns ten in the first episode. She bumps into Nozomu and falls for him instantly.
    • Nozomu is a Chick Magnet and has his own fanclub. The Alpha Bitch Miyuki has feelings for him, which makes her get along with Ririka even less.
    • Ririka herself has an admirer in her childhood friend Seiya however she doesn't notice his affections. Dewey also gains a crush on Ririka after his Heel–Face Turn.
    • Ririka's younger brother has a crush on a girl in his kindergarten class. However, she likes Dewey instead.
    • The topic of young love is discussed in episode 7. Ririka's father believes ten year olds are too young for crushes and should spend time playing instead. One of Ririka's classmates tells him that he's old fashioned and asks him if he had crushes at that age. She convinces him that ten year olds are old enough to be infatuated.
  • In One Piece, Vivi and Kohza were very cute when they were kids together, Vivi got particularly overcome when Kohza risk his life to protect her and swore that he would die if kept her safe. Years later Vivi and Kohza are still very close but due to the nature of the series remain platonic.
  • There's quite a bit of romantic tension in Pokémon Adventures, despite most Pokédex Holders being under 14 (at first, at least, since the series averts Comic-Book Time):
    • Misty has an unrequited crush on Red. They first met when they were both 10 but, though Red did seem to like her at first, Red is a Chaste Hero.
    • Yellow has a crush on Red, but whether he likes her back is left ambiguous.
    • Ruby and Sapphire are all but an Official Couple. They like each other and confess their feelings. However, Ruby forgetting the confession puts a dent in them currently being a couple.
    • 12-year-old Lacktwo broke up with his girlfriend Yancy at the start of his arc. The games did feature a romance option between his game counterpart (Nate) and Yancy, however, Nate is implied to be a little older than 12.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • The first few seasons of the anime played a fair bit of Ship Teasing between the 10-year-old Ash and Misty, which the dub cranked up a little further.
    • In Pokémon the Series: XY, 10-year-old Serena has a huge crush on Ash. True to his nature, Ash is completely unaware of her feelings. Surprisingly for a show that normally plays No Hugging, No Kissing straight for the main characters, she ends up kissing him in the final episode before leaving him, and even promises to become a more mature woman for him by the time they meet again.
  • Subverted by Prince Juda and Princess Alexandra in Red River (1995). They meet when they're very young teenagers, but don't fall in love and marry until quite a while later.
  • Sonic X has Tails, an 8-year-old kit, fall in love with Cosmo, a young-looking anthropomorphic flower. It ends tragically.
  • Chris and Joy, in Superbook of all places. She even mentions that they will get married when they grow up.
  • Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note:
  • Bu-ling and Taruto in Tokyo Mew Mew. Both are the kids of their teams and despite being enemies, they get a cute crush on each other after he saves her from his own monster.
  • UFO Baby includes Momo, age 3, who has a crush on Ruu (or Luu), a baby.
  • Wandering Son being mainly set in late elementary and middle school has quite a sum of this:
    • Riku and Maho begin dating by their second year of middle school and stay together even to the end, when they're roughly 19.
    • Maho's sister Nitori begins dating Anna when she's around 11 to 12, but Anna is at least 2 years older. They break off for a bit a while later, but begin dating again in high school.
    • Saori has a huge crush on Nitori however it is very unrequited. Saori in turn has her own admirer in Fumiya, but she hates him until they begin dating in high school.
    • Nitori had a crush on Takatsuki in 6th grade. She confessed to them, but was turned down. That same week Saori confessed to her, which she turned down.
    • Mako is crushing prone but mid-middle school she starts having an unrequited crush on Oka.
  • Nate from Yo-kai Watch is an elementary boy who has an unrequited crush on his classmate Katie. Thirty years later in Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside they are married.

    Arts 
  • Psyche and Cupid (Bouguereau): "Cupid and Psyche as Children" captures the beginning of the title character's romantic love. They are both toddlers.

    Asian Animation 
  • Pucca: The titular character is a Cute Mute who has a crush on her ninja boyfriend Garu.

    Comic Books 
  • Amelia Rules!, despite being great in most other respects, abuses this trope and seems to have built later parts around it. Although occasionally averted or lampshaded, this trope is mostly played straight; the eponymous character (who is 9) has two love interests (also 9).
  • Fantastic Four: Child Prodigies Valeria Richards and Bentley 23 (child clone of The Wizard). Lampshaded: When Bentley admits his love to her, Valeria quips that's she's only 3 years old. Bentley just asks her to avoid spoiling the mood
  • Journey into Mystery:
    • In Thor Son of Asgard young Thor and young Sif have multiple moments together which they clearly carried (over millions of years) into their adulthood.
    • Journey into Mystery (Gillen):
      • Kid Loki and the mistress of Hel's handmaiden, Leah. Like Calvin and Susie, they also show a degree of sexual tension, though Loki insists that they're "B.F.F."s. After Leah re-merges with Hel, a distraught Loki snaps that "I don't care about the stupid kissing. She was much more important than that."
      • When, later, Leah returns from the dead as a servant of Surtur, Kid Loki deliberately gambles both Asgardia's fate and his reputation among the other Asgardians to increase the odds of freeing and saving her. She is impressed enough. After all, to him, she was "The stern girl whose few kind words were more precious than Asgard's whole treasury"
  • The Little Archies spinoff of Archie Comics features younger versions of the characters. None of them are over 9, but Archie, Betty, and Veronica still had their infamous Love Triangle going on.
  • Post-Crisis Robin (Dick Grayson) and Batgirl (Barbra Gordon) had multiple moments of this and developed their relationship further in their adult life. Similarly Tim Drake and Stephine Brown had a relationship when they were teenagers but unlike Dick and Barb drifted apart when they grew older.
  • In the Smallvile comic Wonder Woman as a girl meets Steve Trevor when he washes ashore home island as a boy leading to this ridiculously adorable line.
    Diana: My name is Diana of Themyscira... (she grabs his hand) and you Steve Trevor will be my secret boy!
  • Tiny Titans features some of this. For example, Beast Boy is head over heels for Terra, but Terra hates him and frequently throws rocks at him.
  • Romance develops between young Carl and Sophia in The Walking Dead. Averted in the TV series as Sophia dies early on in it.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Susie from Calvin and Hobbes have Toy Belligerent Sexual Tension, of all things. It's a bit blatant in the earlier strips, but got more subtle as time went by and Bill Watterson got a better sense of both characters' personalities and could let them bounce off each other.
  • Crabgrass: Miles and Carla. Though Miles denies it at first, this comic leaves no doubt about his true feelings for her.
  • Cul-de-sac:
    • 10-year-olds Viola D'Amore and Petey Otterloop.
    • And Dill has already said that he plans to marry Alice when they grow up. They're 4!
  • Dennis the Menace: Dennis Mitchell and Gina Gillotti. And Margaret.
  • Jason Fox and Eileen Jacobson in FoxTrot. They're 10.
  • Little Nemo: Nemo and the Princess.
  • Love Is... is ostensibly cutesy expressions of love illustrated by cherubim. However, it also fits Homer Simpson's description: "It's about two naked 8-year-olds who are married."
  • Nancy and Sluggo.
  • Peanuts has several, although they're all unrequited crushes.
    • Charlie Brown is in love with the Little Red Haired Girl.
    • Lucy is in love with Schroeder, to the point of fantasizing about them being married.
    • Sally is in love with Linus.
    • Both Peppermint Patty and Marcie have shown interest in Charlie Brown.
  • The Chilean line of Daily Planners with comic storyline Pascualina and Artilugia are based on this. Artilugia even more so, because the plot is about Aldonza, a girl of about 10-11 years old (and the now teenage Pascualina's younger sister) who, after moving back to the town she used to live some years ago, discovered that Bruno, the boy she extorted a Childhood Marriage Promise back then, is now being approached by the Alpha Bitch of their class and seems to return her affections… In a attempt to seduce him back she creates the alternate persona of "Artilugia", essentially a more extroverted and eccentric version of herself. With the irony that now she is in a sort of Two-Person Love Triangle, because Bruno is truly in love with Aldonza and now is falling too for Artilugia, but Status Quo Is God so he's too dense to realize both are the same person.

    Fan Works 
  • A number of Heroes fics pair Micah with Molly. They do have a fair amount in common, especially after Micah's parents are both killed.
  • Jigsaw: Takatsuki is a middle schooler with (likely unrequited) feelings on their classmate Saori.
  • In Lady and the Tramp III: Family Troubles, Scamp's father gets into an argument with him on his literal case of puppy love. Tramp doesn't think that Angel and Scamp could genuinely be in love considering their ages. Scamp rebukes this by mentioning his father fell for his mother quickly as well:
    Scamp: "But… I love her, Dad."
    Tramp: "Whirlwind, you're a puppy. I know you like her a lot, but you don't love her - truth be told, you barely even know her. You can't just say you love her after a couple days- "
    Scamp: " -A couple days? And how long did you know Mom before deciding you loved her? Oh, right, just a couple days!"
  • Lincoln's Memories: Clyde McBride has been crushing on Lori since he was five (and she was eleven).
  • Deconstructed in Love Worth Waiting For when Little Brother's soulmate turns out to be Peter Pan. For a boy that prides himself in never growing up, romance is the farthest thing Peter wants. He initially rejects Little Brother.
  • The Harry Potter fanfic The New Marauders by PotterFanSteve has Al Potter and Carolyn, who are pretty clearly destined for each other from the age of 2 (actually 3, as Al continually reminds everyone) when Carolyn plants a (childish, innocent) kiss on him on Valentine's Day. It's kind of adorable and not really squicky, mostly because the story makes it pretty clear that Carolyn was imitating Harry and Ginny. After that, the two are just best friends until they're 12 and 11, respectively, and even when they start dating not much more than cuddling and a bit of kissing goes on until the two really hit puberty.
  • The Night Unfurls: Sanakan and Hugh have been in love with each other since they met each other as orphaned pickpockets. Then, they grow as hunters and literally make out in Chapter 18.
  • In Operation: S.O.U.L.M.A.T.E., Wally and Kuki are in love with each other despite being 9, and never able to age past 10.
  • Phoenix's SSBB Case Files has a case where Pearl has an obvious crush on Pit.
  • It's implied in The Road Built in Hope that Dorothy likes her best friend Ozma (or that she could like her someday).
  • A combination of reveals around series 4 of Skins has resulted in a clutch of fics exploring Naomi and Emily's Toy Ship potential (the book notes that Emily's been in love with Naomi since middle school (approx. ages 8 to 12), while the S4 finale reveals that Naomi fell in Love at First Sight when she was 12).
  • It's deconstructed in Wonder (2012) where the preteen protagonists decide they're too young to be dating. This also justifies why August and Summer are Implied Love Interests.

    Films — Animation 
  • Alpha and Omega
    • In the prologue of the first movie, Kate and Humphrey are shown to have some degree of cute chemistry when they're younger. Then again, Humphrey's been smitten with her since they were pups.
    • A literal example occurs in Alpha and Omega 3: The Great Wolf Games between Humphrey and Kate's daughter Claudette and a Northern Region cub named Fleet who become fond of and try to help each other despite being competitors in the titular games.
  • Eilonwy and Taran in The Black Cauldron. Their ages are rather vague, but they seem to be around 14 years old at most.
  • In the Hotel Transylvania films, the werewolf puppy Winnie has a big crush on Dennis, Dracula's little Dhampyr grandson. By Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Winnie tries to get Dennis to look her in the eyes to make a "zing" with him, but he feels he's too young to zing.
  • Appears in Jungledyret Hugo, between Hugo and the fox Rita. Doubles as an Interspecies Romance.
  • A literal example occurs in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure where the main couple are Scamp and Angel, a pair of puppies.
  • The Lion King:
    • The first movie contains strong hints that Simba and Nala already had feelings for each other as cubs, despite them being grossed out by the idea of getting married when they grew up. When they reunite as adults, they do fall in love.
    • In Simba's Pride, Kiara and Kovu first meet as young cubs and quickly hit it off, with Kiara acting quite flirty while Kovu gets embarrassed. Like Simba and Nala, they become a couple when they're adults.
  • Migration: Implied to be the case with Dax and Kim. Kim is quick to invite Dax and his family to join her flock on their migration. She hugs him when they reunite in Jamaica, and they even salsa dance together.
  • The theatrical animated film based on the Tintin book "Prisoners of the Sun" has a very touching, Played for Drama one between Zorrino, a poor little boy, and Mahita, the young princess of the hidden Inca city.
  • Toy Story That Time Forgot: Trixie the triceratops is, at most, 4 years old, note  and Reptilus Maximus has only been out of his packaging for 2 days. He does his best to make her feel like a real dinosaur, she shows him what it means to be a toy, and they're both absolutely adorable.
  • Up: Carl and Ellie first met when they were little kids. It was love almost at first sight.
  • Cecilia and Louie from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Addams Family Values Wednesday and Joel.
    Wednesday: Joel, I may never see you again. There are forces tearing us apart—Gary, Debbie, 7th grade.
  • The Blue Lagoon (film, more than book) starts out this way.
  • Casper has a gender-flipped Boy Meets Ghoul variation between Casper (a ghost who died when he was 12) and Kat (who's 13).
  • Fido: Many of the interactions between Timmy and Cindy (both of whom are about ten). There first scene actually has a moment where he's staring at her as the Donny Osmond song Puppy Love is playing.
  • Flipped: The basic love story of Bryce and Juli who meet since they were second graders and their switching feelings as they grow up as 7th graders.
  • Forrest Gump: Forrest falls in Love at First Sight with Jenny on their first day at elementary school.
  • Let Me In is mainly about the budding relationship between a lonley, bullied 12 year old boy and a vampire whose stuck mentally and physically at the age of 12. Despite the film being a rather brutal horror film, their relationship is shown to be very innocent and sweet. Their bonding usually invovles long hugs and they only kiss twice in the entire film and those amounted to two quick pecks on the boy's cheek and lips. Their most intimiate moment was when after killing someone she snuck into his room to comfort herself. Despite the fact that involved her stripping naked, crawling into his bed and cudding with him it was portrayed more as a innocent sleepover than anything sexual.
  • Shows up in Let the Right One In between 12 year old boy and a little vampire girl who is not actually a girl.
  • Little Manhattan is Puppy Love: The Movie, as it's about a 10-year-old boy who falls in love with his 11-year-old friend.
  • The Little Rascals has Alfalfa and Darla in all incarnations of the series. The short "Hearts Are Thump" has the boys scoffing at Valentine's Day and saying they hate women, to the point where they start the He-Man Woman Haters Club. Darla then walks by and Alfalfa becomes smitten with her, ignoring his oath. In the 1994 movie, they still act this way until the sudden break-up (no thanks to Spanky's plan to botch the date), making Alfalfa try to win Darla back in the course of the movie, and at the last part of the movie, everyone in the cast end up with one.
  • A Little Romance is also Puppy Love: The Movie. Lauren and Daniel are about 12 and attempt to conduct their affair as mature partners would, even going to Venice with an adult friend. One of Diane Lane's first pictures, and some still think her best.
  • In Love at the Christmas Table, Sam and Kat meet at the age of four, and fall in and love with each other over the years.
  • Ma Vie En Rose: Ludovic has a crush on Jérôme, a boy around her age who's the son of her dad's boss, and stages a mock wedding with him. She even says she'll marry Jérôme when they grow up for real.
  • Melody (S.W.A.L.K.) is this with 10-and-a-half-year-olds Daniel Latimer and Melody Perkins, complete with an unofficial wedding and elopement at the end, which came decades earlier than Moonrise Kingdom and helped inspire it.
  • Mirror, Mirror the Queen tricks Prince Andrew into drinking a coffee that is laced with a Love Potion, although she realizes that potion is actually a puppy love potion, which makes the prince act like a puppy.
  • Moonrise Kingdom is mainly about two 12-year-old misfits who fall in love as pen pals and decide to run away together. They even get "married". By a Boy Scout leader.
  • Played with regarding Pete and Natalie in Pete's Dragon (2016) though it's never outright confirmed.
  • The 2003 film version of Peter Pan had a lot of critics creeped out. However, this one is from the book. Peter never grew up so he doesn't understand this, but Wendy and Tinkerbell are not competing to be his best friend, hence the whole thing with the "kiss". The actors playing Peter and Wendy were in their early teens, so realistically the characters could be experiencing actual crushes.
  • The Phantom Menace gives us 9-year-old Anakin and 14-year-old Padme. This, of course, gets reciprocated; but not until he's much older.
  • The second Stuart Little features a romance between Stuart and a bird named Margalo. The characters voices muddle up their ages but Stuart is treated as the younger son in the Little family.
  • Super 8 has this between Joe and Alice - something muddled up because their fathers intensely dislike each other (Alice's dad indirectly caused Joe's mum's death) and because Joe's best friend also likes Alice.
  • Tomboy is about Laure, a pre-teen girl passing as a boy named Mickaël. She starts a relationship with another pre-teen girl, Lisa, who doesn't know that "Mickaël" is a girl.

    Literature 
  • In Rosemary Wells's stories, we have Timothy and Yoko, it's been implied in her books starring Yoko or Timothy that they both have a crush on each other. Helps that they are both best friends. Especially in the Nelvana animated adaptation. This also applies to Felix and Fiona, and Benjamin and Tulip. It's also slightly implied with Otto and Melanie, literally.
  • Tom and Becky in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who get "engaged" shortly after meeting. Before he met her, Tom was "engaged" to another girl named Amy Lawrence, which causes no small amount of trouble between them when Becky finds out.
  • Angela Nicely: Just like in the parent series, Angela has an unrequited crush on Bertie and thinks of herself as his girlfriend.
  • Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. is loaded with this, seeing as it's a book about puberty.
  • In Ariel (Block) Ariel and Erskine, both twelve, have become good friends, and while Erskine cracks crude sex jokes all the time, they agree that they don't really want to have sex, because they are friends.
  • Kate from The Art of Being Normal has been in love with Zachary Olsen for ten years ago when she was four.
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm: When Lutz's older brother Ralph is introduced, one of the first things he does is smell Tuuli's hair and give her a compliment he seems to appreciate a lot. Myne promptly becomes a silent Shipper on Deck for them.
  • The Babysitters Club: In a Valentine's Day-themed book, the girls discuss how cute the crushes that a couple of kids they regularly sit for have on each other are.
  • A pretty weird example in a short story called The Brushwood Boy by Rudyard Kipling, it follows the life of a man named George Cottar from childhood to a glittering public school career and finally distinguished army service in India. Throughout it all, he remains totally uninterested and unaware of women, despite them constantly throwing themselves at him. However, since early childhood he's nightly had dreams about a girl he met once at a pantomime, sharing adventures with her in an unchanging dreamscape. He thinks she's a figment of his imagination, but, when he's on leave from the army decades later, his mother invites an old friend and her daughter (who's just composed this charming song about dream adventures she's has all her life with an imaginary boy) to tea… Long story short, it ends the day after she arrives with the two of them lamenting the fact that they need to go through the formality of getting engaged before marrying.
  • In Dragon Blood, it is mentioned that Ward was in love with a servant girl when he was about 15, followed her everywhere like a puppy, and carried her things for her. His brother Tosten (about 12 at the time) was jealous because he had a crush on the same girl. The reasons for this are not quite so cute; the girl was shoved into Ward's room by his aunt, to protect her from being raped by his father. His following her around may have been out of devotion, but likely it also was to protect her from a second rape attempt. People made fun of it because Ward was Obfuscating Stupidity at the time, and everyone thought he was mentally retarded.
  • The Encyclopedia Brown series has several cases that Encyclopedia solves involve friends of his or other kids around the same age as him and their love interests.
  • His Dark Materials: Will and Lyra become the Official Couple. At the close of The Amber Spyglass, they are (implicitly) 13, and their daemons have just "settled", indicating they are on the verge of puberty. Some fans are a little put off by this, especially because, to fulfill The Power of Love, after a slow, tense, sensuous buildup to their First Kiss, the two touch each other's daemons, a powerfully forbidden and intimate act on par with having sex. It does help that neither of them really act as young as they really are, though.
  • The Holts: It was love as first sight when twelve-year-olds Mike Holt and Eden Brentwood first met at a friends and family gathering in Oklahoma. They do eventually marry three novels later.
  • How to Get Married… by Me, the Bride, a picture book, by Sally Lloyd Jones and Sue Heap.
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians starts off this way between Percy and Annabeth in the beginning, but their relationship doesn't actually begin until they're both 16.
  • Christine and Raoul from The Phantom of the Opera were adorable together as children as entailed in a flashback. They first met when Christine's scarf was blown into the sea and Raoul ran in to retrieve it getting soaked as a result, but Christine laughed and kissed Raoul in thanks and they were inseparable until they were teenagers. Most adaptations don't tend to go into Christine and Raoul's childhood which is a shame because it might’ve swayed fans away from wanting Christine to be with the titular Phantom.
  • Most of Redwall's main characters and their love interests are about 13, and Matthias and Cornflower were actually engaged at that age and had a kid within a year (though, being mice and there being timeline issues throughout the series, it's possible that was the equivalent of 4 years in a human lifespan).
  • The Reynard Cycle: Lionel has a very obvious crush on Precieuse, his personal doctor/hairdresser/future mistress. She's 14. He's 8.
  • Matteo and Ruth in Someone Else's War, though it's by no means the main focus of the book.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Jaime and Cersei. Well, technically. It seems like it's been going on for as long as either of them can remember.
    • Tweens Myrcella and Dornish prince Trystane Martell.
    • Eleven-year-old Sansa Stark is delighted by her Arranged Marriage to the tall, handsome twelve-year-old crown prince Joffrey Baratheon. Joffrey even makes a show of courting her. It's not long after that, though, that his veneer slips and he turns out to be a petulant brat at best and an abusive sociopath at worst.
  • The Things They Carried: Tim O'Brien's semi-autobiographical novel features the love story of Timmy and Linda, quite possibly the saddest story in a novel centered around The Vietnam War.
  • Scout and Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird—although it's rather ambiguous if they actually have crushes on each other, or are just claiming they do as part of acting grown up.
  • In the third Warrior Cats arc, Lionpaw and Heatherpaw (who are both young apprentices) become friends and begin to sneak away at night to play with each other, and they start to realize that they have actual feelings for each other.

    Live-Action TV 
  • More than one episode of The Baby-Sitters Club (1990) revolves around the 12 and 13 year old protagonists having crushes on boys.
  • Carrusel in particular had several, seeing that around 80% of the cast was formed by kids no older than 10-12. The most notorious ones were Cirilo's one-sided crush on Maria Joaquina as well as David and Valeria (and the brief love triangle with Margarita).
  • DÃ¥rfinkar & dönickar (Loonies & Phonies), a Swedish TV series from 1989 about a 12-year-old girl, Simone, who goes to school as a boy. Simone and her classmate Isak fall in love, while another classmate, Kattis, crushes on the boy she thinks Simone is, and Isak and Kattis have a brief flirtation. Two other kids in their class, Anna and Pepsi (yes, Pepsi is a nickname, not an actual Swedish name) also seem to have a thing.
  • In Ebba och Didrik, also a Swedish kids' TV show, 9-year-old Ebba and her best friend and sweetheart Philip love one another devotedly. They are building a house together in the woods and plan on living there, till Ebba meets Martin, a poor little rich boy with lots of flashy toys.
  • El Club de los Tigritos was big at this. Venezuelans old enough to have been a kid in The '90s would remember all the tween soaps this show spawned, especially the ones done as kid salsa orchestra Salserín vehicles. It seemed that once you surpassed the 11 years old mark you could engage in your first Love Triangle.
  • Eva & Adam, yet another Swedish kids' TV show, follows the romantic fortunes of its title characters, about 11 to 13, who become a couple early on. Their classmates have various romantic entanglements too; indeed, Eva and Adam ship their respective best friends as a couple and try to get them together. It almost works.
  • Everybody Hates Chris Chris and his big love, Tasha (although the other Wiki describes their relationship to be deliberately platonic). To strengthen their newly-forged friendship (which he had been looking forward to for more than a season), he invites his notary public with a stack of documents. Ironically, it is Chris, who ultimately breaks up with Tasha. In the same episode.
  • Gentefied: Ana's elementary school-aged sister Nayeli starts off a childish, long-distance flirtation with a classmate who moves away. She steals Ana's phone and they talk about snacks.
  • Gotham has Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle as a preteen and an early teenager respectively. As is the norm they hit it off.
  • Let the Right One In: Eleanor and Isaiah are both twelve (though for her, only in appearance). After becoming friends, Isaiah falls for Eleanor, telling her how he loves her. This may well be the first girl he's ever liked that way.
  • On Happy Days, Joanie suffers a case of puppy love when Potsie (in a practice session) sings "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" to her.
  • House: The episode "Two Stories" subverted its usual formula of opening with a scene of someone doing something and then someone (sometimes the same person, sometimes someone else) falling extremely sick, instead focusing on a pair of kids about to make out behind the school at recess when a teacher catches them… and then when they get taken to the principal's office, Dr. House is there as well and is in trouble for some shenanigans at Career Day. Most of the episode is then told in flashbacks, and upon seeing the class that House was talking to, it becomes quite obvious that this is an elementary school. (It eventually comes to light that these characters-of-the-day are fifth graders, which is actually about the right time for kids to begin putting aside their "girls/boys are yucky" feelings from when they're younger.) The kids then manage to show that they're much more mature than House when it comes to handling relationships.
  • Little Lunch: The episode "The Kiss-Chasey Oval" deals with Tamara having a crush on Batty, although he's less than reciprocating - until she kisses him at the end of the episode, which he seems to surprisingly enjoy. The episode "The Relationship" deals with Rory being asked out by a girl in grade 6, whom we never actually meet, but eventually it turns out the girl he really likes is Debra Jo.
  • Livet enligt Rosa (Life According to Rosa), another Swedish kids' TV show, portrays its 12-year-old protagonist having crushes on five guys and relationships with three of them before she realises her best friend Ville was the one for her all along.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: Although he doesn't start high school until the 4th season, Malcolm has quite a few girlfriends and love interests before then.
  • My Dead Ex: Ben and Charley had once "dated" as pre-teen kids. Even now that it's years later and Charley's drawn to a different boy, Ben is still into her.
  • The Nanny occasionally has moments of this with Grace and boys her age, as well as with Brighton while a preteen and girls his age.
  • Ned and Chuck of Pushing Daisies first fell in love as children.
  • Scrubs: J.D. and Turk try to hook up their children with each other even when they are still infants, mostly so the two fathers could spend more time together as soon as possible. The finale of the eighth season has J.D. visioning his son affiancing with Turk's daughter.
  • The series 4 finale of Skins makes it clear that, from Naomi's side at least, she and Emily were always this.
    Naomi: "I loved you from the first time I saw you. I think I was twelve."
  • Stranger Things:
    • Mike and Eleven, who are both around twelve years old and clearly crushing hard on the other. With The Big Damn Kiss and invite to the school dance included in the first season finale. And another The Big Damn Kiss while actually getting to have that dance at the end of season 2. Earn Your Happy Ending indeed.
    • Season 2 introduces Max, who becomes this with Lucas, and they become an Official Couple come Season 3.
  • The White Queen: In their first scene together, which takes place on May 26, 1465, Anne Neville is 8 years old and Richard of Gloucester is 12. It's made plain from the way they gaze dreamily at each other that they share a mutual crush, and it's hinted that their romantic feelings had developed when Richard had stayed at her father's castle to train as a knight. Anne has a Crush Blush in front of her sister and mother when they discuss the possibility that Anne might be betrothed to Richard in the near future (although the king ends up rejecting the match). Whenever her father brings up the topic of an upcoming Arranged Marriage for her, Anne expresses her hope on two separate occasions that her intended will be Richard. Richard retains a deep fondness for Anne even when they are kept apart by war and politics, and he's genuinely shocked and upset when he learns that she's engaged to his enemy's son. He receives a lingering Reaction Shot to drive home to viewers that he still adores her.

    Music 
  • The appropriately named "Puppy Love" by Paul Anka is about the singer falling in love at seventeen, and getting defensive when adults dismiss it as "just puppy love," insisting it is true love.
  • The video for A Lambada by the Brazilian band Kaoma has a dorky-looking Afro-Brazilian percusionist boy as the sort-of Team Pet of the band, and he falls for the just as young blonde waitress of the beach local they're playing in. The girl's boss slaps her when she skips off to dance with the boy, but by the end of the video they do it again and the singer of the group convinces him to dance with her and let the kids have fun.
  • "Iesha" by Another Bad Creation, the song quoted above. ABC were a preteen quartet discovered by Michael Bivin. The song recounts the lead singer meeting Iesha at the playground and falling in love with her "on the monkey bars".
  • "Europa and the Pirate Twins" Thomas Dolby, a song about very young lovers separated by war. Possibly allegorical.
  • "Rebecca Lynn" by Bryan White. It's about two children, including the title character, who fall in love "long about the start of second grade", and grow up to become each other's Victorious Childhood Friend.
  • The similarly themed "Check Yes Or No" by George Strait. The narrator and his crush, Emmylou Hayes, fall in love in third grade.
  • "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride. The little neighbor boy falls for the little girl protagonist. It doesn't end well. Or it might. Or is that boy her guardian angel?
  • "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder; the song starts out describing this trope and how it evolves into a Childhood Friend Romance.
  • The music video for "Everything Has Changed" by Taylor Swift shows two kids (who look remarkably similar to Taylor and Ed Sheeran, who collaborated with her on the song) falling in love over the course of a school day.
  • The Israeli song "Bad Boy" is about a girl just short of ten, in love with a somewhat younger boy. What she describes is a rather clear case of Domestic Abuse.
  • The 1929 song "If I Had A Talking Picture" has a section where a little boy sings about how he wants a talking picture of a similarly aged girl.
  • "I'm Already Taken" by Steve Wariner has the "it took years to catch them" variant: the narrator eventually married the girl he liked in third grade, but she rejected him both then and when they were teenagers because she liked someone else.
  • Jan and Dean's "Baby Talk":
    I am only five years old and my baby's three
    But I know that she's the girl, just you wait and see
  • Nat King Cole's "Too Young".
    They try to tell us we're too young
    Too young to really be in love
  • "It's 'Orrible Being in Love (When You're 8½)" by Claire and Friends. (Claire was, in fact, nine at time of recording.)
  • In the Louvin Brothers' "Tiny Broken Heart" the seven-year-old protagonist is devastated because the neighbors are moving.
    Oh no, he cried, dear God don’t let it be
    They can’t take my sweetheart away

    Theater 

    Video Games 
  • Alba: A Wildlife Adventure: Juanito appears to have a crush on Alba, but has no idea what to do about it.
    "Uhm... anyway, it's a great beach, and if you ever... wanted to take a relaxing walk, we... er... you should do that."
  • BioShock 2 has a side story involving a young boy named Billy Parson, who left behind a letter for a Little Sister that he had a crush on, saying he thinks her glowing eyes are pretty and her Big Daddy chaperone — even though many are scared of him — looks like a superhero. This didn't go anywhere (tragically in large part because based on the context, it was written just before Rapture went to hell), but the letter mentions he left behind a gift for her at a secret location — go there and punch in the passcode he provided, and you'll find a box containing a single rose. Aww.
  • Castlevania 64: One of the imperfect endings suggests a likely relationship between Carrie and Malus. It would be cuter if Malus wasn't, you know...
  • Dragon Quest II: In Leftwyne, you will find a boy and a girl. Talk to the girl and she will complain that you are interrupting a lovers' tryst.
  • Ness and Paula of EarthBound (1994) is implied, though the only true Official Couple of the series is Ninten/Ana in EarthBound Beginnings.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud and Tifa have an iconic moment of Puppy Love on top of the well where they make The Promise together. The remake adds more adorable Puppy Love scenes, including one in which Tifa as a little girl asks Cloud to come and play with her — because of his big crush on her, Cloud moves past shyly, making Tifa think that he's rudely ignoring her.
  • Herve and Cecilia in Folklore are a particularly sad and sweet case. Even though both of them were only children, she risked her life and soul to save him, and in the end he gave his life willingly to save hers.
  • Harvest Moon and Rune Factory:
    • In some of the games, you essentially take part in this yourself if you decide to ship your first character's child with another child.
    • There are more conventional examples throughout the series: Stu and May in Back to Nature and Friends of Mineral Town, Hugh and Katie in A Wonderful Life and HM DS, Charlie and Eliza in Island Of Happiness, Rahi and Ying in The Tale of Two Towns, Cecilia and Nicholas in Rune Factory and Candy and Marco in Rune Factory Frontier.
    • In Rune Factory 2, you can invoke this for your own character—the game's second half has the protagonist's child as the player character. He or she can "get married"note  to one of their friends. One of your options is a pair of Cloud Cuckoo Lander twin sisters who don't really get the whole thing and think "marriage" has something to do with toast.
  • In Harvest Town, all the boys are attracted to Peach. Justin collects bottles to give to Peach, who uses them to send Message in a Bottle for her parents. Glen often brings baby chicks from his farm to show to Peach, while Jerry wishes to give Peach a pony when they're both grown up.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • This is partly what has earned Ocarina of Time's Link his reputation as a Kirk-level ladies' man. Saria (though since Kokiri look like children all their lives, there's no telling how old she actually is) and Princess Ruto both had crushes on him (though how much he reciprocated those crushes varied, as he seems more afraid of Ruto than anything). There is also the fact that one of the Gossip Stones talks about how Malon is waiting for a "Knight in Shining Armor" to come sweep her off her feet. Link carries a shield and sword and is possibly related to the Knights of Hyrule. Her father offers to let Link marry her when he's young as a joke, with the player given the option to say yes or no (with the same result either way).
    • The Spirit Tracks versions of Link and Zelda may be kids, but the implied attraction between them is palpable, complete with Crush Blushes and Held Gazes. Heck, the last shot before the credits roll is of them holding hands while gazing into the sunset.
  • Pac-Man Junior fell for a ghost named Yum-Yum in one game. It's also a case of Starcrossed Lovers, since the two species hate each other (and ghosts apparently eat Pac-people).
  • In Pokémon Sword and Shield, one Schoolgirlnote  in the Battle Tower claims she's going to go vent to her boyfriend in her defeat quote.
  • In Potion Permit, Laura wishes to marry her best friend Russo when she grows up.
  • Psychonauts: Lili and Raz end up kissing, even though both are 10. Lili and Raz are far from the only pairing. It almost makes one suspect that Psychic Powers accelerate psychological development. After all, understanding other people would be much easier and you'll probably pick up details from nearby adults.
  • Sengoku Basara: Ranmaru Mori and Itsuki often hang around together and Itsuki sometimes does scenes on him. She acts rather Tsundere, fighting him and in the end making him dinner (in Sengoku Basara: Battle Heroes).
  • Exaggerated in Secret of Mana, where one of the towns has a house with a pair of married children!
    Boy husband: Age means nothing, as long as there's love! Adults just don't get it!
  • Super Robot Wars manages to take this up a level by mixing it with Les Yay. Latooni Subota and Shine-hime have some very interesting dialogue, not to mention their combination attack in the Faerlions.
  • Tadpole Treble stars Baton, a tadpole who Really Was Born Yesterday. The level Midnight Bayou is home to fellow tadpole, Sonata, who sings a heartfelt love song to Baton as that stage's musical score. The whole thing is played for laughs. The game even points out that Sonata thinking that Baton is the most beautiful girl he's seen in his life doesn't mean much when his entire life only extends to yesterday.
Tales Series:

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • The two protagonists of The Boy in Pink Earmuffs are this, though a rare case of two boys.
  • Elwood (2015):
    • The webcomic continues the Ship Tease between D.W. and James from Arthur, who are now eight years old, and it seems that Everyone Can See It, even themselves, though neither of them can quite admit it. There's a whole arc, "Play-Date," dedicated to exploring their feelings for each other. After the conclusion of that arc, they have finally all but confessed to each other.
    • Two of D.W. and James' classmates, Sarah and Liam, are also shown to have feelings for each other, although they are a lot more open about it. Unlike the D.W. and James example, this one has virtually no canon precedent.
    • Another one of D.W.'s classmates, Lucy, is shown to have a crush on Bud Compson.
    • On the preteen side of things, Ladonna Compson and George Lundgren are shown to have feelings for each other; they kiss while watching TV together in one strip.
  • Erma: There's a good amount of Ship Tease between Erma and her buck-toothed classmate Connor.
  • Housepets! takes this literally when one of King's pups, Olive, develops a crush on the cougar cub Pueblo.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Although they didn't recognize each other when they met as adults, it turns out that Bob and Jean had met briefly as children. And they were adorable together.
  • JL8 is an Affectionate Parody of the Justice League where all the main characters are pre-adolescent. After some initial reluctance on her part, Batman and Power Girl are now "dating" (Bruce takes her to his favorite restaurant, which serves artisan peanut butter sandwiches, but what initially piqued her interest is the fact that Bruce owns ponies).
  • Kevin & Kell: Nigel and Coney, seemed to have this (until Nigel was written out of the comic). Eventually replaced by Lin and Wendell (Coney's cousin).
  • Max Overacts: Max and Janet. And Max towards Auryn… Klaus and Becky… possibly Max and Chieka… Ronny and Racine… oh, pretty much the whole comic. It's hilarious and rather touching.
    • Played with by Max and Moonchild
    • Most of the child characters come from happy, heterosexual married households. Ms. Cheng the teacher appears to be a lesbian, but it's low-key and mostly a joke about the characters not understanding what's happening. Andi is a largely conventional teenager, there's a rather sweet subplot about one of the childminders getting together with a boy she fancies. Ronny's father is divorced, we learn, but Ronny clearly doesn't think much of his decision.
    • Also rather sadly, Max being let down none-too-gently by a slightly older girl during a lakeside holiday.
  • Nineteen-Ninety-Something: Michelle's little sister, Jenny and Kendra's little brother Eric. They declare themselves "boyfriend and girlfriend" in the rebooted continuity. Their older siblings enthusiastically approve.
  • Sarah from The Princess (2009) attracts the attention of a neighborhood boy however he bullies her due to her being transgender and because he has an abusive mother.
  • From The Whiteboard, Jinx and Kasi, though at present the feeling is somewhat one-sided on Jinx's part.

    Western Animation 
  • A Google Logo Gag made for a Valentine's Day Episode during 2012 features a short animation about a young boy who was trying to impress a girl jumping rope outside by looking up Valentine's Day-related items and gifts like flowers and chocolate, but the girl refuses them and continues to jump rope. The boy continues to give the girl more items, but she still refuses and continues jumping rope, until finally the boy gives up and brings his own rope to jump with when the girl immediately drops her jump rope, hugs him, and start jumping together with the boy's jump rope. Can be found here.
  • Adventures of the Gummi Bears: It's hinted at times that Cavin and Calla nurse crushes on each other.
  • Gumball/Penny from The Amazing World of Gumball. Even his mom Nicole seems to think they're cute together. In Season 3, they actually become an Official Couple. Also, Darwin and Carrie who become an Official Couple eventually too.
  • In Amphibia, Sprig Plantar and Ivy Sundew, two frog children around the age of 10, are initially Just Friends, but develop romantic feelings towards each other by the end of Season 1.
  • Arthur:
    • The episode "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" implies that Sue Ellen Armstrong has a crush on the show's titular eight-year-old aardvark when she teasingly tells him that she wrote "nice things" about him in her diary, and he blushes in response, implying the feeling may be mutual.
    • "Arthur and the Square Dance" also has Ship Tease in the form of She Is Not My Girlfriend for Arthur and his classmate Francine.
    • In "Kiss and Tell," Arthur's second youngest sister D.W. hears from her friend Emily that she was kissed (on the hand) by a boy while visiting France and how it made her feel like a princess in a fairytale, and she sets out to find a "prince" of her own, choosing her classmate James as her "prince" when he votes for her suggestion for what song to play at naptime in her preschool and spends the rest of the episode trying to get a kiss from him via Hint Dropping. She does ultimately get him to kiss her simply by asking him to. She later takes her seeming crush on James even further in the S14 episode "D.W. Unties the Knot," where she sees a reality show about fancy wedding parties on TV and decides to have Muffy Crosswire set one up for herself and James (telling her that the bride's name is "Deeangelenora Woo," which makes her not realize that the bride is supposed to be D.W. herself). However, the twist here is that D.W. actually doesn't realize that a wedding doesn't just mean having a fancy party, but actually marrying the groom and living with him for the rest of one's life. When Muffy explains to her what marriage actually entails, she immediately starts having second thoughts about the whole thing and says "No" at the ceremony (not that it would have been legal for her and James to really get married anyway, since they are four). Unfortunately for D.W.'s father, he still ended up with the Shockingly Expensive Bill for the wedding arrangements, as per tradition.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang, who's 12, has a crush on Katara, who's 14. They get together in the last episode.
  • Ben 10: Kai, the girl Ben had a crush on for one episode despite being of the opinion that Girls Have Cooties most of the rest of the time.
  • Big City Greens: Cricket and his girlfriend Gabriella are only ten, but that does not stop them from being a couple.
  • Casper the Friendly Ghost: Casper and Wendy anyone? In the old comic books, they're ambiguously canon.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door loves this trope (it has to, with all its heroes under the age of 13). As the show usually parodies action and sci-fi movies and shows, it would not be complete without romantic subplots. KND even has a rare villain example of this trope: Numbuh Three's mean baby sister Mushi and the self-proclaimed King Sandy. They get bonus points for being even younger than the other couples.
  • Given that most characters in Craig of the Creek are the kids that play in the Creek, this is bound to happen, especially with the main trio:
    • J.P. and Maney have plenty of cute moments any time they're on screen together.
    • Kelsey and Stacks had a number of hints before becoming official in "Fire & Ice".
    • Special notice to Craig and Wildernessa for even having an episode named after the trope itself.
  • Dinosaur Train: Shiny, a child Pteranodon, has a crush on Gilbert, the Conductor's nephew. It is hinted occasionally that Gilbert returns her feelings.
  • Doug had Doug and Patti, who were both in sixth grade when the series began and just finishing up seventh grade when it ended. There was also Skeeter and Beebe. One episode had Mr. Dink explicitly mention this when talking about Porkchop.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Timmy Turner, despite being a 10-year-old (and mentally even lower), repeatedly sought a relationship with the resident Rich Bitch Trixie and was sought after by two other girls, Tootie and Veronica. Trixie and Tootie are the two most likely to get Timmy, and they've both had their moments with him. According to Word of God, both are likely candidates though Tootie is currently the canonical future wife of Timmy.
  • Though Franklin and Samantha from the Franklin special Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure start out having a somewhat antagonistic relationship, by the end of it, they definitely seem like they might be in puppy love.
  • Li'l Gideon's one-sided crush on Mabel in Gravity Falls starts out as this. Once his true nature is revealed, it turns into a Villainous Crush.
  • Hey Arnold! has many examples:
    • Helga/Arnold is the most notable couple on the show, although Helga takes it more seriously than most people of her age. Hints are dropped several times that there will be a future relationship between the two. Had the canceled "Jungle Movie" been made (it is now, better late than never), the series would have ended with Arnold and Helga as an Official Couple.
    • Gerald/Phoebe. This is more of a hinted couple, but it is clear from some of the moments they have that they like each other. They hold hands, go to school dances together, and they have even gone to the Cheese Festival together.
    • Harold/Rhonda or Harold/Patty. Harold has been paired with both girls, and Word of God has confirmed that Harold and Rhonda have a reciprocated crush on each other, but Rhonda won't admit it. Harold's friendship with Patty is still a friendship, but they have been called a couple and seem to work well together. Before they met, Harold claimed that he didn't even like girls.
  • Jonny Quest: The 80's animated series has two TV movies (Jonny's Golden Quest and Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects) both of which feature Race's daughter Jesse. She and Jonny appear to be about 10 to 12. She kisses him in both movies. The early 90's series has both Jonny and Jesse as teenagers. They're still a buttload of Ship Tease between them.
  • In the Justice League episode "Kids' Stuff", the heroes are all turned into kids, with mental states to match, which causes Wonder Woman's interest in Batman to turn into this. Batman seems to reciprocate, although trying to be cool about it. Hilariously, Superman is completely blind to it which causes John Stewart to poke fun at him.
  • KaBlam!: Henry and June; it's rather obvious that they have crushes on each other.
  • The Legend of Korra: Kai and Jinora. They're 12-year-olds when they first meet and become infatuated right away. After a timeskip, they're a little older, but still together.
  • Martin Morning: Martin and Roxanne. They are referred to as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" in-show despite being primary schoolers, and Roxanne even gives Martin a kiss on occasion, although it's always on the cheek.
  • Moral Orel: Orel and Christina. Unfortunately, due to their families, they're also Star-Crossed Lovers.
  • Pepper Ann: Pepper Ann is totally smitten by an eighth-grader Craig Bean.
    • And also, her younger sister Moose has a crush on Sean, who turns out to be the son of Margaret - someone who Lydia didn't get along with in her younger years - in "Moose in Love".
  • Much comedy in the series Phineas and Ferb comes from Isabella's crush on Phineas, which he doesn't (yet) reciprocate. Their ages are ambiguous, but "somewhere between 9 and 13".
    • After the Time Skip episode "Act Your Age", they are finally together.
  • Rainbow Brite:
    • Between Brian (who is explicitly 10) and Rainbow Brite. The first episode ends with Rainbow throwing Brian a kiss while she leaves, which causes him to blush. He shows jealousy when Rainbow compliments Red Butler and comments that he knows why red isn't his favorite color.
    • Lala Orange has a huge crush on Red Butler.
  • Recess:
    • In one episode, Gus/Cornchip Girl have Ship Tease, but they're only officially "friends".
    • There's also the kiss episode between T.J. and Spinelli, with the implication that there's a lot more chemistry than either admits. In another episode, Spinelli's mom even mentions that T.J.'s the one Spinelli has a crush on.
    • It's implied that Ashley A. also has a crush on T.J.
    • In "That Stinking Feeling", Spinelli gets her first crush. The others make fun of her for being a "boy lover".
  • Sea Princesses: In "The Crush", Ester thinks love stories are ridiculous. Well, maybe it's not so ridiculous when Ester is struck with a crush for the new boy Caton.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Lisa and her ongoing Belligerent Sexual Tension with Milhouse, yet both of them have been through plenty of other relationships, one well-known one being Samantha Stanky in the episode "Bart's Friend Falls in Love."
      • In flash-forward episodes showing scenes from the future, Lisa is often either married to Milhouse or it's mentioned that they were married but are now divorced.
    • Lisa also has more than a few episodes where she's paired off with Nelson.
    • Applies to Bart, to the point that there was an episode starring practically all the relationships he's been through.
  • South Park:
    • A canonical example would be Stan and Wendy, who actually are "boyfriend and girlfriend".
    • Cartman accidentally admits to having a crush on a girl named Patty Nelson in Season 11, but she's otherwise never mentioned.
    • Cartman and Wendy usually hate each other, but one episode of Season 4 has Wendy realizing she has feelings for him, much to her dismay.
    • Cartman and Heidi were dating back in Season 20 before she tired of his sociopathic ways in Season 21 and dumped him.
    • Craig and Tweek are a canonical same-sex pair who got their start when a group of Asian girls at the school did a presentation of yaoi art featuring them. They've been known to do daring things like hold hands in public.
  • Steven Universe: Steven and Connie. Their relationship is close enough that it manages to activate Steven's Bizarre Alien Biology and fuse the two of them together into a single entity briefly. Despite both being too young and clearly knowing nothing whatsoever of romance or the icky stuff it leads to, they manage to go through several quite mature relationship-driven episodes.
  • Teacher's Pet: Leonard Helperman is hopelessly in love with his girl classmate Leslie Dunkling. They have been best friends since they were babies.
  • In the Animated Adaptation of Rosemary Wells's Timothy Goes to School. Yoko and Timothy are best friends and have tons of moments like this. This also shows up in the original books, which is implied that Timothy and Yoko have a crush on each other.
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Since the gang encounters historical figures when they were children, sometimes they have strange crushes/blush a lot around them. For example, Yadina is smitten with Kid!George Washington and even moreso with her favorite president, Kid!Abraham Lincoln.

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Gru Blocks Margo

Gru ain't taking it easy with this Antonio guy.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (3 votes)

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Main / BoyfriendBlockingDad

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