History Main / NotGrowingUpSucks

* ''Film/{{Eternals}}'': Like in the comics, Sprite is stuck looking like a kid ([[GenderFlip her]] actress, Lia [=McHugh=], actually turned thirteen during production) despite being the same age as the other Eternals. In particular, she's grown to resent humans [[spoiler:and Sersi, her fellow Eternal]], for being able to grow up, fall in love, and live full lives like she cannot - and it doesn't help that she has to live a more nomadic lifestyle than the others, as a thirteen-year-old not aging after five years is guaranteed to arouse suspicion. [[spoiler:These factors, in conjunction with her unrequited feelings for Ikaris, inspire her to join him in his FaceHeelTurn, and her MotiveRant has undertones of wanting to PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery. After Tiamut is stopped, Sprite accepts Sersi's offer to turn her into a normal human.]]

Some (well, many) kids think GrowingUpSucks. Then there's this. It turns out ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty is only true for a lucky few, because due to some form of {{Phlebotinum}}, this character is an adult but has the physical body of a child or early teenager. If still organic and biologically alive (that is, not a robot or UndeadChild), they will never be mature enough to have a sex life. Even if they're physically mature enough to be capable of sex and mentally mature enough to give consent, most adults will still perceive them as children and steer clear. [[{{Squick}} Thankfully]], this doesn't come up often. Interestingly, their intellect will very likely keep growing throughout their lifetime, but their emotional maturity may or may not undergo a similar growth. They may [[ImmortalImmaturity still have their childlike optimism]], or they may well develop a [[OlderThanTheyLook more mature mindset]] or even go [[TimeAbyss beyond it]]. (And, either way, they may [[CompulsorySchoolAge still have to go to school]].) In any case, expect this thwarted love life to cause them a great deal of frustration if not outright {{Angst}}.

Some (well, many) kids think GrowingUpSucks. Then there's this. It turns out ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty is only true for a lucky few, because due to some form of {{Phlebotinum}}, this character is an adult but has the physical body of a child or early teenager. If still organic and biologically alive (that is, not a robot or [[UndeadChild vampire]]), they will never be mature enough to have a sex life. Even if they're physically mature enough to be capable of sex and mentally mature enough to give consent, most adults will still perceive them as children and steer clear. [[{{Squick}} Thankfully]], this doesn't come up often. Interestingly, their intellect will very likely keep growing throughout their lifetime, but their emotional maturity may or may not undergo a similar growth. They may [[ImmortalImmaturity still have their childlike optimism]], or they may well develop a [[OlderThanTheyLook more mature mindset]] or even go [[TimeAbyss beyond it]]. (And, either way, they may [[CompulsorySchoolAge still have to go to school]].) In any case, expect this thwarted love life to cause them a great deal of frustration if not outright {{Angst}}.

* Revealed to be happening in ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}''. Sette still idolizes her father, but her father's affections for his daughter faded sd he saw that she would never mature, physically or mentally. It is not entirely clear that there are strict limits on her mental maturation, however. Her savvy as a rogue is clearly far beyond that of the average seven-year-old daughter of a crime boss.

* In the opening of ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' in a world where nearly everyone on earth has been an ageless bloodsucker for about a decade, a girl vampire leaves a suicide note and sits outside to be killed by the dawn. Her note describes how she can't take eternal puberty anymore.

* In the ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' prequel ''Start of Darkness'', Redcloak's brother Right-Eye believes that the ageless immortality the Crimson Mantle bestows upon Redcloak has frozen him not only physically but mentally as well. Even decades later, Redcloak is still the same angry teenager who first put on the Mantle. Redcloak doesn't agree [[spoiler:but WordOfGod has confirmed that it's true]].

** Episode "Baby Doll." The titular character is a former actress with a very rare genetic condition that severely stunted her growth (but not her mental development), who made a career out of playing a toddler on a popular sitcom. She couldn't find work after leaving the show, due to no one being able to take her seriously, leading her to become a villain and later kidnap all her old fellow cast members.
** A later episode shows Baby Doll [[RetiredMonster out of prison and doing relatively well working as a hotel receptionist]] (her face and hair show mild signs of maturity, though that may or may not be diegetic due to the show undergoing [[ArtEvolution a broad shift in art style]]). Unfortunately, she still feels like an outcast due to people still not respecting her condition or her desire for peace -- especially after getting harassed by a drunk who tries to get her to "do something funny" -- leading her to [[BirdsOfAFeather an unlikely partnership]] with fellow societal outcast Killer Croc, resulting in her falling back into her criminal ways.

* Mordred in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. This was bad enough, but infinitely preferable to [[spoiler:ending up with [[AgeWithoutYouth eternal life without eternal youth]]]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Steven's Birthday" Steven, a half-human/immortal Gem hybrid, suspects he hasn't physically aged for over six years. He starts worrying that he'll never grow up, and thus will still be a kid when his friend and potential love interest Connie is an adult. Steven tries to use VoluntaryShapeshifting to fake growing up, but overexerting his powers ends up turning him into a ''baby'' for a while. After accepting that his friends and family will still love him no matter what age he is, Steven ages back to "normal" [[SweetAndSourGrapes and finds evidence that he really is growing up somewhat]]. By the time of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', Steven shows signs of aging normally.

-->"So you'd be 16 forever. You'd have zits, no car, and no one would ever date you."

** A later episode shows Baby Doll out of prison and doing relatively well. Her face and hair show a hint of maturity, and in addition, she apparently wears glasses. She has managed to find work as a receptionist at a shady looking hotel. Things are fine until a jovial couple enter. The wife is kind and asks for a room, but her husband [[CantHoldHisLiquor has clearly had too much to drink]]. He tells Baby Doll that he knows exactly who she is and talks about the show before pulling her hair and insisting that she do something funny. [[ThrowTheBookAtThem She doesn't take it well.]] After storming out of the room angrily, she laments that people don't understand her condition. Just then, a news story broadcasts about Killer Croc being captured and sentenced to death for his crimes. She decides to pay him a visit and the two talk about how [[NotSoDifferentRemark much they have in common as societal outcasts]]. Eventually, she breaks him out and dons her old persona. The two officially become a couple--complete with a DoubleEntendre implication when Batgirl asks what they'd do on a date. Baby Doll acts completely devoted. [[GoldDigger Croc? Not so much.]] This causes Baby Doll to become completely AxCrazy. [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery She plans to blow herself up and take all of Gotham with her]].

* ''LightNovel/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone'': Leen, as a fairy, is already over 600 years old, but is forever stuck in the body of a pubescent girl. Until she met Touya, she had pretty much resigned herself to never get married because she was mistaken for a child or only attracted the attention of pedophiles.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': At the end of the fourth episode, Claudia writes in her diary with alarming instability about being stuck in a "flat-chested, hairless-crotched 14-old baby doll body" as her mind matures into that of an adult. This precedes her beginning to self-harm by sticking her arm in sunlight.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': At the end of the fourth episode, Claudia writes in her diary with alarming instability about being stuck in a "flat-chested, hairless-crotched fourteen-year-old baby doll body" as her mind matures into that of an adult. This precedes her beginning to self-harm by sticking her arm in sunlight.

* After the five-year TimeSkip in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', Superboy still looks the same. One of the side effects of the cloning process that created him is that he will never age externally. Superboy clarifies that he's not immortal since he still ages internally: his lifespan is no different than that of an ordinary human but when he' 80 he'll still look like he did the day he came out of his tube.

* After the five-year TimeSkip in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', Superboy still looks the same. One of the side effects of the cloning process that created him is that he will never age externally. Superboy clarifies that he's not immortal since he still ages internally.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Steven's Birthday" Steven, on his 14th birthday, realizes he hasn't physically aged for over six years. He starts worrying that he'll never grow up, and thus will still be a kid when his friend and potential love interest Connie is an adult. Steven tries to use VoluntaryShapeshifting to fake growing up, but overexerting his powers ends up turning him into a ''baby'' for a while. After accepting that his friends and family will still love him no matter what age he is, Steven ages back to "normal" [[SweetAndSourGrapes and finds evidence that he really is growing up somewhat]]. By the time of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', Steven shows signs of aging normally.

* Ohno Kei from ''Take On Me'' provides a mundane example. She is [[ChristmasCake 26 years old]], but looks half [[OlderThanTheyLook her age]] and thus has trouble finding fellows her age that are willing to date her and she is willing to touch.

* While it's generally glossed over, several loopers in ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops'' who were children in their baseline and still have child appearances in spite of being millions of years old have complained about issues with being forever stuck as children, such as not being taken seriously by adults, relationships being treated as just something cute (several children loopers are dating and a few are ''married''), and not being allowed to do adult only things like drinking.

* Czeslaw Meyer from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' became immortal when he was a preteen, and such will remain that age eternally, although that's not as big a trauma for him as being a {{Guinea Pig|Family}}. Sylvie, on the other hand, saw this coming, and waited to become immortal until she aged to her mid-20's (though that was mainly to disguise herself from a certain other immortal).

** The ''009 RE:Cyborg'' movie from 2012 had series protagonist Joe(Cyborg 009) begin with IdentityAmnesia -- because with the Cyborg team separated and him frozen in a teenager's body, it was decided that he should have his memories wiped every three years to allow him to enjoy a normal life.

* ''Manga/AstroBoy'': Astro is a ReplacementGoldfish permanently frozen at the age his human counterpart Toby died, which was nine-ish or so. Though, in most of the incarnations, PinocchioSyndrome (and the negative aspects of this trope) is at most brief and sometimes [[AngstWhatAngst skipped over]], because HumansAreFlawed, who wants to be one?

* Wynn in the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "Sympathy For the Devil," caught in the explosion that destroyed the moon as a child and unable to age, over the decades he bacame cold and ruthless.

* TruthInTelevision example: ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' did an episode about a young woman, chronologically an adult, whose [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner%27s_syndrome rare medical condition]] would keep her looking little more than half the age of her peers. Her consensual relationship with an adult man caused a lot of {{Squick}}, more so in that he's implied to be a pedophile who only likes her ''because'' she looks prepubescent. Her parents, naturally, want him busted for rape because they still think of her as a child.
** The episode was pretty balanced about it though. Some members of the team were uncomfortable, but others were okay with it. Huang, a forensic psychiatrist, felt that it was good for the girl, as males her own age refused to date her due to her appearance, and that many older men have fantasies of schoolgirls or cheerleaders while women often try to physically appear underage.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' briefly featured a child vampire known as The Anointed One. [[WordOfGod Joss Whedon]] later said that they'd originally planned to have him be a major villain in Season 2, but ended up killing him off early on because the actor was growing up faster than they'd figured on. Also, whilst Anya ''did'' age after losing her vengeance demon powers, her frustration was not being able to order a drink as she still looked like a teenager.
* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'''s third season had an episode with a forty-year-old vampire who was still stuck as a teenager. He had been taken care of by his family, but when they died of old age he was left alone to fend for himself. Complicated by him still being mentally 14 as well as physically.
* ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire'' introduced a member of the Vampire Council who resembles a young girl in the second season.
* ''Series/LetTheRightOneIn'': Eleanor is a vampire girl who's stuck permanently as twelve, physically anyway. She isn't happy at this, still having to blend in by appearing like a tween even though mentally she's more mature.

** Issue #6 of the spinoff anthology comic examines the difficulties this caused with her love life, as despite being thirty-something years old she struggled to find a man who wasn't creeped out by her childish physical appearance... until she met a [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld vampire likewise stuck in a young body]]. The relationship still fell apart and she ended up murdering him, but for unrelated reasons.

* ''Series/LetTheRightOneIn'': Eleanor is a vampire girl who's stuck permanently as twelve, physically anyway. She isn't happy at this, still having to blend in by attending school repeatedly.

** This may also be in play with the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits micronation]] kids as well, as [[CheerfulChild Sealand]], [[LittleMissSnarker Wy]], [[LargeHam Kugelmugel]] and [[FieryRedhead Ladonia]] appear to be children and haven't been recognized by the world, while the physically oldest member, the adult [[PerpetualSmiler Seborga]], was once an independent nation before being absorbed by Italy. Notably, [[TheMeanBrit England]] once [[AnxietyDreams has a dream]] in which Sealand gets recognized as a country, and grows to become an adult.