How old is fifteen really?

People always treat the number 15 like its the baby number of all teens. I'm not so sure this is true , i have seen a girl walking down the street and she's wearing some kind of mini skirt with a a speghetti strap shirt on with her boobs halfway hanging out and i know for sure that she's 15, what are you suppose to think about her?

How old is 15 REALLY:toetap:

 

Kids are growing up too fast...her parents shouldn't let her dress like that. Girls in particular are being sexualized very early, a trend that I find to be disturbing.

 

Dressing sexy neither proves nor disproves that one is mature. The same goes for having breasts.

How old is 15? It really depends on the perception of whoever you're asking. Ask a 7-year-old how old is fifteen and the answer you'll get will most likely be "Old". Ask a 15-year-old and the answer might be, "Old enough". But if you ask someone in their twenties, thirties, and beyond, you'll definitely get, "Young".

 

And fifteen's not the baby number, thirteen is. It's just that fifteen is not a long way from thirteen.

 

i think 15 is young. kids are trying to grow up too fast these days and parents are letting them. btw....this is posted in the wrong section.

my little sister is 14...now. i may look a bit young for my age (20) but put her right next to me and you'd think we were the same age. not only because her body is more mature than mine's, but that she dresses in the same way i do. yesterday we went shopping with my mom and i got these leopard print heels...at least 3 inches high...kind of whorey looking but hey. i club sometimes and like to dress up. but then when my sister complained that she wanted them and that i should chose different shoes so she can get those, my mom didn't say anything about her being too young to be wearing such...provocative stuff.

 

people have a very unnatural view of human biology, in my opinion.

in the many thousands of years as a species, only very recently have we tried more and more to somehow extend childhood.

naturally, at 15, 16, 17 years old, most girls are physically matured and able to bear children. if it werent for unnaturally extending life to an obscene degree as modern science seems so bent on doing, this would still be considered normal and appropriate. as short a time as 200 years ago marrying ages were FAR younger than they are today.

now physical maturity and psychological maturity are two different things, and i'm not saying that teens have the same "maturity" as, say, a thirty year old. but they are PHYSICALLY adult. able to reproduce, to carry on their own lives.

a lot of the problems society has with young people today is due to the fact that we've extended adolescence until about 18 or 19 years old, and done away with nearly every rite of passage.

physically people in their teens are adults, and the adult bodily functions that go along with it are a given. this is incongruous with what they are told by all of society - that they are simply children, and are not able to make decisions for themselves or take care of themselves, which is not true.

people get so upset about how "kids are growing up too fast these days" but the simple fact is that teenagers are not kids, never have been, and never will be. they're simply less repressed in -some- ways than they used to be. this creates the "problem" of suggestive clothing, colorful language/music/art, etc., being some of the only ways for a maturing young person to assert their adulthood. they don't act like adults because they aren't socialized to do so, they aren't treated as such. but their bodies know they're growing up and at a sexually mature stage, albeit early in the sexual maturity. as a grown up, who in a more natural setting would be bearing and raising children of their own, they are still not given grown-up rights and responsibilities. they can't vote. its hard for them to get jobs. they are legally required to attend schooling. they are not able to manage their own finances very much. they havent got property rights. and so on. the only "grown up" thing these people can do (appropriately, in the eyes of society at large, that is) is to drive a car once they turn sixteen.

so out of what many would consider "rebelliousness" (and who am i to disagree?) many young people dress in a sexually suggestive manner, take illegal drugs for which there are no regulations, engage in sexual activity, and all the other things that other adults do that they perhaps "shouldnt" but which they feel YOUNG adults should never, ever do.

15 is no longer a child. i am not suggesting that we cease the "unnatural" medical practices prolonging life and, consequently, "childhood." i am not suggesting that its appropriate for 45 year old men to have sex with a 14 year old girl. i'm simply suggesting that this is the way it has ALWAYS been as history demonstrates. after puberty, while you may still be an "adolescent" and mentally maturing, you are able to procreate. you are, in the eyes of biology, an adult member of the human species. its not that kids are growing up quicker by any stretch of the imagination, its that they "act out" in an effort to assert the fact that they are adults capable of making their own decisions, and while disapproved of in general many of the means available to them are the ways they assert themselves. we have a far more diverse and open society in north america than we EVER have before, and things are changing. the clothing is a big thing, and its true that clothing young women wear today are far more revealing. its true that casual swearing is very rampant among teens. its true they often use drugs, get drunk, smoke tobacco, and have sex. and even have kids.

but these are all things legal adults do, too. and while they have some mental and emotional growing up to do, teens are physically adult. and i dont know about any of you, but i personally feel the vast majority of humanity has some mental and emotional growing up to do, not just young people. its an ongoing process, and doesnt make later teenagers less than adult that they haven't been fully self-actualized yet.

i think its rediculous to think of these teens as children, even if you dont view them as adults in the same was as a 30 year old is (hell, i dont either)

children aren't growing up any quicker than they ever have. they're growing at the same rate as humans have always grown. the population as a whole is just living longer, and longer, and longer, and childhood has been legally extended to age 18. but that doesnt change nature, and people will still be fully sexually developed at the same age ranges as they always have been before - usually 13-15 years old. don't expect them all to be innocent little kids

 

how old is fifteen really? approximately 15 rotations of the earth around the sun

 

but comparing how i was at her age. and how she is. BIG difference with that small six year gap. she's already kind of has a boyfriend (he's a couple years older), and has engaged in some oral play. and from what i hear they're already to get married. me now, i was having sleepover's with my best friend talking about how awesome it'd be to hold a boy's hand!

 

I think it's in the food they eat too, growth hormones in the food that is.

 

wait till you get to 18 and then ask yourself... how old is 15?

for me... three years held a lot of growing and knowledge.
in the scheme of things... supposing you life a rich and healthy life and die at 90 you have only completed 1/6th of your life.

not even a quarter of your life.

you think you know everything at 15... but its only the beginning.

maturity at 15 comes from the knowing that you know nothing.
a lot of 15 yr olds think they know everything, please dont fall into that trap.
i am not saying that i know everything. hell i am only 3 years older than you. but i am using the wisdom i have gained and hope to gain a lot more...


does anyone older than me have any words of wisdom?

 

I practically respect your wisdom right now.

 

I'm almost 19, so I guess I might be older, not really sure.

Regardless, the reason we've extended childhood and adolescence is because we as a species live so much longer now. When we had more rites of passage and coming of age rituals we'd live until 40 or 50 maximum. But now we're living longer, and with that we've extended all parts of our lives, if that makes sense to anyone else.

At 15 I thought I knew everything, at 17 I knew nothing, at 18 I know a little, and once I turn 19 in a few weeks I'll probably still think I don't know enough for my age.

You're on the right track Sunshine, what with asking this question and all. You don't seem like you think you know everything, and you're even looking at yourself objectively rather early on.

But how old is 15? It all depends on the person. She's 15, but you're also 15, and you don't seem to have the same mindset as her.

It's all relative.

 

You can be younger and have words of wisdom.

I think that when you're at the age you want to know it all but as you get older its easy to say they're growing up too fast and shouldn't know bout this stuff,
You know it all and you talk about this so why shouldn't they? they can do everything that you can do except what society has restricted them to

well i say they but I'm in it too tho frankly i won't do drugs or underage sex,

 

It's easy for some of us adults to say you're growing up too fast because we've been there, done that and sometimes we regret those things. Perhaps those of us who did grow up too fast regretted growing up too fast to appreciate the great things about being 14, 15 years old when we still didn't have to worry about whether or not we have enough money to support ourselves and our families, or where we will live and raise our children (this, of course isn't true for everyone; I'm just generalizing here). It's fine for you to want to know it all and grow up as soon as you can; all I'm saying is, don't forget to enjoy what you have RIGHT NOW at your age.

I remember when I was your age, a lot of us if not all, wanted what you want. We wanted to grow up fast, we wanted to know it all and do all those grownup things that society restricted us from doing. I'm saying this because I want you to understand that we were all 15 once. And that there are times when we wish we were 15 again. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. When you're 15 all you want is to grow up so you can be free. When you're nearing thirty, forty, and so on, you've been free for quite a long time now, but part of you wishes you didn't grow up so fast. And you'll see all these new 15-year-olds and what do you tell them? "You're growing up too fast."

 

im 31 ive traveled WAY TOO MUCH! n been dead twice. had 4 serious relations.im no wiser than i was at 15.thats me below snuggling the sister with a fringe.sum folks grow wiser with age sum like me just get brain damage.by 15 i had experienced 90 percent of what i have now.but i had an unusual childhood.if psychology is a science then so is astrology. actually astrology has a larger body of factual observations.i grew up with kids who were murders at 11 n 12 n fathers.child soldiers? no just gangs.anyhoo its all relative.on my left there is millie. hes 15 n he runs wild on the streets of oxford. i try n keep him to drinking n hence away from k coke etc. i make sure he only drinks a little.at 15 i was livin on the street n have spent about half my life that way. ive known hundreds maybe thousanmds of street kids. there development is as varied as any adult.after a year on the street most 15 year olds are older than a average american 30 year old.theyve dealt with death murder violence grief loss responsabilitys acountability, all that junk.theyve formed relationships of survival most dont know unless they are military.anyhoo thats my jabber

 

You guys are great.
THanks!

 

It seems like you know so much but at 15 it is an illusion -
at 21, 22, 30 too - but it is worse between 15 and 22.

 

I thought I was big shit when I was 15. And in ways, I was.. definitely more mature than any of the other kids my age. But looking back, I was a total fuckass, hahah.

I still think I'm big shit at 17, though. Har.

 

I smoke pot. hahahahaa

 

in all truth, i think in ways i was older and wiser then (when i was 15) then i am now. it's only that i'm wiser to the ways of the world now. in other words, a bit more dissillusioned.

yes, they say that kids are growing up too fast these days, and i see you saying how we've extended the age of 'childhood'... funny thing is that there wasn't childhood as we knew it 200 years ago.

it hasn't been extended, it was never there. children then were viewed as miniature adults. there was no such thing as childhood as we know it. by the age of 15 they would have been treated the same as adults, just without the specific knowledge of certain fields that can only be gained by years of experience in those fields. otherwise, they were treated as relatively the same. check it out. childhood was invented so rich people didn't get wassailed.

oh, and i lost my virginity when i was 14. i really see nothing wrong with it either. i knew all about sex, sexuality, sexual health by the time i was 13. never regretted it either...