Why I look sixteen years old (and you probably do too)

About two months ago, I had a gentleman at a blues dance tell me he was intimidated to dance with me because I look sixteen years old and he was worried about what his colleagues would think if they walked in and saw him dancing with a sixteen-year-old. I am not sixteen years old... in fact I am twenty-three years old... a full SEVEN years older than that. I may or may not look as old as my peers, but I sure hope I don't still look as young as sixteen (because if I do, that will make my next set of creeper tales "Divide by Two, Add Seven" even creepier). However, I have a theory—high schoolers in many popular TV series and movies are played by people around my age, sometimes older! Here are a handful of examples:



1. Mean Girls 

Supposedly, these girls were juniors in high school, making them about sixteen or seventeen years old. However, their ages when the movie came out in April 2004 are as follows:

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chaber): 21
Regina George (Rachel McAdams): 25
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan): 17
Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried): 18

So Cady and Karen were played by actresses the correct age, but Regina George... that's pushing it.


2. Glee

According to this article, Glee characters will begin graduating in 2012. That means that this season, the characters are probably mostly sophomores and juniors—so they should be fifteen to seventeen years old. However, here are the current ages of some of the actors and actresses who have been involved in both seasons 1 and 2:

Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron): almost 25
Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale): 22
Rachel Berry (Lea Michele): 24
Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith): almost 29
Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley): 25
Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer): 20
Noah 'Puck' Puckerman (Mark Salling): 28
Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz): almost 25
Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera): 24
Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris): 24
Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.): almost 29

Yeah... most of them are around my age and older than me. But the good news is... if anyone was feeling creepy about crushing on the Glee kids because they're supposed to be in high school... don't. Except Kurt. He's a baby.


3. The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Yeah... I watch this show. It's a guilty pleasure. Shush. All I've gotta say is... I was not that messed up in high school. Not at all. Silly Hollywood. Anyway... at this point in the series, I think most of the characters have just begun their senior year(?) making them around seventeen years old. The Secret Life of the American Teenager overall uses younger cast members than Glee, so I'm just going to call out a few of the main characters who are about my age or older.

Megan Park, who plays Grace Bowman, is 24 years old.

Francia Raisa, who plays Adrian Lee, will be 23 in July.

Greg Finley, who plays Jack Pappas, is 26 years old.












So those are a few examples. Of course some shows (many of them on Nick) actually do use high school-aged kids in the roles of high schoolers. However, there are many shows and movies who cast actors and actresses in their twenties for the roles of high schoolers. I would like to say, therefore, for the record, no, I do not look like a sixteen-year-old... but I could totally play one on TV.