That's why I believe 16 is an adult. 16 year old sure look like young adults to me.

Absolutely, but I would class 12 as looking like a young adult as well. Well at least they do in my part of the woods. Here we don't feel any need to suppress the perfectly natural onset of young adulthood. And I might give reminder of the old German maxim "Adulthood begins at 12".


Not like you change that much when you are 16-18

Also true, but as Diss also rightly told you, it's very common to confuse a 12 year old with a 20 year old, and that's not just because of clothing style or added makeup either. I suppose things are different in various parts of the world due to race and what not, but where I live there's fairly marginal differences between a 12 and 20 year old...upon finer scrutiny of it though, 12 year olds look like fresh young adults, while 20 yos are starting to sag on it a bit, their complexion is showing signs of being washed out and wrinkles are clearly setting in. In other words, like the proverbial last rose of summer, they're generally showing signs of going to the pack.

I don't understand why they think a 16 year old girl is a CHILD.

I understand, it's because they're all fucked in the head, that's why.


Teen would be the better word.

I don't think there's any special need for that. I mean, why not just call them young women or adults? For thousands of years societies have managed to cope perfectly well without the existence of the word "teen", so why is it so imperative to have it constantly in use now? The word is quite new, I believe it originates only back to the Rock'n'Roll period that it was first coined. I'm not AGAINST the word being used (as I use it myself), but I'm against the idea of people being labelled ONLY by this word. There is no reason why they shouldn't be also called young adults, men and women-- just as they were called in the past. In olden days old women would call 12 year olds "young ladys", and I suppose a 16 year old would have been young enough to also class as a young lady too, I'm not sure on that. But it does remind me that back in those days many people viewed an unmarried 18 yo as an "old maid". It's truly amazing how perceptions have changed since then!