From a sociological perspective, age is an individual’s ascribed characteristic, a feature that contributes to defining who a person is, independently from his will. Age has this characteristic because of society’s definitions, which are linked to its many meanings, expectations for conduct, and responsibilities (Pitti, 2017). Determining a person’s age enables one to define their place in respect to historically and socially defined stages of life, such as childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. The phases of life are attributed to specific actions, values, socially defined and expected norms and roles. Attaining fame before age 18 does not necessarily mean one becomes an adult.
Age and human development are interlinked; as one ages, the more he develops as a person. According to Osher et al. (2018), human development is a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes leading towards the goal of maturity. Human development is grouped into prenatal development or postnatal development. Whereas prenatal development includes changes within the mother’s womb, postnatal development refers to all the stages that follow after birth till the very end of life. Postnatal development begins from infancy to adulthood which primarily starts at the age of 18. One is deemed to be an adult by law when they reach the age of eighteen, and solely by age. You can vote, assume financial independence, rent an apartment, and much more. However, adult maturity is different since it does not depend on age. By virtue of being 18 does not mean you are mature enough to make adult decisions.
Attaining fame before 18 years does not imply one assumes adulthood because of the social position one holds. The problem that comes from becoming famous before the legal age to be considered an adult is that the public tends to psychologically project their ideas of what is good, beautiful, and innocent onto famous children so that the child becomes a symbol, or icon, representing these qualities. In other words, the child is idealized, romanticized and placed on a pedestal – an image that is impossible to live up to because of slow development at that age. Gaining fame before 18 years does not make one an adult; indeed, one remains a famous child. Before one is considered an adult, his development should be at a maturity level; for a person under 18 years, the maturity levels are still considerably low, regardless of fame.
References
Osher, D., Cantor, P., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2018). Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development1. Applied Developmental Science, 24(1), 6–36.
Pitti, I. (2017). What does being an adult mean? Comparing young people’s and adults’ representations of adulthood. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(9), 1225–1241.