phantasticphil:

Know what’s real fucked? Every other age group has the correct aged actors representing them except teenagers. Adults play adults - children play children; but teenagers are played by more adults. Why? Because apparently our body changes from puberty are too ugly for TV. So what happens? We go through those years looking at the perfect “teenagers” and wondering why we don’t look like that.

That’s not why. There are logical and legal reasons. If you are under 18 child labor laws prevent you from working more than a certain amount of hours a day and in some states, after a certain time. So it makes it a hassle to film. It’s not just a beauty issue. If you ever listen to Gary Marshall’s commentary on The Princess Diaries he talks a bit about the difficulty of filming with actual kids and how they filmed a lot of the Scenes with Ann Hathaway and Julie Andrews after the kids had to stop working for the day (Ann was 18 and thus able to work as an adult). I’m not saying that what you’re saying has no value, but it’s not the primary reason for adults playing teen roles. *whispers* laaaaabor laaaaaws

Another reason, which I think is silly, is because the portrayal of teens is so over sexed and it’s uncomfortable (sometimes also prone to censorship) to portray minors having sex.

(via thesonofme-deactivated20150827)