In recent years, a phenomenon has become more apparent, where kids feel they must grow up faster and faster, they no longer feel that they can just be kids. They often feel the need to further resemble adults and teenagers. But why is this the case? It’s time to dive into the causes and effects this has on society.
First things first, why do kids seem to grow up faster than they used to? There are many reasons as to why kids seem to be growing up faster than in past years.

The negative impacts of growing up too fast.
Can growing up too fast be a bad thing?
“They may feel like they’re not living their life to the fullest and miss out on important experiences during their teenage years,” and “Teens who are growing up too fast may also have trouble forming relationships with their peers and adults.,” According to Mantracare a global wellness provider offering mental and physical well-being services.
Many teenagers realize later in life that they missed out on special childhood experiences often because they were pressured to grow up too fast due to societal pressures like increased responsibilities or pressure from peers to perform risky activities like drug use and sexual activity.
Unrestricted internet access.
Another cause of growing up too fast would-be children having unrestricted internet access, which exposes them to inappropriate content at an early age, desensitizing them to graphic and risky online e content that should only be seen by adults. As you can see there is a trend here of children being exposed to adult themes and attitudes especially in an age where most things are digitalized and easier to access.
Growing up in a toxic environment.
Growing up in a toxic environment and or household can cause developmental problems for children, causing their brains and bodies to develop at a faster rate than children who have safe and loving home lives. The reason for this is that children who lived in toxic or abusive homes are forced to depend on themselves more than the guardians who mistreat or neglect them, forcing them to parent themselves.
“They found that children who suffered threat-related trauma such as violence or abuse were more likely to enter puberty early and also showed signs of accelerated aging on a cellular level–including shortened telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of our strands of DNA that wear down as we age,” reports the American Psychological Association.
So, living in a toxic environment can increase the likelihood of your body developing faster as well as your brain. Maturing quickly seems like a good thing, right? Well yes and no, it may seem beneficial to mature faster in the short term like being more responsible and seeming mature to the adults in your life, but this accelerated maturity can cause mental and physical problems later down the line like mental illness and health effects from accelerated aging.
The disappearance of the preteen era.
First and foremost, what exactly is a “tween”? A tween is defined as a child between the ages of nine and twelve years old, these children are in between the phases of being a young child and a teenager, hence the term “Tween” the term is also commonly referred to as a pre-teen. Tweens once had their own distinctive media, fashion, and attitudes but it seems that as the years pass pre-teen and teen trends start to blend together despite them being vastly different from one another. When tweens follow teenage fashion trends it can make them appear and act older than they are, convincing them this is normal behavior for themselves and others their age.