Aged Up

Aging Up is the practice of representing canonically youthful characters as older ages, generally to facilitate themes or depictions of behavior that would be considered inappropriate for someone of their canonical age. It is an extremely common and accepted practice in South Park fanfiction, where it is deliberately invoked, though fan artists generally age the characters up visually as well.
Though it is often associated with depictions of romantic or sexual activity, aging up characters is also sometimes done in non-shipping fic in order to explore themes relevant to High School or college, such as gaining acceptance to a particular school or worry abut the future, or issues such as drug use that may seem too sensitive for depicting children. It is also sometimes used as a way to depict the characters in more mature/advanced personality development, as children often change as they become adults.
In many other fandoms, aging up characters is seen as a pedophilic practice that normalizes the sexualization of minors. and can be looked down upon; however, this varies wildly from fandom to fandom. Some fans may age up the characters despite being close to their canonical ages as a way to explore adult topics, and sometimes a storyline may simply require depicting a passage of time that may allude obviously to aging.
Category:Terminology