Aged Up

Aged Up is the term for a character in a fanwork who's been set to an age notably older than they are (or appear) in the original media.
This is commonly done in fandoms where the characters are children/teenagers, to show them as adults: having jobs, relationships, and/or living conditions that are not plausible at their original ages. Futurefic often involves aging up characters. Aging up is also used to avoid depicting underage sex or intimate relationships that aren't appropriate for the canon ages. And sometimes, the fic or art maker just wants to explore an older version of a character. 
Works that involve aged-up characters sometimes have author's notes explaining the change and their reasons for it. Some fans consider aging-up a form of universe alteration.
==Example Fandoms==
This trope is particularly popular in fandoms where a large number of characters are children.
* Harry Potter: before the release of the last books, it was common to age up certain characters such as The Golden Trio or the Slytherin students;
* Boku no Hero Academia: focused on high school superhero students, the majority of aged up works in that fandom are set after the characters have graduated and are working as Pro-Heroes;
*South Park's main characters are elementary-aged children (8-10), so it's common to age them up (and the characters have been canonically aged up in the POST COVID specials);
*Gravity Falls has many future fic and fix it stories in which the characters are older;
*Steven Universe's fandom sometimes ages up Steven and Connie, but not usually for NSFW content;
*Invader Zim: a science fiction story about grade-school students and aliens, so aging up the characters for fanfic is common;
*ASOIAF/Game of Thrones: many characters are in their teens (or even early teens) in canon, so it is not unusual for them to be aged up.
*DC Comics has several teen superhero groups; aged-up fics where they are now the adult superheros are common.
==Fan Opinion==
===Controversy===
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, this trope generated a lot of fannish controversy. Some fans believe that the purpose of aging-up characters is to justify erotic stories about child characters. That is, these fans believe that aged up fanworks are stealth underage fanworks. They are suspicious of any fan who creates adult content based on characters who are children in canon. Despite there being no evidence of any connection between aging up characters in fanfiction and any form of child abuse in real life, some fans even go so far as to label fans of aged-up characters "pedophiles" or "child molesters." 
This belief has led to conflicts in fan communities, leading some authors and artists to abandon public participation in fandom. It has also inspired new discussions about "the content we create doesn't reflect our opinions" and "not everything we consume is wrong," especially when antis see "pedophilia" in works without any sexual content.
===Comments===
Some comments from Reddit users in the article the whole aging up characters debate and Is it really wrong to age up characters to adult age in fics?:
==Aging Down==
The opposite can also be found. Sometimes when there is a large age gap in a pairing the older character will be aged down slightly in fanworks, to make the pairing more palatable to some fans. Another reason is setting, if it is a High School AU or College AU the age gap has to be restricted to make the scenario plausible. 
==Example Fanworks==
=== Fanfiction ===
*The Curse of Saturdays by indifferentyoongi (Stray Kids)
==Archives & Links==
* Aged-Up Characters works on Ao3
* Aged-Up Characters works on SquidgeWorld Archive
==References==
Category:Glossary
Category:Social Media Feature