There are many differences between children and adults. There are both literal ways of determining whether or not a person is a kid or a grownup, and personal opinion. In a literal sense, by law, people are considered a child until they turn 18 and once they do, they have entered the world of adulthood.  In certain cultures, there are celebrations like a bar/bat mitzvah in the Jewish religion or a Quinceañera in Mexican culture.  The law and cultural/religious milestones are just a few ways that the line between childhood and adulthood is crossed over. The time that these events take place all have to do with a person’s age. The law’s version of changing to adulthood occurs when a person turns 18 years old. Bar or bat mitzvahs happen at a Jewish boy or girl’s 13th birthday. A Mexican girl’s Quinceañera takes place when she turns 15 years old. Although all of these events have to do with age, beliefs, or laws that have been in place for many years, there are also people’s personal opinions of when or if someone crosses over from childhood to adulthood.

Another way of determining when someone becomes an adult is through the experiences that they have had and overcome. In most popular teen books, the genre is “coming of age” where a teenager is faced with a problem that they overcome. At the end of the book the result is usually the beloved main character having formed him or herself into an adult. Although most of the stories are not realistic and do not happen to everybody, they are helpful in understanding what kind of events occur to make someone into an adult and how they feel during their journey from normal teenager to functioning adult. One example is “An Abundance of Katherines” by John Green where the main character, Colin, goes on a road trip over the course of one summer with his best friend and subsequently learns lessons about himself and the world around him throughout his many experiences. The events that occurred over that summer allowed Colin to change from being a child and blossom into an adult that understood the world outside of the small town he lived in and his brain that he could not escape.

There are more qualities in people that can be considered childish that need to be changed in order for those people to become adults. Some people define puberty as the changing point between being a child and becoming an adult. The features of a girl or boy that has not yet been through puberty can only be described as childish. Specific attributes like chubby cheeks from the child’s baby fat that is still noticeable or lack of hair on a young boy’s legs reveal how young a person is. Once a boy or girl hits puberty, their bodies start to change and they start their journey into forming the body of an adult. One change that is very prominent is a person’s growth into their height that they will be for the remainder of their life after puberty. When someone is younger, they are shorter than most of the adults in the world label them as a child, but once they grow to a taller height, the child starts to be seen as more of an adult. Not only does this change in someone physically show their transition from child to adult, but so does the experiences they have been through and the law or their religious beliefs that give a specific time as to when they are led from childhood to adulthood.