Early Teen Hero

"You're not as immature as a child, but you haven't lost the glow of youth. I think that makes [14] the perfect age."

- Astrid Zexis

The hero is the single character that people will relate to the most. They get the most screen time, they are the most developed character if they are the protagonist, and, unless you've got an Anti-Hero, they are the character the audience looks up to the most.

What if you want to appeal to children, or anyone who hasn't come of age? Enter the Early Teen Hero, where the hero is a young teenager or about to become one.

This is a subtrope of Kid Hero. The difference between the tropes is the age range. Whereas Kid Hero refers to any character who hasn't come of age, the difference here is that this trope only applies to twelve to fifteen-year-olds. Fourteen appears to be a popular compromise. Make note of the "twelve"; even though this age does not place a hero in the "teenager" range, it still achieves the same goal of making them relatable to a wide range of audiences, even if it limits mature themes.

This age range is specific, and immensely helps any storyteller. The character is young enough to be relatable to every child, but not so young that the writer cannot make the work serious. Having a child too young to be a hero can turn off older teens from viewing the work, but having a teen too old can turn off younger children from a work. Thus, this trope serves as a compromise between the two age ranges. The close age gap to children themselves means they can insert themselves into the character far easier than they can insert themselves into an adult, yet the serious tones which is often presented allows grown-ups to be invested in a work.

Because children prefer the bright and exaggerated scenes of animation over the dull reality presented in Live-Action TV, this is mostly an animation trope. Anime studios love doing this to reflect the younger target demographic many series aim for.

Sometimes the usage of this trope is only implied. If a character starts a Wizarding School or is a young High School student, it probably fits. If they are in primary school, or is about to graduate from said Wizarding School, they do not fit. Often the age of the hero is never explicitly stated. In that case, use common sense and ask yourself if the child is young enough to appeal to kids, yet old enough to appeal to adults. The things the hero does can also give a hint: no twelve year old will calculate interest on their car loan. Similarly, a seven year old probably won't go on a MacGuffin hunt.

When the trope is used, you're almost guaranteed a Hero Protagonist. If it is used, chances of Cerebus Syndrome are high. See also the parent trope Kid Hero.

Anime and Manga

 * Studio Ghibli productions:
 * The thirteen year old Kiki on her coming of age journey in Kiki's Delivery Service. Tombo also fits this range.
 * The thirteen year old Arrietty in The Borrower Arrietty, turning fourteen at the end of the film.
 * In When Marnie Was There, the twelve year old Anna is the hero.
 * Sheeta and Pazu from Laputa: Castle in the Sky are around this age range, although their ages are never explicitely stated.
 * Shizuku Tsukishima in Whisper of the Heart, attending junior high school. She is around the age of fourteen.
 * How Do You Live? is planned to have fifteen year old Copper as the hero.
 * In Spirited Away, the protagonist Chihiro Ogino is around ten years old, being a couple years behind the range. On the other hand, the male lead Haku fits this age, appearing around twelve in age and being capable of using advanced magic.
 * The Eva pilots in Neon Genesis Evangelion are all fourteen. Justified in that only children born after the Second Impact can pilot the Evangelions. Also Subverted in the sense that Neon Genesis Evangelion is by no means a kids' show nor does it try to appeal to young children.
 * In Violet Evergarden, Violet estimates that her age is around fourteen, although the series makes no effort to appeal to younger audiences. Violet's age allows the series to get dark quickly in episode nine.
 * Mary Smith in Mary and the Witch's Flower is around this age gap, mature enough to go on adventures in the nearby Wizarding School, but not mature enough to excel at it or fit in.
 * In Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, the titular Nadia is the standard fourteen years old. This age is crucial here, as the series gets dark real quickly.
 * In the Witch Hat Atelier manga, Coco, as well as the other girls at Qifrey's atelier (Tetia, Richeh, Agott) appear around this age. Their age is never explicitly stated, but their range can be inferred to be around this by their appearances, the fact that Qifrey calls them "girls", and by Coco's mum present in the first chapter. The Witch Hat Atelier wiki (whose existence is dictated by The Wiki Rule), states that the characters' ages are 12, putting them in the lower boundary allowed.
 * Garrod Ran of After War Gundam X is 15, but looks pretty young for his age. Presumably apocalypse induced childhood malnutrition is at fault.
 * The titular Sailor Moon is in junior-high school for most of the story (manga, '90s anime, and Crystal), making her 13-14 years old by North American reckoning.

Comic Books

 * This is the top end of the range of ages for the members of Marvel's Power Pack, at least during its original run -- the oldest of the four siblings was thirteen or so. (The youngest was five.)

Fan Works

 * Taylor Hebert from the Worm/Harry Potter crossover fic A Wand for Skitter is an interesting borderline case. Plucked from the end of Worm, when she's nearly twenty, her mind/soul is inserted into the body of a murdered 11-year-old muggleborn girl in the Harry Potter universe.  When she finally faces Voldemort at the end of the story, she's only thirteen physically -- but in her early twenties mentally.

Film

 * Violet Parr from Pixar's The Incredibles is around this age. Thus, the trope also applies to Incredibles 2.
 * Riley from Inside Out, who moves into a new school, and the film focuses on her emotions while this is happening. She turns twelve at the end, putting her in lower bracket of the age range.
 * In Disney's Encanto, Mirabelle's age is given as around fifteen. That puts her in the upper limit of the demographic -- making her less relatable to young children -- although her conflict and interactions with her family restore some of that relatability.
 * In How To Train Your Dragon, Hiccup is fifteen years old. Over the course of the trilogy, he grows out of the age range. This allows him to tackle serious issues involving relationships between man and dragon, but also allows him to have lighthearted moments with his crush Astrid.
 * Little Red Riding Hood, one of the protagonists of the 2014 film Into the Woods, was played by Lilla Crawford, who was thirteen at the time of principal filming.
 * All but the three oldest members of the principal cast of The Goonies.

Literature

 * In the Nevermoor series, Morrigan Crow initially starts out at eleven, however as the series progresses she ages into the trope's range.
 * In the Harry Potter series, Harry initially starts out in this range, but grows out of it as the books progress.
 * Sophie Foster in the Keeper of the Lost Cities franchise starts out being twelve, and remain in the range as the series progresses. Book number nine implies that she may have grown out of it, stating that she no longer keeps track of her age and that she may be sixteen.
 * The heroes of Diane Duane's Young Wizards series range between ten and fourteen, depending on the character and the book.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

 * Little Red Riding Hood is generally depicted as a girl somewhere between ten and thirteen.

Radio

 * The classic radio show Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy revolved around the globe-trotting adventures of the titular Jack who, at the beginning of the series at least, was just starting at Hudson High School. Jack eventually aged up out of both this trope and high school over the seventeen years it was on the air.

Tabletop Games

 * The tabletop RPG Meddling Kids, which was created to introduce young first-time roleplayers to gaming by playing a group of kids and their mascot/pet investigating mysteries a la Scooby-Doo, is designed to focus on Early Teen Heroes.

Video Games

 * The thirteen year old Oliver from Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
 * Roughly half of the protagonists in the Atelier Series. Since the games typically take place over multiple years, nearly all of them enter late teens or even adulthood by the end of the game.
 * The playable character in Pokémon Legends: Arceus is described to look around fifteen (despite the female being completely flat), scraping the upper limit of the age bracket.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog's age was given as 15 (five times the usual lifespan of an average non-anthropomorphic hedgehog) on Sega's official website between 2015 and mid-2022 (when the age section was removed entirely). His personality of being arrogant, proud, somewhat impulsive and a show-off but ultimately good natured fits the human perception of this age.

Western Animation

 * The fourteen year old Luz in The Owl House
 * Anne, Sasha, and Marcy are all stated to be thirteen years old in Amphibia.
 * In Gravity Falls, we have the twelve year old Dipper.
 * In High Guardian Spice, the four main girls Rosemary, Sage, Parsley, and Thyme are all fourteen years old. Other characters, such as the Antagonists Olive and Mandrake are sixteen and seventeen, respectively. This puts them at an age where they are similar to the main characters, but isn't relatable to young children.