Too Many Repetitions of Young in Your Story?

In this post, you’ll find hundreds of ways to replace young when used to describe a person.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Young people are often depicted as energetic, self-centered, or inexperienced. However, they could just as easily be lethargic, altruistic, or skillful. Their personalities should be revealed by their facial expressions and action beats.

They might blush, smile, pout, sigh, or exhibit a multitude of other clues to their emotions.

Today’s younger generation is likely to be concerned about the environment. This could result in anger, fear, or the desire to change the world. Victorian youngsters would be raised with different values than those in modern times, and would exhibit different fears, beliefs, and aspirations.

Whatever the era, young boys will be faced with voice mutation, the appearance of pubic hair, and angst about relationships; whereas young girls will need to cope with budding breasts, menstruation, and societal biases.

Remember this as you write, and provide details appropriate to the period in which your story is based.

Adjectives and Adjectival Phrases

Young might refer to a number of ages from birth to as late as mid-thirties. Older people might consider anyone more than ten years their junior as young. An octogenarian is more likely to refer to a twenty-year-old as a whippersnapper than would the whippersnapper’s parents.

Some adjectives such as adolescent and newborn can double as nouns.

A to K
adolescent, baby-faced, babyish, boyish, budding, childish, childlike, developing, embryonic, fledgling, fresh, fresh-faced, girlish, green, growing, half-grown, immature, impressionable, inexperienced, infant, infantile [negative implications], infantine, junior, juvenile, kindergarten

L to Y
little, nascent, newborn, nubile, preschool, pubertal, pubescent, teenage, teenaged, tender, tender-aged, tenderfoot, underage, underdeveloped, undeveloped, unfledged, unripe, unseasoned, unsophisticated, unsullied, wide-eyed, wild, youthful

Similes and Metaphors

Here’s where your writing can shine, as long as you avoid purple prose. If you create a memorable phrase, use it only once. Rather than copy any of the following, leverage them as creativity springboards.

• [adorable, captivating, wobbly] as a new foal
• a blossom unfolding into the flower of maturity
• a larva with mysteries of future form buried within
• at an age when everything seems possible
• at the precipice of adulthood
• before the death of childish innocence
• blithe in spirit and optimistic about the future
• friskier than frolicking lambs
• vulnerable as a tender shoot poking through the soil
• with a heart untainted by adult biases
• with a tiny voice like the peep of a newly hatched chick
• with tender skin unblemished by time or care

Colors

The colors used most often to describe a young person’s skin are shades of pink like the following.

Pink
amaranth, azalea pink, baby pink, ballet-slipper pink, blush, bright pink, bubblegum pink, cantaloupe pink, carnation pink, cerise, champagne pink, cherry-rose pink, coral, cotton-candy pink, crepe pink, cupid pink, cyclamen pink, damask, flamingo pink, fuchsia, geranium pink, grapefruit pink, lemonade pink, magenta pink, mandarin pink, mango pink, melon pink, old-rose pink, oleander pink, parfait pink, pastel pink, peach, peach-blossom pink, peony pink, piggy pink, piglet pink, pomegranate pink, prom pink, punch pink, raspberry-smoothie pink, rose, rosewood pink, rouge pink, salmon pink, seashell pink, sherbet pink, shocking pink, strawberry pink, swine pink, taffy pink, watermelon pink, Zinfandel pink

See 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors for more options.

Scents

The scents of substances in our environment are absorbed by skin, hair, and clothing. Young people will encounter different substances than will their elders.

Here are a few idea starters for scents.

Your young characters might smell like, reek of, or be redolent with the scent of:

A to G
aftershave, baby [oil, powder], bananas, a barn, camphor oil, chocolate, cinnamon, cod liver oil, cookies, cotton candy, dirty [diapers, laundry, sneakers], a fishery, flowers [name the flowers], fresh [air, dirt, grass], gasoline, Grandma’s kitchen

H to Y
hamburgers, hand sanitizer, hay, honey, horse sweat, kitty litter, a latrine, leather, liquor, manure, marijuana, mouthwash, mud, oranges, outdoors, peanut butter, peppermint, perfume, a school locker, smoke, soap, sour milk, urine, vanilla, wet dog, yogurt

The Versatility of Verbs and Phrasal Verbs

Young people might wage continual battles with parents, peers, or siblings. Perhaps they react to victimization by bullies or child predators.

Here are a few verbs that might suit your character(s).

A to C
annoy, apply [acne cream, makeup], argue, blabber, blush, boast, brag, bully, carouse, cheat [on a significant other, on exams], cheer [cheerleader], compete [in equestrian competitions, road racing, sports events], complain, cram [for exams], crawl [baby], creep [baby]

D to L
demonstrate [for a cause], diet, disagree [with parents, teachers], disobey, enlist in the Armed Forces, fall in (puppy) love, fib [tell a lie], fight [with parents, siblings], frolic, giggle, gossip, grunt, ignore [parents, rules, teachers, younger siblings], join [a band, a gang], learn [new hobbies, new skills, to talk, to walk]

M to P
make out, mewl, neck, obsess about [clothes, hair, love interests, weight], overreact [to criticism, physical flaws, teasing], oversleep, perform [in a school play], pet (canoodle, smooch), pick [nose, pimples], play [chess, computer games, Dungeons & Dragons, pat-a-cake], pout, practice [asking for a date to the prom, dancing, jump shots], prank [a peer, a politician, a sibling, a teacher], pretend

R to W
react, ride [horse, motorcycle], scream [at a rock concert, on a roller coaster], skip [class, school], slobber, spit up, squeal, squeeze [pimples, zits], suckle, tease, torment [classmates, siblings], waddle, wage [word battles], wander [away from parents, out of yard], whoop, wiggle

Nouns

Pay attention to the nouns in this list that refer to young animals. These words are sometime used — fondly or in a deprecating manner — to refer to young people.

A to J
alpha pup, ankle-biter, apprentice, babe, baby, bairn [Scottish], bambino, boy, bud, calf, chick, child, colt, cub, filly, fledgling, foundling, froggy, gamin [dated], girl, guttersnipe [derogatory], hatchling, infant, innocent, juvenile

K to P
kid, kiddie, kiddo, kindergartener, kitten, lad, lamb, lass, little one, love child, minor, moppet, neonate, neophyte, nestling, newborn, nipper, novice, nursling, offspring, orphan, piglet, porker, preschooler, preteen, preteenager, progeny, pullet, pup, puppy

R to Y
rookie, rug rat, schoolboy, schoolgirl, schoolkid, shaver, sprat, sprout, squirt, stripling, suckling, tadpole, teen, teenybopper, tenderfoot, toad, toddler, tot, tween, tyke, tyro, urchin, waif, weanling, whelp, whippersnapper, yearling, youngster, youth

Clichés and Idioms

Clichés and idioms have their place in dialogue. However, avoid phrases such as the following unless they suit your narrator’s voice.

• babe in arms
• child’s play
• flower of youth
• Kids will be kids.
• knee-high to a grasshopper
• like a kid in a candy store
• like a kid with a new toy
• snotnose kid
• Spare the rod, spoil the child.
• spring chicken
• sweet young thing
• wet behind the ears
• whiz kid
• young at heart
• young blood