Actual Teen, Adult Teen.
and Nicholas Brendon, age 28 playing a 17-year-old
Over at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, Liz Burns profiles the tumblr Actual Teen, Adult Teen, and interviews the woman behind it:
Liz: What type of feedback have you gotten from readers?
Ann: I’ve had lots of really great feedback, but two messages have been especially thought-provoking for me. One, from a non-US reader, said she’d always just assumed American teens were very old-looking compared to teens in other countries, but now she knows it’s because the actors are all 25.
The other really interesting feedback came from a real, live teen who said she felt badly she looked so much younger than teens on TV, but this blog has helped reassure her that her appearance is what teens are *supposed* to look like. I hadn’t thought about this — for some people, constantly seeing older people (for instance, the entire cast of Glee) in high school settings, it can lead to some confidence issues.
Fascinating, important stuff: as the above quote suggests, it's hard to imagine that this practice doesn't factor into our culture's issues surrounding beauty and body image and whatnot.