Child Prodigy

Miko: You know how to hack? But you're, like, two years old.
Raf: Twelve...and a quarter.

—Transformers Prime

A Child Prodigy is a young genius - in his pre-teen years, in fact; a younger version of the Teen Genius. Basically, any genius below 12 is eligible for the title of a Child Prodigy. Sometimes ignored or discriminated by those who consider him Just a Kid.

In a setting with mostly older cast, a Child Prodigy might be introduced to appeal to a younger demographics.

Very often The Smart Guy in a Five-Man Band, particularly in Super Robot shows.

See also Brainy Baby which is even younger counterpart.

For the record, despite some Real Life uses of the term, a teenage/high school-age character in college would be a Teen Genius, not this trope.

Examples of Child Prodigy include:

Alternate Reality Games

  • I Love Bees: Yasmine Zaman was a six-year-old prodigy who never lost at backgammon because she could gage the way the dice came out of her hand and roll anything she wanted.

Anime and Manga

  • Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh is 10 when she starts high school. While she consistently gets better grades than everyone, being 5 years younger than everyone means she has problems during P.E. and Sex Ed talks.
  • Negi in Mahou Sensei Negima, kinda. He graduated from Wizarding School at the age of nine and became a teacher in Japan and mastered the language,[1] too. Later on, when he starts learning combat techniques and training seriously, it takes him about 9 months to become one of the most powerful combatants alive.
    • To be fair, Negi spent an inordinate amount of time in magic resorts, scrolls, and the like, to the point where he's now actually twelve years old.
    • Kurt Godel is also explicitly stated to be one of these. (Or at least, he was when he was still a child.)
    • Negi's father, Nagi, also qualifies, at least in regards to combat. And only combat. He was one of the strongest men alive when he was about twelve, culminating with him defeating a god in single combat when he was seventeen or so.
  • Edajima Heihachi from Sakigake Otokojuku is capable of fighting a group of monkeys at the age of 7. When he is ten years old, he have read and remembered the content of a whole shelf of thick books, which includes some higher level of Mathematics. At the age of eleven, he is specially admitted in Tokyo Imperial University and is capable of breaking prison bars.
  • Yukari Sendo from Rosario + Vampire is an 11 year old genius in a class full of teenagers.
  • Rimone from Simoun is extremely young even for a Sybilla, which doesn't prevent her from being an Ace Pilot rivaled only by Aeru and Neviril.
  • Kotoko from Divergence Eve,The reason being that she's an advanced android.
  • Becky from Pani Poni Dash!. Graduated from the MIT and teaching high school girls... at eleven years old.
  • The 10-year old Erio Mondial from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, who had already achieved a Mage Rank of B before the show started while his teenage companions were still struggling to achieve the same rank.
    • Rumor has it that Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate were even sillier examples, being AAA-Rank Mages under the TSAB's employ when they were younger, but eh... who believes such rumours? (Link may be NSFW)
    • It's revealed in the supplementary manga of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha that the math used on Earth and Mid-Childa are very similar, and using advanced magic requires a firm grasp of mathematical formulas. Needless to say, Nanoha and Fate are math geniuses who always ace the subject in school, much to the chagrin of the competitive Alisa, and Fate even helps Nanoha's older sister Miyuki with her school work.
  • Ai Haibara from Detective Conan is implied to have been one: if she has a PhD and already led The Syndicate's lab before the age of 18, she must be one in her preteen years.
  • Sou Touma from Q.E.D., likewise, is MIT-graduated before high school age; he is now in a High School for the needed socialization to prevent Intelligence Equals Isolation.
  • May Chang from Fullmetal Alchemist. She looks to be around 8 years old, but she has the mentality, mannerisms, and fighting skills of an adult. She was even able to decode Scar's brother's research notes mostly by herself.
    • Justified in that she is a Child Prodigy out of necessity rather than genetics as being the Fallen Princess and only hope of a dying clan and being charged with such clan's future, besides probably dealing with assassination attempts that Ling says are common for people in such position, makes you mature fast.
    • A straight and much more obvious example from the same series: the Elric brothers. They tried to raise their mother from the dead when they were 11 and 10, and had learned alchemy by themselves when much younger. Winry probably also counts - c'mon, were you able to make mechanic limbs when you were eleven?
      • While valid, that makes it sound even more extraordinary than it is in context; the FMA universe is more technologically advanced than ours in the area of Artificial Limbs, so it's not just a matter of Winry being a Gadgeteer Genius.
        • The FMA manga clarifies that automail "mechanics" are actually closer to surgeons then the people fixing your car. So a more real-world applicable question would be "Were you successfully performing surgery on amputees when you were 11?"
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!!: Seto Kaiba is not only a Teen Genius, but he beat Gozaburo in a chess match in order to get him and Mokuba adopted. When he was ten. That takes skillz!
    • Also, Rebecca Hopkins; she's taking College classes by the time she reappears for the Doma arc... Even in the dub, where she was eight as opposed to twelve in her initial appearance.
  • Megumi "Nodame" Noda in Nodame Cantabile is shown to have been a piano prodigy as a kid.
  • Kanon Hayashi in Kanon By Chiho Saito was a violin prodigy when she was a little girl, able to play brilliantly even without proper training.
  • Kai of Piano No Mori is a musical genius who started play at three and doesn't receive any formal lessons until he is ten. he can play almost any piece perfectly after hearing it once.
  • As a pre-teen nation-tan, Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia started working on his own alphabet few moments after his brother, China, taught him to write.
  • A whole slew of characters from Naruto. To name a few: Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Neji Hyuuga, Gaara, Itachi Uchiha, and Naruto's Disappeared Dad Minato Namikaze.
    • And the most recent one is Killer Bee.
  • In Hayate the Combat Butler, while most of the qualifiers are 13, and thus Teen Genius material, Maria entered the school at 10 and graduated at 13. Nagi, Isumi and Sakuya are most of the way through their first year of High School, meaning that they were Child Prodigy material. Nagi doesn't even attend classes and is still considered one of the top students before Hayate comes along.
  • The Professor in Nichijou, despite being eight years old, has managed to build, among other things, a speech-giving scarf and a Ridiculously Human Robot (which she constantly modifies without the robot noticing).
  • Taiki Kudou in Digimon Xros Wars who is not aware that he is this. He is both exceedingly athletic and intelligent, and has engaged various sports like a pro. Further more he is capable of forming brilliant strategies within a flash of a second in the heat of battle.
  • Wendy from Fairy Tail might also count as she was able to learn her offensive spells just by seeing Natsu use it once.
  • Katie Lindberg from Alyosha was one of these before maturing into a Teen Genius. She achieved a near-perfect SAT score at the age of 6 and graduated at the top of her class at MIT when she was 12.
  • Subverted in Kaleido Star. May Wong was an ice skating prodigy in the past, but she kept it only as a hobby and pursued becoming an acrobat in the Kaleido Stage instead.
  • Minoru from Chobits is only 12 years old but he is a computer genius who is an expert on persocoms, and knows the answers to almost all of Hideki's problems when he gets screwed over by technology.
  • Hitsugaya Toshiro from Bleach finished the soul reaper academy in less than a year and is the youngest soul reaper captain in history. He may be hundreds of years old chronologically, but he is physically much younger than most of the other soul reapers, except for Kusajishi Yachiru, and is still considered a child by their standards. In canon, his physical age is compared to Kurosaki Karin, who is only 11.

Comic Books

  • James-Michael from Steve Gerber's Omega the Unknown, thanks to having been raised by robots.
  • Barry Ween. Actually, calling Barry Ween a child prodigy is kind of like calling Damian a naughty kid; Barry has invented dimension travel devices, working lightsabers, time machines, jetpacks, and ray guns. He secretly runs several multinational corporations in order to finance his experiments, and he can plan and execute a break-in of a top secret (and heavily guarded) government facility in the space of an afternoon. He's ten.
  • Valerie "Val" Richards.

Fan Works

  • Hermione Granger, even more so than in canon, in the Harry Potter fic The Arithmancer. Among other things she is a mathematical prodigy, capable of astounding feats of mental calculation.

Film

  • Star Wars
    • Anakin Skywalker, thanks to his robotics and piloting skills
    • Most of the Old Republic Jedi probably count as they were trained from birth (or not long after).
  • The professor's son from The Great Debaters is in college at 14.
  • That kid from Revenge of the Nerds attending college (and joining a frat!) at age 10, his name was Wormser.
  • Real Genius is about a school full of these, including the main character Mitch, his friend Chris, and Lazlo, the guy in the closet.
  • Josh Waitzkin in Searching for Bobby Fischer.
  • From Little Man Tate, Jodie Foster's directorial debut, Fred Tate (played by Adam Hann-Byrd, also known for The Ice Storm) reads at age two without having been taught, and in second grade paints with a mature grasp of art history.
  • The title character of Matilda. At the beginning of the film she starts school and, due to her voracious appetite for books, is already able to multiply large numbers in her head and has an extensive knowledge of literature.
  • Near in L: Change the World is a mathematical genius and solves Maki's homework for her, which turns out to be the secret of the antidote to the virus she carries.

Literature

  • Artemis Fowl counts, being an evil criminal mastermind at age 12. He began his schemes at the age of 10 though.
  • The Ender's Game series. Half the IF is commanded by a bunch of prepubescent kids.
    • Judging from Alai, puberty wreaks havoc with your political and military judgement.
  • The titular character in Matilda is so smart, she can multiply large numbers in her head and develops psychic powers.
  • Sophie from Child of the Hive is shown at the age of seven capable of speaking near-perfect German after only three lessons. She also has knowledge of Latin by that age and is later shown reading a book in the original French. As a teenager, she is acknowledged as being a mathematical genius and being extraordinarily good at computer programming.
  • Older Than They Think: one of the first novels to feature a Child Prodigy was The Hampdenshire Wonder in 1911. The protagonist is not only a genius, but a truly superintelligent little kid who judges the whole human culture an "elementary, inchoate, disjunctive patchwork"... at age four and a half. He's right, and TV Tropes proves it.
  • Reynie from The Mysterious Benedict Society
    • Actually, all four members of the Mysterious Benedict Society (with the possible exception of Kate, who is less Book Smart, but has plenty of skills and general intelligence to make up for it) were chosen specifically because they were some version of this trope. Constance, however, takes the cake. Sure, she's stubborn, sleepy, and slightly bratty- she's also two years old.
  • Jon Masters from Dale Brown's books was a child prodigy in the past who's retained his genius in adulthood. In Wings of Fire it turns out that Dr. Kelsey Duffield is actually a nine year-old girl.
  • Dairine from the Young Wizards series. At age 3 she decided that she was going to learn everything, by age 4 she taught herself to read, and by age 5 was reading from encyclopedias all by herself.
  • Ollie of In the Keep of Time was a very precocious reader for her age; after her jaunt into the past, this has to be re-taught to her.
  • A disturbingly large percentage of the Remillard clan of the Galactic Milieu trilogy start out at this - and that's not even counting their incredible psychic powers.
  • The Blue Children from Stephen Baxter's Manifold Time, transformed through the influence of a civilization in the distant future. "Prodigy" doesn't even begin to describe how frighteningly advanced (and creepy) they are.
  • Euphemia in My Godawful Life by Michael Kelly
  • The Thursday Next books have Tuesday.
  • Star Holmes, in the Mark Clifton novella Star Bright [dead link] . At three she constructed a Moebius Strip and while she didn't know what it was called, she knew what it did. By age five she was an accomplished time traveler. Clifton wrote many stories and novels, but is remembered for this one. It became an X Minus One radio play.
  • Charles Wallace Murray in the Madeline L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time is this, though only his family knows it. Since he refused to talk until age four, and refuses to talk to those who aren't family, he is labeled as "dumb" by the townsfolk. In reality, he's incredibly bright. His mother reads him medical journals as bedtime reading, and he is also able to decipher people's emotions. As a result, he has a hard time relating to his peers. When he does display his intelligence, he is told he is a liar or to stop showing off. He also has a problem with being bullied. However, he still shows signs of being a child; he is incredibly proud of his intelligence and thinks himself, at times, infallible. He is warned against it by the Ladies, though it eventually leads to his possession by IT.
  • Leonard Stecyk in The Pale King. At 11 years old, he participates in the Meals on Wheels charity, volunteers as a crosswalk guard and hall monitor, donates his ice cream money to UNICEF, has been to origami camp twice, writes letters to publishers about textbook errors, fields all calls and inquiries with regards to his mother's hospitalization, attempts to reorganize his homeroom's seating structure for maximum efficiency, and writes individualized letters of apologies to his bullies. He also intentionally gets a few Bs on his report card solely to ensure he never gets too prideful of being an overachiever.
  • Bertie Pollock, five-year-old, Italian-speaking saxophonist in the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith. He Just Wants To Be Normal, but has a Beloved Smother who, despite being an amateur child psychologist, cannot understand this (and also sees an actual child psychologist who's even worse).
  • Millicent Min: Girl Genius by Lisa Yee is about an 11-year-old high school senior who is forced to tutor her archenemy who flunked the 6th grade and play volleyball over the summer in order to socialize with normal people her age.
  • Clark Fries in Podkayne of Mars is 11 Earth years old, much more worldly and cynical than his 15-year-old sister Podkayne, is skilled at manipulating adults who don't know him -- and is technically skilled enough to identify and disarm a tactical nuclear warhead.
  • Timothy Paul of the 1948 novella In Hiding by Wilmar Shiras, and the other super-genius children he and psychologist Peter Welles discover in the book that grew out of it, Children of the Atom.

Live Action TV

  • Smart Guy - Titular Character (9/10 years old) goes to high school
  • Hannah Montana - Rico was a side character, till he joined high school at the same time as the core cast.
  • Doogie Howser, M.D, in his backstory. In the present he's a Teen Genius instead.
  • River Tam from Firefly was once this. In the show she may be too old.
    • In the show's present and the R. Tam Sessions, she's a Teen Genius. She was definitely a Child Prodigy when she was younger, but the only time this shows up on-screen is the flashback at the beginning of "Safe".
  • Micah Sanders from Heroes shows incredible political prowess and was able to lead the resistance against a Government Conspiracy at the age of eleven.
    • Oddly enough, his actor Noah Gray-Cabey is somewhat of a prodigy in real life too. By the time he was 4 he was on Ripley's Believe It Or Not for his amazing piano skills - notably being the youngest soloist to perform with an orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. By the time he was 9 years old he was in a 9th grade math class.
  • Goodness Gracious Me has an utterly hilarious take on a child prodigy in this video.
  • Major Nelson had to babysit a kid with a 153 IQ once on I Dream of Jeannie.
  • Janice in Head of the Class.
  • This is Reid's Backstory in Criminal Minds; currently he's a twenty something (triple) PH.D (making him an Omnidisciplinary Scientist). Definitely suffered a bit of the Intelligence Equals Isolation (or at least bullying), as seen in at least one episode where he explains that he was "a 12 year old child prodigy at a Las Vegas public school" which is how he knows that Team Mom Hotchner "kicks like a nine year old girl." (It Makes Sense in Context) This is also why at least Gideon, the team's Papa Wolf, insists on calling him Dr. Reid in front of people meeting the team so they won't see him as Just a Kid.
  • Also the backstory for Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory - he went off to college at 11. Another Teen Genius turned Omnidisciplinary Scientist, when he went to Germany at age 15, he was a visiting professor, not a student, and he got his first Ph.D (he has two at present) at age 16.
    • May possibly be seen as a Deconstructed adult version of this trope. His early successes have fueled his large ego, making him quite insufferable to those around him. He's around 30, but still has the emotional capacity of a kid since he didn't have a normal childhood. And his vast intelligence greatly alienated him from his own family.
  • Will Robinson of Lost in Space was an electronics prodigy.
  • Malcolm in the earlier episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, also his younger brother Dewey (though he plays dumb so he doesn't get the same harsh treatment as Malcolm).
    • Stevie, Lloyd, Dabney, and Cynthia also fit.
  • The backstory of Charlie of Numb3rs is that he is a math child prodigy. When he was three or four, he was able to multiply four digit numbers in his head.
  • Dr. K from Power Rangers RPM starts out as this. In fact, her drawing scientific equations on the sidewalk was what attracted Alphabet Soup agents to kidnap her and raise her in their think tank to develop weapons--at age five. It gets worse, a lot worse, from there.
  • The new Disney Channel show A.N.T. Farm is all about 11-year-old child prodigies who are allowed to skip to high school. ANT stands for "Advanced Natural Talents".

Music

Newspaper Comics

  • Jason FOX: Builds model rockets that provoke diplomatic incidents with China, can write viruses that crash the Internet, does math equations (involving integrations), for fun, apparently built a "miniature warp engine" during science camp, and is ten years old.

Tabletop Games


Video Games

  • Commander Keen, an 8-year old genius. He's already built a rocketship capable of interstellar travel (Dubbed the 'Beans-with-Bacon-Megarocket!)
    • According to the first game, the thing runs on (Dad's) everclear, gets power from (Mom's) car battery, and uses (Mom's) vacuum cleaner (modified) for ion propulsion.
    • Other things Keen built include an interstellar transceiver (the reception was bad, but it did get a signal worth investigating) and a fully-functioning wrist computer (complete with a Pong clone!).
    • Keen's archenemy - Mortimer McMire. The final boss in the original trilogy; Keen's got an IQ of 314, Mortimer has an IQ of 315.
    • His spiritual successor, Andy of Heart of Darkness, one-ups him by building an INTERDIMENSIONAL craft... and a plasma-cannon. (Keen's zap-gun is not his own invention - he 'borrowed' it from the Vorticon base on Mars.)
  • Jennifer of Disgaea is said to have been a child prodigy and quite a technology genius, but by the time the plot happens she's no longer a child.
  • The protagonist is apparently a battling prodigy in Pokémon. S/He begins their journey years before most other people, at age 10 - 14 (RBYG FRLG for eleven) years old. You not only beat everyone in your region (two for GSC and HGSS) with ease, including the Elite Four and Champion, but take down a gang of terrorists (two gangs in Emerald).
  • In The Sims 2, the highest aspiration ranking[2] for child Sims is "Child Prodigy". However, the game's not programmed to let children do things like go to college or write novels, so it's not really possible to make a legitimate Child Prodigy without using mods.
    • Sim children in the Sims 3 can write novels, though.
  • Genis from Tales of Symphonia is right on the border between this and Teen Genius. Rita from Tales of Vesperia is a Teen Genius, but she started researching blastia technology and magic when she was ten.
  • Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Sunny from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a computer prodigy. She was raised by a computer for most of her developmental years.
  • Relm from Final Fantasy VI. She's so good at painting that Owzer, the world's biggest art collector, wants a painting from her. She's also the best Magic user of the game, but to many this doesn't make up for her otherwise useless attributes in battle.
  • Mechanic Puck from Vanguard Bandits. He works faster than the best engineers in a nation and is small enough to fit under the seat of one the ATACs he works on.
  • Albert Wesker of the Resident Evil series is eventually revealed to have been one of these.
  • Raz from Psychonauts is often considered a Child Prodigy, what with all of that "One in a million" talk from Oleander, and Sasha's willingness to work with him.
  • We meet Prince Innes as an adult in his early-to-mid 20's, but Moulder's supports with Vanessa explain that he was one of these. At age 10-12 he was already defeating famous adult archers with ease and doing so via his own efforts. (i.e., he refused help or advantages when he was offered., etc.)
  • Leon Gheste from Star Ocean the Second Story is a prime example of this trope. Aside from being a doctor at age 12, he is also the sharpest mind in the largest country on the planet and the creator of the Lancour Hope.
  • Luke Triton is a bit of a puzzle master for his age. It is assumed that Clive was a Child Prodigy, as well, as after his adoptive mother died, he went straight into business with a newspaper and then used the woman's money to create an underground London.
  • Pearl "Pearly" Fey from Ace Attorney. Her cousin Maya has said that she's the most powerful medium ever in the Fey clan, and she's 9. Too bad her mother Morgan is a total Evil Matriarch/Stage Mom who tries to use Pearl as her ticket to take leadership of the clan...

Visual Novels

  • In Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai, Monshiro has skipped grades to enter Kawakami High. She also accepts challenges from, and bests, everybody in her class (1-S, so no pushovers) at everything from running a race to a cooking duel. The only thing she's no good at is fighting, for which she has her overwhelmingly powerful bodyguard to cover for.

Web Animation

Webcomics

  • In Sluggy Freelance Bun-Bun is initially reluctant to let little girl Jaya onto the pirate crew he's setting up, 'til he finds out about her hereditary knack for it.

Bun-Bun: Little girls can't be pirates! What do you know about robbing and plundering?
Jaya: Well, my dad's an investment banker and my mom's a lawyer ...
Bun-Bun: Welcome aboard, First Mate!

  • Scarlett from Plus EV, who's following in her father's footsteps as a professional Poker player.
  • Zokusho Comics: Jack is awfully young to be throwing around so many powerful combat spells. Especially when one character has already been assassinated for having access to combat magic.


Western Animation

  • In Arthur all the kids act like the Brain is a super-genius, and he uses big words his parents have to look up, but he's really just much more knowledgable than average for his age.
  • Chester McTech of Beverly Hills Teens.
  • A.J. of the Fairly Oddparents. He is in fifth grade and only ten years old and not only does he have the highest I.Q. in his school and his town of Dimmsdale, he frequently invents items which that are futuristic such as a suspended animation tube in one movie. He also can make several clones of himself and is apparently an adviser to the government concerning technology issues.
  • Dexter of Dexters Laboratory along with his rival Mandark.
  • Phineas and Ferb .
  • In Venture Bros. there is Master Billy Quizboy, who is a Quiz Boy, that being an underrated branch of Boy Genius
    • It is revealed in one episode that "Master Billy Quizboy" is actually over 30
  • Wade and the Tweebs in Kim Possible.
  • Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius.
  • Word Girl has Tobey, the self proclaimed "world's most formidable boy genius." Wordgirl herself counts, too. In a bookish sort of way.
  • Anais Watterson, the younger sister of the title character to The Amazing World of Gumball, is only four but attends junior high with her 12-year-old brother.
  • Stewie from Family Guy can build time machines and a multi-verse transporter and yet he is only one year old.
  • Gretchen Grundler from Recess
  • Twilight Sparkle.
  • Western Animation/Cyberchase Inez. Case in point: this 9-year-old girl knew the scientific family that hawks belong to.
  • Hey Arnold!
    • Olga was this and suffered because of it (though being a Stepford Smiler, she only told Helga this).
    • Similar to Olga, Helga is a much more subtle version of this (and it's never really ventured on). It's only revealed in bits in pieces such as being the only one (other than Olga) to score a 100 on the school's aptitude test, learning a Shakespeare play in one night (though not seeming particularly interested in anything he's written earlier on), winning poetry contests several times and having her shrink bring up her above average knowledge.

Dr Bliss: "That's very astute for a 4th grader."

  • Inspector Gadget's niece Penny, so much so that she and their dog Brain are the ones who actually do most of the work.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has Aang, Toph, and Azula, each of whom is shown to be extremely talented in their respective superpowered martial arts. All three become Teen Geniuses as the series progresses.
    • Aang is the youngest Master Airbender in history and a Physical God who mastered all three remaining bending arts within a span of twelve months, a feat that took many years for the previous Avatars.
    • Toph is 12 years old and already the self-proclaimed “Best earthbender in the world”. She backs this talk up by beating the crap out of people twice her size and who have much more experience. She is also the inventor of metalbending, a skill previously thought to be Beyond the Impossible.
    • At a very young age, Azula was shown pulling off firebending techniques her older and relatively skilled brother Zuko had problems with. She is also one of three characters in the original series knows how to use lightning.
    • The sequel series The Legend of Korra episode "Welcome to Republic City" shows us Aang's successor, young Avatar Korra of the Water Tribe, who manages to out-prodigy even Aang himself. She is introduced having taught herself rudimentary Waterbending, Earthbending and Firebending by the tender age of four, in a universe where an Avatar is traditionally not notified of their status and multiple Elemental Powers until their Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Lisa, for starters. At very least, she is well-read, intelligent, cultured, and a talented saxophone player. She has great interest in science and environment, often to the point of being an Insufferable Genius, sadly.
    • Many fans believe Maggie is even more of a prodigy than Lisa. She's shown to be able to scrawl her name on her Etch-A-Sketch and play Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" on her toy xylophone. Seeing as she never talks (except to say "Daddy" in one episode) and is eternally an infant due to the genre, her true potential may never be fully explored.
  • The Broflovski brothers in South Park are this, Ike moreso and more blatant than his older brother.
    • Ike's entered kindergarten 2 years early, watches conservative political commentary, makes a macaroni replica of The Last Supper, has been hired to help cover up a massive jewel heist and is a knight in Canada. As of seasons 15ish he's only 4.
    • Kyle's also no slouch. He's regularly portrayed as the top student in his class, has the highest capabilities with the computer, including photoshopping a photo to fool the Japanese government to stop whaling and get his best friend out of trouble and single-handedly thwarting a terrorist attack with some inspired Google-fu. He's also shown more than a slight capability with philosophy and managed to remove himself from reality.
    • Cartman is this only, and ONLY when motivated by evil.

Real Life

  • Kim Ung-Yong of South Korea was reported with an IQ of 210 in the mid-1960s. He was a guest student in physics at Hangyang University at three (both his parents were professors there) and appeared on Japan's "World Surprise Show" at four composing poetry, speaking four languages and solving integral calculus problems. NASA paid for him to attend Colorado State University and then hired him at age 11. He worked there until he was about 17, later saying it was monumentally boring and he missed his mother. He went home and changed fields entirely. Today he is a professor of civil engineering at a college near his home town.
  • Even more of a child prodigy is Srinivasa Ramanujan. He made theorems at age 12 that you could get a PHD for proving today. He was an unparalleled mathematical genius.
  • Masako Ichijou aka Empress Haruko aka Empress Dowager Shoken, wife of Emperor Mutsuhito aka Meiji. She learned to read complicated poetry at age 4, started writing at age five, started reading Chinese at age 7, and by age 12 she was an expert koto player.
  • Seiyuu Hiroko Kasahara debuted in a lead role when she was 12 years old.
    • Same goes to Yoko Honna, who was around 10 when she started her career.
  • A few Chess grandmasters, specially world champions. Small example: Jose Raul Capablanca learned to play chess at the age of 4 and had beaten the Cuban national champion by the age of 12!
  • Sho Yano, who started university by age 9 and is in medical school and studying for a PhD on the side by age 12.
    • To be more specific, according to news reports, he was (deep breath....) reading by age 2, writing by age 3, composing music at age 5, scored 1500 on his SATs (out of 1600) at age 8, entered college at age 9, entered medical school at age 12, finished his Ph.D. in three years, and this year got his M.D. from the University of Chicago at age 21. His IQ is estimated at over 200. Oh, and he's also a concert pianist who's played at the Ravinia festival. Do you have an inferiority complex yet?
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. If not the outright Trope Codifier, he's certainly the most famous example. He started playing piano at age 3, was composing by age 5, and wrote his first symphony at age 8.
  • French pianist and composer Camille Saint-Saens gave his first public piano recital at age 11. For an encore, he went back on stage and asked the audience to name any of the 35 sonatas for piano by Beethoven, which he would then play from memory.
  • Blaise Pascal started his mathematician career when he was nine.
  • Composer Jay Greenberg (b. 1991) has been compared to Mozart and other musical prodigies. He entered the Juilliard conservatory at age 11, and had written five symphonies by the time he was 13.
  1. ↑ in two weeks
  2. ↑ A sort of mood-meter that measures how many of their wants and/or fears have come true lately
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