In your opinion, can a 12 year old fall in love?

Basically, what it says on the tin- can someone as young as 12 fall in love? The recipient of her affections is basically her bodyguard and does not and will not return the romantic feelings because, well, she's 12 and he's 2000+ and that would be nassssty.

I think it would be unlikely (more likely would be a strong infatuation), but when it comes to emotions and people, I can't say anything is impossible. But she would have to be very emotionally mature for a 12 year old, and at some point realize that, even if she does love him (as opposed to said infatuation) she shouldn't try anything and at least, well, wait until she's older.

If you meant in love as in a crush or infatuation, then yes. Definitely. I was having crushes on people (my age or not) in kindergarten.

As a question to you, what is your character's idea of love? She'll probably think she loves him/is in love with him either way, but what does "love" mean to her? Dating? Kissing? (More, if she knows about that?) Sharing time with the person? Caring about their well-fare? Wanting them to always be around (whether they're happy or not)? Something else?

Personally, I could see that going a lot of ways. Depends on what she realizes about her feelings and the situation, and how she acts on that. :)

Ok, I'll let other people answer if they want to, instead of hogging the thread. XD

Hmm, not sure.
But then again when I was twelve I had barely discovered that there are two kinds of people on this world, so I'm probably not much to judge this.

Could I believe that a 12-year old might actually fall in love?
Possibly. I'm an easy reader, I'm most of the time half-ways willing to believe everything the author presents to me if only it is brought up convincing enough.
And long as nothing happens from it, gee, why not?

I'd say yes, but that it would not be the same as adult love. It would be a combination of things like infatuation, pre-pubescent lust and hero worship, as well as a possible conception of him as a father figure - it would, very unlikely, be the basis for an adult relationship. So, yes, people might easily say it's a 'crush' or 'puppy love'. The thing is, I've always hated those terms because they undermine how strong and important it will be to her at the time. Children, and pre teens, are capable of very deep and sincere attachments, and getting hurt at that age can absolutely devastate an individual in terms of trust, commitment and mental health in later years. They are also capable of transient but intense infatuations that feel very strong but can be broken off or dropped with no real harm done.

So, if you show a serious, underlying affection and affinity between the two, which her stirring hormones enhance, I could totally believe it. But deep affection which forms at that age tends, later, to be replaced by new attachments, even though that relationship would still have a hold on her.

I would strongly oppose that though, even in a novel; there is one reason why: The Black Jewels Trilogy. 12-year-old Jaenelle meets 2500-year-old Daemon and, well, love on first sight. This seemed so ridiculous to me that I avoid books with young heroes/heroines, because I know sooner or later, something similarly awful will happen...

And yes to the hero worship thing.

I think she's just too young. When 12 year-old girls and much, much older guys come in question, I think of Nabokov's "Lolita", but also of "The City of Lost Children" and "Leon, the Professional". The last two are good examples of how you might want to treat a potentially awkward (not to say pedophile) relationships...

Personally, I don't think a 12 year old is emotionally complex enough to "fall in love." Lust, sure. Crush, why not? Infatuation, definitely. But falling in love is something much more complex than that, something that I don't think a lot of teenagers are even capable of. She might think it's love, but to her older suitor, it would be something very, very different.

Um, yes?! You don't know who's out there, and I'm sure there's a twelve-year-old who is in love with her bodyguard, too. Just do it. There are kids who are really mature and profound, believe me.

I don't think that a 12 year has the capacity to understand what real love is. Hell few adults understand what it means to really love someone.

Crushes, infatuations, hero worship, fan girling yes of course. I've done it all and had a throughly good time doing it. Learned a lot and wouldn't trade those experiences for anything and I think all young people should. Its healthy, but actual real love...I don't think so.

And the thing that makes it cute to adults is how hard the 12 year old believes they are really in love.

Well, if you believe the entire "Triangular Theory of Love" idea, than one's love would consist of this, I guess.

1. Intimacy – Which encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.
2. Passion – Which encompasses drives connected to both limerence and sexual attraction.
3. Commitment – Which encompasses, in the short term, the decision to remain with another, and in the long term, the shared achievements and plans made with that other.

I'm not sure if I completely believe it or not, but I do think "true love" does need to have both an intimate, compassionate side, where the MC would want to be committed to the person and share their secrets with them, and also must have a sexual side (unless she's, of course, asexual). Twelve is about that age where a lot of people experience a sexual awakening (or at least close to one).

But, even If she finds herself both emotionally and physically attracted to him, I still would somewhat scoff at rhe idea of a twelve-year-old actually falling in love. Maybe, has nearly everyone else said, an over exaggerated crush or infatuation or hero worship she confuses with "love," but not real, adult love. To me, it's like when people in my high school say "I love you" after going out for less than a week, and then they break up a month later. And then it happens again, and again...

Do you have to define it in-story? She can say she's in love with him, he can say she's too young to know what love is, someone else can say she's mature enough but he shouldn't do anything because ick. The readers can make their own decisions as to whether it's real love or not. That's how I'd write it, at least.

If you want my opinion on the question you actually asked instead of unwarranted random advice, I'd say it's probably possible but unusual. At 12, I had crushes, but I knew they weren't what most people would call love. I'm 20 and I've never told someone I loved them in a romantic sense. I wouldn't say I'm at all an expert on what love is, but I think twelve year olds have much more emotional capacity than most people give them credit for.

That being said, I wouldn't read a book that was a love story between a twelve year old and an adult, be they 20 or 2000. Onesided crush subplot, sure, just keep it at that.

The book "Angel Isle" by Peter Dickinson has a romance like this, I believe — a twelve-year-old-ish girl falls in love with a fifty-year-old-ish man. It's an important subplot. They part ways at the end of the book because he, and eventually she, believes that she needs to grow up and have at least a chance at liking someone her own age before they can decide about being together. I don't remember if I liked them as a potential couple (I had very mixed feelings about the book), but it was more believable than the romances in a couple of other stories I've read, so you might be able to get some ideas about how he handles it.

Now, as for real life, I had my first crush that I knew was a crush at age twelve, on a boy I knew in my singing group. It was very strong, very enjoyable, and it lasted a grand total of three days. A year later I couldn't imagine what I'd seen in the guy. That crush made me feel a lot better about going through puberty (which wasn't a process I'd been liking much), but real love it was not. I've crushed on and been otherwise drawn to several other people since then, but I don't believe I genuinely fell in love until last year, at age twenty-one.

In short, a twelve-year-old might be able to fall in love, but you're going to have to develop it very carefully to get your readers to believe it.

Feelings are no less real for children than for adults. Adults can suffer stupid infatuations as much as children. There's no reason to assume a child can't feel anything deeper when we've got adults falling in "twue wuv" at first sight piled up on every available surface in fiction.
If she falls in love with him she falls in love with him.

Yes. People of any age can be in love. There is no age limit as to when people fall in love and everybody experiences love differently. Plus, saying young people can't love is akin to saying that couples celebrating their fiftieth anniversaries can't possibly be in love because they have been together too long. Sure, 12 year olds aren't as experienced, but they are still human beings.

However, when it comes to the type of love that is healthy and mature, probably not. Nobody is capable of loving someone in a mature manner all the time. And for someone who is younger, it would be even more difficult since a child generally needs more support than an adult.

A 12 year old can believe she is in love, with all the physical consequences thereof. Her problem is not that she cannot feel love or a reasonable facsimile. It is that she is not a position to handle the consequences.

Wow!!! Thanks, guys! The love thing is intended as a kind of subplot, as I really suck at writing pure romance novels. Also, there's no chance or suggestion of any romantic attraction on the bodyguard's part- he sees her as a daughter figure (eventually) and a bit of a pest (at first).

Yes, a 12 year old call fall in love, but never, ever take it overboard. Crushes are the best way to go, and if you want some real love stuff, I would make them older, depending on the story and how you've described your characters. Honestly love for a 12 year old is more of a crush than an actual true love thing.

It's possible, though unlikely.

Just make sure it's not Lolita II.

Like some others said, the 12 year old would have to be EXTREMELY emotionally mature. Even then, it's a stretch. I know from my own experiences that I thought I was "in love" with my "boyfriend" at the time. But now that I am much older, I realized that what I thought was "love" was more of an unhealthy infatuation. I don't think 12 year olds have the emotional capability to love someone in that sort of a romantic way--the heartbreak, the physical aspects such as kissing and stuff, and all of the ways your body reacts to certain emotions or physical touch.