Here’s a little age study with some of my ocs! This is technically not correct, Tara is five years younger than Felix and Levi, but oh well, it was just for pRAcTIcE okAy
(Why the heck was this deleted) (I don’t understand you tumblr) (stop deleted my posts and drafts)
Here’s what I got for Barbara’s age and her timeline.
Under a cut cause it gets really, like really long.
A note I want to add after writing this all out is that I don’t have a definite, exact age pinpointed for Barbara, just a lot of theories and possibilities based on what we know and what I wanted to write in my stories (I originally did all this specifically in preparation for writing my fanfic Shadow of Change, which is a Barbara backstory). This post isn’t necessarily meant to prove anything, just give what my thoughts and considerations have been.
Barbara’s Age: The Math
My original guesstimate that I use throughout my musings is that Barbara’s somewhere in her late 30s to early 40s.
-50s seem too old, given lack of gray hair (her hair is very clearly solidly red-brown). On the one hand, I want to say lack of gray is due to 3D model/animation design. Maybe it was easier for them to just not add in that much detailing? But then we have Strickler who does have graying/white hair and more defined facial (age) lines, so they clearly can do that much detailing on the character models, but didn’t for Barbara. My interpretation of this was that they didn’t want her to appear in that age range.
-Early to mid-thirties (30-35) seems too young. Given we have confirmation from the show that Jim is 16, that means Barbara had him at her current age - 16 years. So, say Barbara were currently 35, that would mean that she gave birth to Jim at 19 (35 -16). That, and any age younger and we’re in teen pregnancy area.
Jim as Teen Pregnancy Possibility
(I don’t personally like this idea, but this post is meant to cover every potential scenario so that’s why it’s included)
Jim as a teen pregnancy is not completely outside the realm of possibility in theory, but I feel like it would create more hurdles to jump over than what we see in the show, especially financially.
Barbara is a doctor (meaning she’s been through undergrad, med school, and residency). To get to this point, she’d have to pay off student loan debts, deal with the costs of a baby/young child, and be able to afford a house.
I’m not saying she can’t find a way to make all that work out if she started as a 19 year old (I mean she’s Barbara, she probably could tbh), but I feel like it would be extremely hard. Particularly if she doesn’t come from a super well-off background and if James Senior left the picture relatively early on.
She’d either have to find a way to completely support herself and her kid quickly or get help from people like her parents (who are not in the picture as of the show, so who knows about them) while simultaneously doing everything it takes to become a doctor.
Just having the time for both kid and medical career would be difficult at best too.
I feel like we’d see more signs that the Lakes are still paying off her student debts and/or the house too if she started off younger/at a place of more instability. For instance, one of Jim’s worries about his mom could have been he’s concerned about Barbara trying to support them/straining herself to make enough money. But we don’t see that.
More Numbers
According to the research I did back when I wrote Shadow, in general:
College (undergrad) Graduation: 22 yrs old
Medical School Graduation: 26 yrs old
Residency: 29-30 yrs old
which brings us to this picture:
(sorry it’s so huge, I don’t really know how to edit down photo sizes on tumblr).
Source: This post
which shows that Jim was at least a kid at a time when Barbara graduated.
I’ve seen numerous theories on how old Jim is in the picture that range from 5-6 years old to 11-12 years old. Personally, I stuck to the younger range.
Say this picture shows Barbara’s undergrad graduation. That would likely put her at 22yrs of age in it, which would mean she was 17 when she has Jim if he’s 6 (22-5) and 10/11 if he’s 11 or 12 (22-12), which would mean that one’s literally impossible.
Based on Barbara’s appearance in the picture (she doesn’t strike me as early 20s here), I’d say it’s likelier that it’s of her med school graduation, meaning she’d be around 26 and not 22.
In that case:
26 - 5 = 21
26 - 11 = 15
I like the numbers for a younger Jim in the picture way, way better so that’s my headcanon and I’m sticking to it.
Then, if Barbara had Jim when she was 21 that would mean her current/2016 age is 37 (21 + 16), which I feel is within the realm of possibility.
**However, these numbers can be fudged a little.
(if one happens to be a 22 year old who wants to write a story but is kinda uncomfortable with the idea of having a dfab protagonist who gets pregnant at their own age or younger. Am I saying I purposefully messed with the numbers of when various life events happened for Barbara for my own comfort? yes, yes I am).
So, one could decide:
maybe Barbara graduated college late (at 23-24). It’s possible. I had a friend who graduated at 24 and I myself am graduating a semester late (so I’ll be 23 by then).
That would mean:
College (undergrad) Graduation: 24 yrs old
Medical School Graduation: 28 yrs old
Residency: 31-32 yrs old
If Jim is 5 at the Med School Graduation while Barbara is 28, that would mean she’d be 23 when he’s born and currently (in 2016) 39.
Personally, I wiggled these numbers around again later when I wrote GhostHunters!. I wanted that story to take place in 1985, about a year after Ghostbusters was originally released in theaters (it’s plot-related) and I wanted Barbara to be a kid at an age where it would be realistic if she got massively obsessed with the Ghostbusters (also plot-related) so I decided she’d be 10, which would mean she’d be born in 1975.
so:
1975: birth, 0 years
1985: 10 years
2000: 25 years old (Jim is born)
2016: 41 years old
Early/Mid 20s Barbara Becomes A Mother Possibility
I feel like if Barbara were in this age range when she had Jim, it would be less likely for her and James to have been married beforehand. If that’s so, I lean in the direction of him being an unplanned pregnancy.
Barbara and James could have met at college, become boyfriend/girlfriend, then start to be sexually active, which eventually leads to an accidental pregnancy (Jim). They decide to raise the kid together, potentially marry, and settle down in Arcadia.
*In Shadow, I have Jim happening simultaneously to Barbara’s med schools applications. She and James conceive Jim during that process and her decision to go to Arcadia’s Medical School is rushed by the fact they want to have a home before the baby arrives (I didn’t actually manage to work that into the story, but it’s in my notes).
Another Possibility: Late 20s Barbara Becomes A Mother
For the sake of my curiosity, I also decided do calculations for what if Barbara were currently 45, the oldest I’d guesstimate for her based on her physical appearance.
That would mean she had Jim when she was 29 (45-16). Then, going off the med school graduation pic:
College (undergrad) graduation: 30 yrs old
Med School Graduation: 34 (29 + 5) yrs old
Residency: 37/38 yrs old
This would then beg the question of what was Barbara doing between the ages of 18, when she would leave high school, and 26, when she entered undergrad, which could make for an interesting backstory narrative to fill in.
This also works better for her marriage to James and their house + kid being a planned thing, I think. Like they’d have more time to be together as adults before making those life choices.
An interesting possibility could be that James was meant to stay at home more to take care of Jim so Barbara could pursue college/med school. This would lead into a situation where James and Jim were closer since they spent more time together (and, subsequently, Barbara would be the more distant parent since she isn’t there as often). Then, them being close would have caused Jim extra hurt when James walked out.
Though, at one point in the show I think it states that Jim used to tell Barbara everything so those two have likely always been close.
And that’s all I got! Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far, I know it’s super long.
Popeye age study artwork I've been working on for a week. I got the references from a "biography" of the character that detailed his upbringing and the violent origin of his name "Popeye". I got the name "Ugly Kidd" from his 1987 "Popeye: Borned To The Sea" incarnation from Ocean Comics that rebooted his origin with a more lighter tone and a more realistic/manga-issue design.
