When Does a

Person Become
an Adult?
By: Baylee Warner, and Taylor Dee
Identity of the Problem
● Throughout the years the age of which someone becomes an “adult” and can do specific things
has changed. For example U.S. citizens had to be 21 to vote until 1971, when the voting age
was changed to 18. The age of which you can drink also changed. In the early 1970’s the
drinking age was put at 18 but was changed back to 21 after drunk driving accidents sky
rocketed.
● The person who is in charge of setting age limits depends on the situation, some age limits are
set by the government and some are by the state that the individual lives in.
● This is such a problem because people are wanting to do stuff earlier but are getting mature
later than past generations.
● It is impacting the “rising generation” and also the law makers because they are having
conflicting interests on what to do with the age limits for drinking mostly.
 Generate Alternatives
● 16, because you can get a driver's license.
● 18, because that is what it is legally set at
now.
● 21, because that is the age that you get all of
your rights.
● 35, because that is the age you can run for
president, etc.
Evaluate Alternatives
● 16- Pro: it is when you start to get your first major rights. Con: people at
this age still are very immature.
● 18- Pro: the legal adult age is already at this age. Con: there are still a lot of
rights not afforded to you at this age.
● 21- Pro: get all of basic rights at this age. Con: still don’t have the right to
run for president.
● 35- Pro: old enough to have all rights and can run for president. Con: A lot
older than what the set age of adulthood is now.
Selecting a Solution
Making the legal “Adult” age 21.

We chose this age because this is the age

that everyone gets their basic rights
according to the government. We figured
that most people don’t give a crap on
whether they want to run for president or
not so the age that they get all of their basic
rights was a more appropriate age to set the
adulthood line. At 18 people get a lot more
freedoms but they don’t fully get all of their
freedoms until they are 21, so it only makes
sense that 21 is when you are actually an
adult.
Implementing a Solution
As of right now the age of adulthood is
18, but we think that it should be set at
21 since that is when all rights are given
to a person. What will change is you
won’t be able to own a house until you
are 21 and can’t marry until you are 21.
The way that will happen is when you
sign to own a house instead of being 18
to be able to sign you have to be 21.
Also a new law will be given that the
new age of marriage without parental
consent will be 21.
Follow up and evaluate the results
How we will measure the success of our idea that the age that a person
becomes an adult at 21, is to see how many states pass the laws explained in
the previous slide. Another way that we can measure it is how much of the
population agrees with the new set age at 21 by a vote.