Pre teens in the Sims 4!
by monehaenselrOriginal Post
I have been a fellow fan of the Sims as long as I can remember. I could play for hours and not get bored. While I was playing the Sims, I realized how awkward the child-to-teen gap is. It goes from 8-10 year old to 16-18 year old. It is unrealistic and awkward. Then I thought about the Sims free play, they had pre teens. Which I think is awesome. It was great as they added young adults, and toddlers already. Pre teens would make the gameplay so much fuller, and much more fun!
I've seen this request everywhere, But everyone is thinking it by the perspective of a pre teen, which I think is fine. How about the perspective of adults of pre teens?
- Copying the teens
-Getting jealous of younger siblings, as well as being bossy
-Gossip
-Slumber parties! (sneaking out, painting nails, binge watching shows with friends.. All these come with moodlets of course.)
-Middle school instead of elementary
-Crushes with mild dating interactions. Such as pecks, holding hands, hugs, double dates.. (Rollerblading, movie theatres, Ice skating..)
-Acne, and puberty
-Pre teens could get a moodlet from puberty, and they can get it at different times as their friends
-2 traits
-Girls could develop breasts, and boys could get a deeper voice- and acne for both!
-Bikes would be fun!
-Maybe add some hobbies and after school clubs? (Cheerleading, Math club, Science club, Boys scouts etc..)
-Shorter than teens, taller than children..
-Pre teens could take care of toddlers, and take pets out for walks, maybe do some mild easy dishes (like salads)
-Embarassed moodlets from periods, voice cracks, acne, rejection..
-Moodlets from crushes
-School dances..
That's basically my idea for Pre teens. The public has been talking about it, and I felt like I had to share my opinion.
@monehaenselr, you have a lot of great ideas, especially since we don't' have gradual aging in the Sims. 
Having a pre-teen stage is a nice way to give the feel of more fluid and gradual age transitions! 
But here's the problem: almost every single activity listed is something that teens do. To many, this is just teen behavior. I think the mix-up comes from the term "teen" as a life-stage. We think of the teen years starting at thirteen, but in actuality teens means 10's (so this would be any age from 10-19.). But since adolescence usually starts at around 12, that is what many people think of . (Although, technically, pre-teen includes all humans that aren't' in their teens yet, even toddlers! 
)
Yes, a pre-teen 9 year old will copy teens, but so will a child who is 5 years old, and for that matter, so will other teens!
Jealousy and bossy behavior occur at any and every age!
So does gossip
Slumber parties are a fantastic idea! 
But both children and teens have those, so there isn't really anything about slumber parties that says "pre-teen only" 
. But I still hope we get them in the game!
Junior High/Middle School are kind of more just school for early teens. Some districts, states, or countries have Intermediate school, which is really distinct to pre-teens. ! But if that were to be added we would need Elementary School, then Intermediate School, then Middle School/Junior High School, then High School. (and hopefully eventually College/University!)
We already have mild dating interactions for Teens. Teens can't woohoo in the game. So extending these mild dating actions to younger Sims wouldn't really do anything to the game because the interactions would be the same for pre-teens and teens. EA isn't going to go through the trouble to incorporate a whole new life stage into an existing game if the new life stage does the same interactions as an already existing one! 
Crushes also can occur at almost all life stages in real-life (I had crushes on classmates in Kindergarten, and even had crushes on TV and movie stars at the age of three!) But I do like the idea of crushes being added to the game! :eahigh_file: That's a great idea!
EA could add going to the movies on a date, but this would also be open for teens, young adults, adults, and elders.
Roller skating and ice skating were already added with the Seasons EP, but again this is an activity Sims of most ages can enjoy. Nothing unique to pre-teens.
Having acne sprout up on its own in-game would be good! Certainly better than just adding a perma-pimple in CAS! 
(We used to have acne popping up and then getting better in other versions of the Sims for teen Sims.) But again, teens, and even adults get acne in real life. Other than having a "my first pimple" event, there really isn't anything different about it. (But if we were to get a "my first pimple" event, then we should get a "my first gray hair" event! )
As for "puberty", teens also are still going through puberty! So yet again, this is already covered by teens. Teen girls have breasts in the game and both teen boys and girls have deeper voices, especially boys in the game. They could have the pre-teen Sim boys voices crack because that is distinct to the pre-teen age! 
Bikes would be fun! But children in real life ride bikes. Also teens who aren't 16 yet (al least in the U.S.A.) often ride bikes. And again many adults ride bikes for fun or to save gas, or for exercise. Again, nothing about bikes are exclusive to pre-teens. Plus, with out an open world like there was in the Sims 3, there really isn't much use for bikes. So I don't think EA is going to add that anyway, unless we get a TS5 and they include bikes, cars, and an open world!
I like the idea of hobbies for after school. :eahigh_file: But we already have (with the Seasons EP) Scouting for children and teens. No need for a pre-teen life stage for that. They could add other hobbies, but these would also for multiple age-groups.
I'm all for more heights in the game!!! But since they made teens the same height as adults in TS4 (they were different heights in TS2 and TS3) in order to make clothing meshes easier to have for all age groups, I doubt they would add a new height at this point. 
Yes, if they were to add a pre-teen stage, then they should be able to babysit or help take care of toddlers and infants! They also should be able to take dogs for walks, change the cat litter, help with the garden, and cook easy meals like salad. But they aren't going to add a new life-stage just for this.
School dances would be great! I really miss the Prom event from TS3! But that is for teens anyway...
Then there is the problem about implementing a whole new life stage in a game that is already 4 years old. That is a awful lot of work. That is why for them to justify adding a pre-teen life stage at this point in the game, you really need some unique gameplay to make it worth while. Which leads us to....
... the problem of the events that are special to what we think of when we think of events or characteristics that deal with being a pre-teen. These include things that are either very embarrassing, very, gross, or very controversial. You mentioned getting a period and having embarrassed moodlets about that. (We should also have pain moodlets for this!) The only reason to add this is that getting your first period is a huge deal! It is one of the defining characteristics of the age we are talking about, at least for girls. But many people don't want this in their game because it is very gross and very embarassing. How would this be implemented in the game? It couldn't be too graphic or descriptive. But then you run the risk of making a big event more like a Sim just one day rushing to tell her mom or older sisters the news and then just being embarrassed all day. While very exciting in life, it wouldn't make good game play. In real life it would mean that that person can now physically have children … but in the Sims there is no teen woohoo, let alone pre-teen!!! 
So this is very controversial, and therefore I seriously doubt that EA would include this!
But I still think that your post is important because if there is ever going to be a pre-teen life stage, then it probably wouldn't be added to The Sims 4, but instead it could be added to The Sims 5! As you pointed out, many people are talking about pre-teens and how they want them in the game. So, I'm sure EA is at least discussing about the possibility of adding them , but TS4 is several years old. While it might go on for several more years, we don't really know when it will end. If EA is already thinking of making a TS5, then they are more open (I would imagine) to what could make TS5 different from TS4. Pre-teens could be one of those differences. Yes, there is no guarantee that they will make a TS5, but I think that this is your best bet for getting pre-teens in the game! :eahigh_file:
Happy Simming!
I love all your ideas. I would really like preteens/tweens in the game cuz im a tween currently and its been really awkward when I'm trying to make myself in the sims cuz I either look way to old or way too young!
I think Pre Teens is a great idea because the space between a child and a teen is huge the teens in Ts4 are almost like young adults so it would be nice to see them add pre teens, I think that if EA were to add something like that to the game they would add Pre teens because they added toddlers like pre teens baby's and children were too far apart so they changed it and it made the game 100% Better
Hope This Helped
@OrignVast, there are a lot of problems with this. First, the reason that teens ended up being the same height as adults was to allow them to wear the same clothing and cut down on making all new meshes for them and redoing all the animations for another height. By adding pre-teens, they would have to do all that work anyway, so the whole reason for having teens the same height as adults would have been for nothing. 
Also, this further compounds the visual problem of having teens the same height as adults. (Frankly, I just wish they had made teens a height between child and adult in the first place!!! ) I never saw anywhere near the amount of requests for pre-teens with either The Sims 2 or The Sims 3 when teens were their own height! 
Toddlers were a special case. First of all, toddlers were added closer to the begining of the game, so making them was sure to garantee that we would be playing them for a long while, making it more worth EA's time and effort in making them. If they add pre-teens now, that is a ton of work for something that isnt' going to have much time for us to play , making the work done of them not as worthwhile.
Also, toddlers have a lot of gameplay added to them, not just looks. The problem with pre-teens in the game is that all their gameplay options are pretty much the same as those of children and teens. That would be a huge amount of work creating new meshes and animations for an age that has gameplay identical to pre-existing ages in the game. It is highly doubtul that EA would squeeze in a new lifestage without new gameplay. I mention this more in detail in my above post (2nd post down).
Also, you stated that they added toddlers becasue babies and children were too far apart in age. Well, sort of... the real reason they added toddlers is that in both The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 we had toddlers from the beginning of the game! EA was planning on having toddlers in TS4 as well, but they couln't get them finished in time for the games launch, so they didn't have them at first. Yes, a great many players were upset about this and told EA that they wanted toddlers back, but EA was already working on them. So, the fact remains that people complained that an age stage was taken out of the Sims that was in previous versions. This is completely different with pre-teens becasue pre-teens were never in TS2 or TS3!
However, I do think this is more likely to happen if they make pre-teens from the start , so if and when we get a TS5, then it could be a possibility. That way we could also have teens that would be their own height, hopefully! Also, by creating pre-teens either at the launch of TS5 or not too long after, (like with TS4 toddlers) it would ensure we would actually get a chance to play using this life stage. Still, the gameplay of pre-teens is mostly like that of both teens and chidren, which is the main drawback to having them in the game. But at least there is more of a chance for pre-teens to be included in The Sims 5 if they ever make TS5!
