Be warned, this will discuss some heavy adult topics, this is just from my experiences.

So I've drawn characters as adults for a long time since I joined DeviantArt in highschool, and while I've only ever gotten into the kinky side of it nowadays, I think I should talk about my long history with it. While I can't remember how it started, I can certainly remember the reasons why.

For starters, to prove a character in a pic is an adult, maybe just to keep kids from getting into my stuff, but generally, I wanted characters to look "mature" and in my Muro days, that meant "Huge chests". I've gotten more diverse with body types after switching to Krita, but it's still prevalent, what with every member of Team RWBY in my art having chests bigger than their BlazBlue depictions, Riju getting a bigger chest than Urbosa even had, and Serena... actually, most artists draw adult Serena with a huge chest anyway, so I'm par for the course on that one.

Of course, I struggled with the kinky side of DeviantArt for a long time, not for religious reasons, I wasn't raised to despise sex work or porn, I just felt I couldn't associate myself with that stuff and then make SFW stuff too, a mindset I now find closeminded especially since two comfort series' of mine had proud NSFW artists working behind them (Lilo and Stitch and Mega Man Legends). I've gotten agressive over my art being seen as kinky before, even trying to make some wholly non-sexual art in the past to combat it (Basically Mowgli's scenes from Jungle Book without him almost getting eaten) and I will firmly call those non-sexual even if I moved away from them. This didn't work out and I moved away from it for a few reasons.

I recall making this clean pic where hypnotism is used as a method of therapy and getting sickened that someone would make a Character AI bot of it (Regardless of how the bot is trained, people can do some sickening things with AI). Similarly, I made a non-sexual, more horror-based Little Nightmares animation with hypnosis that someone uploaded to HypnoHub. I may have sounded calm about it in public, but I was furious when I found out, ranting in a server I'm now booted from about how much I hate the site. I softened up on HypnoHub a lot more because the moderators were nice enough to put me on a list of artists not to reupload, which I'm thankful for, but if you think I wasn't livid at whoever reuploaded that animtion there in the first place, you're wrong. For reasons like this, I sometimes deleted SFW hypnosis pics if I fear some pervert faved them, but I decided against erasing all of them because it'd just look like I'm hiding something when I'm not. It's an embarassing part of my history, but I was a guy who joined DA in highschool, decided I'd be the non-sexual hypnosis guy on a site full of sexual hypnosis, and that's a dumb decision on my old teen self's part. Which brings me to my next point...

As I got into aging up characters more, I feared being called something I'm not, and you can guess what it is. These fears aren't unfounded admittedly, people on that site and others (Twitter and Reddit) will happily sling pedo-accusations at anyone who draws a character as an adult, while also telling on themselves by saying creepy stuff like "Touhou characters are l-li's by default" (Yes, because Reimu and Suika drinking means they're kids) or cheering on people who say and do far creepier things than the artists have ever done like Grummz (Who writes non-consent fanfics about his ex-wife and got mad that minors in video games aren't attractive enough), Dr. Disrespect (Who admitted to texting a minor but says pronouns are bad which I guess means he gets a pass), and JK Rowling (Who is currently calling trans people pedo's while also believing that Lolita is a tragic lovestory - it's not, it's a horror story from the POV of an unreliable narrator who tries to justify the heinous things he does).

It's a case of attempted moral highground, getting mad at anyone who draws aged up stuff but conveniently ignoring actual abusers. I said before that the hypnosis kink community caught an abuser or two in their midst, while alt-right people on Twitter were abuzz about Dr. Disrespect's scandal. Guess which community handled this kind of issue better. Artists have been driven off that site for drawing characters as clear adults, and whether or not you enjoy NSFW, that's appalling behaviour especially when some people like BlackGryph0n (A known groomer who married a child bride) or Chris Chan (A very unstable person who did gross things to their mom and was brainwashed into thinking they have a child bride) still have accounts on there. DeviantArt itself isn't very helpful in this regard. Actually, now that I mention it, I recall being exposed to some artists on this site that are now infamous for doing the same creepy thing commentors will accuse other artists of doing (Bleedman and PinkyPills come to mind) and I feel unclean even having followed them when I was younger.

It's not just DA that does this, I've had friends who were called creeps for liking game designs that are clearly adults, because by Reddit's logic, that's pedo-behaviour, hell, I once pointed out to a Kingdom Hearts subreddit how Kairi's outfit has non-binary colors on it and I was quickly accused of sexualizing her. One artist made pretty tame-looking renders of Tron Bonne and Roll Caskett in swimsuits and was driven off Reddit, called a "Gooner" when those renders looked more tame than some of the actual merchandise and art those two get, Tron especially, but more on that later.

Of course, from my own experience, I didn't go into DA prepared. Didn't even realize I had a hypnosis kink when I joined, I made an account solely to comment on an Adventure Time picture I liked. Then with a bunch of edgy Lego Dimensions fanfic ideas in my head, I spammed my ideas in ways that I now consider annoying and embarassing. But one thing I noticed very quickly about DeviantArt was how... deviant it was. Now I'm an open-minded guy at this point, but being exposed to a lot of fetishy stuff, even stuff I wasn't comfortable with, may have had an effect on me. Some call it hypersexuality, but one thing I noticed was a lot of characters being drawn as adults, which I found preferable to the ickier alternative.

I've gone over this before, the various reasons people age characters up, they look wrong for their age, their job/behaviour/outfit doesn't fit, time-frames, etc. I'll admit, I've been worried in the past about aging characters up for a few reasons I got over. I already went over the weirdos who throw around dangerous accusations, hell, I had one person try to note me about a drawing of Adeleine as an adult, calling me a pedophile and telling me to meet their "brother who's a cop" somewhere, which is not only creepy, but a very dangerous and stupid thing to do. Another reason tied to that is that I'm scared of assuming characters' ages sometimes. I'm now not as uncomfortable with it, knowing petite characters exist (Nobody can convince me that Natsuki or any other DDLC characters are minors, because if they were, DDLC would be lambasted like Yandere Simulator is), I recall in highschool thinking Riju was older before actually looking into BOTW lore (Didn't get the game until a few years into its lifespan because I wasn't as familiar with Zelda) and then was worried about drawing her as an adult afterwards. Similarly, I was initially averse to drawing Tessa as an adult because I spent roughly a year with a Twitter account and saw people perving on her canon model.

Of course, a good motivator to get over these worries was being infuriated by how some people acted to aged up artists. Spite's a good motivator sometimes, and as people on BlueSky will point out, with a bunch of pedophilic hypocritical puritans who don't understand anything Jesus actually taught currently being in power, making healthy art of adults is practically a form of rebellion at this point, and I say that as a Christian.

I also found that writing characters like Sora, Tron, Riju, Namine, Tessa, and so on as adults put an interesting perspective on them, especially since being an adult doesn't mean you have to abandon your interests or quirks that make you interesting, despite what some prudes who want you to "fit into society" will tell you. I'm 24 and have a Super Mario lamp in my bedroom, among other things. It gives some interesting opportunities for character exploration like Sora wising up to darker aspects or even contemplating relationships more, for example.

Another reason I've gotten used to it might be wanting some control over a concept that bothered me. I dunno if this is common, but sometimes something horrifies me and it's tough to ignore, so I need something healthier, and making aged up, consentual NSFW or suggestive art is better than what I was trying to make to combat kink stuff before. People arguing about Riju's age in TOTK and being unable to see a pic of her as an adult without saying "NOOO, SHE'S 16, FBI IS HERE" like children? Draw her as an adult, maybe ship her with another comfort character of mine cuz it's cute. People on Twitter being weird about Tessa? Draw her as an admittedly modest-ish adult monster girl because you did the math and realized she wouldn't stay a teen in your fanfics anyway. Atlus putting its characters in repeatedly lewd situations and yet insisting they're underage, leading the Persona fandom having one joke they repeat ad nauseum? Draw the Phantom Thieves as college age people and suddenly Persona 5's writing is 50% less icky. Prince Demande is a creepy guy to an underage Usagi Tsukino that kinda ruins the attempts to make his death tragic? Rewrite him completely as being in love with an adult Sailor Moon and rather than force himself on her, he just tries to convince her to join him, then greatly considers just surrendering and trusting his people's safety with her because he's both outgunned AND down horrendous. FNAF artists and creators being creepers? Draw Charlotte Emily as an adult monster girl (Admittedly an aro-ace one that isn't sexualized). People harassing artists who draw Frisk and Chara as adults? Get over your Undertale hatred enough to draw the humans as adults. Some artists make sh-tacon of Sora? Draw him as an adult in actually consensual situations. And so on.

I get a creep here and there calling me a pedophile for drawing a character as an adult sometimes, but frankly, that's always outweighed by people liking the stuff I draw, which helps a lot. I'm of the opinion that it's fine to find an aged up design attractive. I can't say I'd ship myself with the adult Tron I drew even if I had a crush on her growing up, but if someone finds my take on her, Riju, Sora, or Tessa attractive, that's none of my business, they're adults. This pic of Sora's adult design on Newgrounds was marked as mature by a mod and locked so I can't change the age rating. Upon realizing this, I just shrugged and said "Yeah, that's fair. Wasn't meant to be provocative, but he's an adult, so no harm done." Hell, I met Hypnotic-Ink when he made a pic of his adult-aged take on Six in a Hypno-Scream Team outfit and now he's one of my best friends. I have a frequent commentor who's friendly enough but often joked about how down bad I was for drawing so many curvy women and while I will resign that he's right in retrospect, his ribbing never truly bothered me in retrospect, and I admittedly found it funny even before admitting to the kink thing. Meanwhile people acting like complimenting art of Hatsune Miku as an adult is the worst thing ever grinds my gears in comparison. Heck, sometimes, my hypnoart is reuploaded to other hypnosis Discord servers and I don't mind because the art makes people happy.

On that note, there's a more humorous reason I've taken to aging up Tessa, Six, and Mono in my things. For Tessa, I just figured I'd make her her canon age, but then I did the math, pondered how long the time between her death and the D. Drones showing up on Copper-9 would be, then realized she may well age between then. In Six's (and by extension Mono's) case, I assumed her canon age was 5 or something and with an 11 year timeskip, that's 16 at least. But then while just cruising wiki's, I stumbled upon some info that the Little Nightmares comics made her official age 9. So I took to a private Discord server and lost my damn mind realizing my attempts to avoid aging them up were for nothing, throwing around sentences like "Without checking the wiki, how old do you think this Lilliputtian is? How old does this off-color Smurf look?" and "9! This is a 9 year old! This living Amiibo is a 4th grader! HOW!?" while my friend broke down laughing because he knew she was 9 (and by that math, would be 20 in my works) and just held his tongue on it to see my reaction. And then I looked at the comics and felt like an idiot because she really does look 9 there. So after focusing on making them the wholesome (For a given definition of the word given they're from horror IP's) teens of my cast, it was for nothing and they'd all logically be old enough to have jobs, drink, and drive. Math was never my ally to be honest.

The fact is, we all grow up, we were all kids once. As long as you're not perving on toddlers or the like, I see no issue with aging up characters. I prefer that they have adult minds too since an infantile or childlike mind in an adult body has ugly implications, which makes age progression pics a touchy topic for me, but if you draw art of say, Luz and Amity from Owl House being adults doing consentual adult things, it's not a problem, and it certainly doesn't make you a pedophile no matter what Twittiot who probably unironically uses Elon Musk memes tells you. "It's just a drawing" is a common response to people ragging on aged up stuff, and while I can find some drawings objectionable if it's something hateful or bigoted, a drawing of a character as an adult, whether it's to show off a different design or just for something like a kink pic, doesn't really feel like the kind of thing to rage at. I can only think of some instances where I'd object to it (If it's a real-life kid, if the character is an abuse victim who shouldn't be sexualized, or if they're still infantilized in a creepy way) but in the end, a drawing of a grown up Futaba being hypnotized is just that. If someone looks at your art of an adult character and instantly jumps to "This is child-porn", that's their problem.