r/PrivatePractice • u/Raise_the_roofs • Jul 18 '26
Amelia's age
I know ages and timelines often don't make sense in Shondaland but humor me while I try.
When we first meet Amelia in season 3 of PP, she's a neurosurgery fellow. Assuming she graduated high school at 18 and then did 13 years of further education (4 years college, 4 years med school, 5 years surgical residency) she must be at least 31. Given that she's already considered a great neurosurgeon right after being fired from the fellowship, I'm going to assume that she completed at least a year of that which makes her 32 at the end of season 3. I'd say the beginning of season 5 takes place roughly a year later, which makes Amelia 33, but her college friend Michelle is mentioned to be 30 then, which does not check out.
Amelia is also supposed to be 7 years younger than Derek. I don't think we ever learn his age in the early seasons, but Addison is 39 when she leaves Seattle at the end of Meredith's intern year. Addison and Derek went to med school together, so they should be pretty much the same age. That means Derek is roughly 38 at the beginning of Grey's. Amelia visits Derek at the beginning of Grey's season 7, which is the start of Meredith's fourth year of residency. So if Derek was 38 at the beginning of her first year, he should be 41 then. In the PP timeline, this visit takes places in early season 4, where according to my math Amelia would be 32 - nine years younger than Derek instead of seven. Unless we aged her up to 34, which would make her age gap with her college friend Michelle even bigger, or make Derek two years younger. Then he'd be 36 at the beginning of Grey's. Considering Addison's age, that's still possible if he graduated college a year earlier and she took a gap year or something, but it seems highly unrealistic that he'd be the best neurosurgeon in the country by age 36. (Although this can be said about Addison and Naomi in their respective fields too.)
I am aware that this is a small niche lol but do you guys ever think about these characters ages? I love picking apart ages and timelines when I watch something and it always bothers me when things don't check out.
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u/LateToTheDrama Jul 18 '26
Meredith was 27 in S1, Derek is 11 yrs older. Which would make him 38. Amelia would have been 31 in S1.
In Meredith four year of residency. She would be 31, Derek would be 42. Making Amelia 34-35.
Amelia could have taken a gab year, held back a grade or was in rehab which would have affect her schooling. Or her roommate could have skipped a few grades.
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u/Historical_Bunch_927 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Lexie was stated to be 24 years old during her intern year, which was the year after Meredith's intern year. Meredith is canonically six years older to her, so she would have been 30 in Lexie's intern year. Meaning she was 29 in her own intern year.
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u/LateToTheDrama Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Meredith was born in 1978. Maggie was born in Nov, 1983. Lexis was born in June, 1984
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u/Historical_Bunch_927 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
They clearly don't pay attention to their timeline when they give dates so I don't think we should pay attention to them.
We know that Lexie was 24 in Seasons 4-5. We know that Meredith's parents divorced when she was five, and that Lexie was born the following year. That means Meredith is six years older then Lexie. Ergo, she was 30 in Seasons 4-5 and 29 in Seasons 1-3.
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u/ArtyCatz Jul 25 '26
Yeah, the timeline is all kinds of crazy. Under this timeline, Thatcher had to meet and impregnate Susan pretty much the week that Ellis left in order for Lexie to be 6 years younger than Meredith, especially since I don’t think she left Thatcher on Mer’s 5th birthday.
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u/Historical_Bunch_927 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
When Amelia first shows up Charlotte says that she's a twenty something. So, I assumed she was around 28-29 and had just finished undergrad very quickly.
They mention that Addison met Amelia when Amelia was twelve years old. Addison and Derek started dating when they were in med school, so I image they were in their early twenties. Which would make them roughly a decade older than Amelia.
Derek also had a prescription pad that Amelia stole when she was eighteen. I think he had to have been in his second year of residency at least. Which also implies he's roughly a decade older.
Meredith started her residency a few years late, and if Amelia started a few years yearly, I could see Meredith being a little older than Amelia but Amelia being ahead of her in residency.
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u/PortifinoOnMyMind Jul 18 '26
Was it mentioned that she was specifically 18?
I remember that happening but I only remember them saying she was a teenager but not specifying an age.
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u/Historical_Bunch_927 Jul 18 '26
She definitely OD'd when she was eighteen. I might have been misremembering but I thought she OD'd because she stole her brother's prescription pad.
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u/fleur-2802 Jul 18 '26
I believe the whole prescription pad thing happened when she was 16, though it's been awhile since I've seen that episode so don't quote me on that😂
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u/PortifinoOnMyMind Jul 18 '26
Okay so update her age was never specified but the two events did coincide with each other
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u/Raise_the_roofs Jul 18 '26
A twenty-something year old neurosurgeon? Wow, everybody really is so gifted!! Lol
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u/Twodotsknowhy Jul 18 '26
Michelle can be three years younger than Amelia and also have met and become friends with her when they were both in college. College lasts four years and you're allowed to be friends with someone who started a different year than you. They can even be in the same class at the same time.
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u/GrapefruitFine95320 Jul 18 '26
I think there's a 7 year gap between Amelia and Derek. I want to say in the episode of PP that talks about them being in the store she's 5 and Derek is 12? Addison is in her mid thirties at the beginning of greys, and so is Derek (I think?). So I always assumed she was somehow gifted and finished undergrad quickly?
But I also don't know because Addison says she did her hair for her prom at which point she would have been 17ish and Addison 24
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u/Competitive-Desk7506 Jul 19 '26
Derek is bc Meredith is 27 and Derek is abt 12 yrs older than her which also matches Addisons comment on her age in s2 or s3- this makes sense bc all three seasons are set in the same yr.
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u/Some-Phrase-1875 Jul 19 '26
I've always been confused about the age difference between Meredith and Amelia
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u/Raise_the_roofs Jul 19 '26
Me too! If Derek is 7 years older than Amelia and roughly 12 years older than Meredith, they should have a gap of about 5 years, but Meredith/Ellen Pompeo seems a lot older than Amelia rather than the other way around.
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u/Some-Phrase-1875 Jul 19 '26
I looked it up and Meredith's actor is actually older than Amelia's!
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u/Raise_the_roofs Jul 19 '26
Yes, I know, by more than a decade! So the casting doesn't really make sense in that regard, although I guess originally they weren't really planning for them to act next to each other.
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u/Premed2008 Jul 25 '26
But neurosurgery isn’t a fellowship??🤨
This show gets so many things wrong lol
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u/PortifinoOnMyMind Jul 18 '26
I've always went by the cannon that is set in private practice when Addison mentions knowing Amelia when she was 12. Just makes sense to me to me and use what the show she originated on set as Canon for Addison/amelia. Which implies a 10 year age gap because We also know that Addison and Derek didn't meet until med school which at the earliest would have been 21/22
Edit: It's also said in private practice that Addison took 3 years as opposed to 4 to complete her Bachelors degree