The Anglophone world and especially the US has a special place in our hearts for "teens". Even though this man is legally an adult, yes, he is still a "teen" for another 1-2 years and that is good marketing P.R. Why pass up such a chance to tout his youth?

I say "Anglophone world" because English is the only language that separates out our cardinal numbers from 13-19 because they end in "teen", and therefore it is somewhat a rite of passage for an English-speaking child to turn 13, and they enjoy special "teen" status until turning 20 years old. That's just how it is. Other cultures have other standards for youth and counting; we've got ours. An 18-year-old teen who develops something cool makes for a better headline than an "adult man" who does the same thing, doesn't it?

Whiz teen did :cool_thing: gets more clicks. Also 18 is adult in legal sense but still not enough adult in doing cool science things, hence any kid before 21 doing cool science thing is in theory an outlier/exceptional, imho.