Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome - Definition and Overview

SORAS or Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome is a fan term for when an infant or young child in a soap opera is aged very quickly by the writers. This is done to permit an older actor to portray the character, and to involve the character in different - usually more "adult" - storylines.

Some child characters literally mature faster than others. For example, Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless was born on the show in 1993, yet was 16 years old by 1999, while his niece Colleen Carlton (born 1991) was only 14 years old in 2001, meaning that Billy had changed from being two years younger than his niece to being four years older.

SORAS is almost unheard of on British soaps, where the added degree of realism allows babies born on the show to age in real time. One of the few American soap children allowed to age in real time was Patti Barron Tate on Search for Tomorrow, first played from 1951 to 1961 by Lynn Loring. Her character did not have any jumps in age from the first episode until the last (in 1986).