She is about to start driving and soon will be able to legally buy alcohol and get married, but Poppy Webb-Jones still looks and thinks like a ten-year-old girl. Unlike other 17-year-olds, Poppy is more interested in Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber than wearing make-up, experimenting with boys or staying out late. This is due to a rare condition which means she was born without any hormones, meaning she has never gone through puberty, never had a growth spurt and never thrown a teenage tantrum. To many parents of teenagers, Poppy must sound like the perfect child, but unbeknown to her or her mother Karen Webb-Meek, her condition posed a deadly risk to her health throughout her whole childhood. Poppy was born with a condition called panhypopituitarism meaning she lacks most of the hormones essential for life. Hypopituitarism is the decreased secretion of one or more of the eight hormones normally produced by the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. If there is decreased secretion of most pituitary hormones, the term panhypopituitarism (pan meaning "all") is used. Poppy has no growth hormone, meaning her bones stopped growing around the age of 11, and she has no thyroxine, which regulates the metabolism and energy levels. In addition she has no oestrogen, which controls the onset of puberty and the development of secondary sexual characteristics.
GETTING behind the camera, this monkey practices his photography skills on his friends .
AT 4,800 metres high and just three metres wide, this is the most dangerous road in the world .
A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .
From vibrant blues to dazzling oranges, these eye catching hummingbirds proudly show off their impressive colours .
A once bustling gold rush town in Mono County, California now stands completed deserted .
SURROUNDED by a snowstorm, these young polar bears battle the elements - as well as each other .
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
THIS astonishing film shows the moment a hit-and-run driver ploughed into a woman and a toddler on a Coventry street .
STARING intently into the camera, a polar bear appears to be lost in thought while relaxing in the snow .
PERCHING on top of a gate, this young barn swallow waits patiently for his mum to return with dinner .
OFFERING a glimpse into the past, a mash-up of old and new photographs show how the world’s biggest cities have changed .