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.
From squids to Star Wars, these flipping marvellous creations are pancake portraits .
IN THE not so MISTY MOUNTAINS of Wiltshire, there lies an abandoned hobbit house .
FROM a Kung-Fu professional to a mini incredible hulk, these are the babies you wouldn't want to mess with .
TUGGING at his exhausted mum's ears, a beautiful baby orangutan refuses to settle for a nap as he begins a game of peek-a-boo .
WITH A LITTLE cap of fresh snow resting on his head, this squirrel tries his best to pull off his new look .
FROM motorcycling to department store shopping these spookily faceless people are part of the Chinese-fad for wearing protective solar-visors in public .
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
A soap bubble lands on the frosty ground and creates a shimmering snow globe as crystals form around it .
With blue waves tumbling over them, these surfers glide underneath a tunnel of water .
PEACE and love filled the 1980’s Glastonbury fields as relaxed festival goers kicked back and soaked up the atmosphere .
LEAPING for joy five-feet above the waves this baby whale cutie is saying HELLO to its family after being lost .