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.
An obese woman has lost 9st after an addiction to junk food left her £1 .
WITH the phosphorescent blobs and mesmerising patterns, these spectacular images may look like the hall marks of an enchanted forest but it is in fact the scene of thousands of dancing FIREFLIES .
SWIMMING next to 40 tonne whales, dare-devil divers take the plunge with these gentle giants of the sea .
TWIN SISTERS from Australia have taken their sisterly bond to the extreme by spending £150,000 to look IDENTICAL .
Full of tired and busy commuters, these underground stations are rarely admired for their architecture or beauty .
GLIDING through the water, these delightful frogs show off their vibrant colours as they practice their FROG crawl .
A teenage girl has grown back her entire face after being struck down by a rare skin disease .
THE TOWERING Irish cliffs of Moher stand tall over the rippling Atlantic Ocean .
A Canadian photographer has captured crystal clear mirror images of Toronto's architecture reflected in puddles - simply by using his iPhone .
FLEXING his muscles and staring straight at his opponent, this bodybuilding squirrel is the nuts .
A man has spent almost £100K on lip fillers, Botox and designer clothing in a bid to look like Kim Kardashian .