I have the sentence below:
Looking at the budding teenager mature made me feel old.
Is it right to describe someone who has recently become a teenager as budding?
If not, what word should I replace "budding" with? If possible, I would like an adjective to replace the word "budding".
According to the Macmillian Dictionary, the alternatives include "new", "emerging", "embryonic", "fledgling", "budding", "incipient", "dynamic", and "progressive".
Are any of the alternatives correct in describing someone who has recently entered a new phase of their life? Besides "fledgling", all alternatives seem awkward and unused; I am unsure, however, whether "fledgling" applies here.
I would prefer not to have a compound phrase in this sentence.
Thanks in advance.