Since most people imagine God as a bearded old man, the natural antithesis of this expectation would be having the supreme ruler of the universe be a young girl instead. Creators will sometimes do this to subvert a viewer's expectations, especially in works heavy with Epileptic Trees and Mind Screw.
Since, according to actual theology (and philosophy) God is a spiritual entity and doesn't have a body in the first place, the little girl may be A Form You Are Comfortable With. Since Most Writers Are Writers and not theologians, she may be the real deal In-Universe, or at least a really powerful Reality Warper who happens to be a little girl (not growing up optional).
Compare Divine Race Lift, Goo-Goo-Godlike, Little Miss Badass.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Skuld from Ah! My Goddess is a norn and thus a deity of time like her sisters. Although her age is never given, Skuld looks and acts like a bratty young girl.
- Fukashigi Philia's antagonist duo consists of a psychopathic modern-day slaver, and a girl with the power to make ALMOST anything she says come true instantly. This goes about as well as you can guess. Deconstructed when her reality-warping powers have unintended consequences (parents killed, brother traumatized, lots of bystander casualties), and when her partner screws her over by muting her, which de-powers her, even though she could have set up some powerful safeguards. It's implied that if she was more experienced with her powers and/or could alter human souls at the source, most of the plot wouldn't have happened.
- Digimon Next has Mikihara Norn, a young girl that is the physical manifestation of Yggdrasil's consciousness. Yggdrasil as in the "host computer/system manager" in at least one of various iterations of Digital Worlds, which makes it the equivalent of a god in that world.
- In Fushigi Yuugi, the creator of the universe is a small old woman. Also, she is assisted by multiple minor healer goddesses called "Nyan-Nyan," which normally take on the appearance of (roughly) 5-year-old girls.
- Haruhi Suzumiya thinks that she's an Ordinary High-School Student, but she has universe-level reality warping abilities that she is unaware of, and everyone strives to keep it that way. At least one faction within the story believes that she actually is (a) god, as does a portion of the fandom.
- Kamichama Karin has a variation, with a bunch of middle-schoolers who can borrow the powers of various Greek gods using magic rings.
- The premise of Kamichu!. The full title actually means "The Goddess, A Middle-School Girl"..
- Aqua from KonoSuba is a goddess of water who doesn't appear to be more than 20 years old. She's also a brat, incredibly lazy, loves to drink and party, and not exactly very bright. She at one point mentions that time passes more quickly in heaven, so it's entirely possible that she's exactly the age she seems to be.
- Several adaptations of Pokémon including Pokémon Adventures, and Pokémon Heroes has Latias, a Legendary Pokémon, use her powers over light to disguise herself as a girl no older than sixteen.
- Madoka's wish in Puella Magi Madoka Magica essentially makes her God. Well, that and the embodiment of Hope.
- Lain from Serial Experiments Lain. She personally denies it quite vigorously. The implications are that she could be God if she wanted to, but doesn't think that's what the world needs. There also may or may not be something above her better deserving of the title, but he isn't exactly a conventional deity either, assuming that he's not just her creation, as well. Mind Screw, ahoy!
- Sasami of Tenchi Muyo! is this - a 7-to-9-year-old bonded to her world's goddess. Except in her mind she's nothing more than a vessel that Tsunami rides in, that the real Sasami's dead.
Comic Books
- The ultimate conclusion of Lucifer: Yahweh retires by Lucifer's suggestion, and Elaine Belloc takes His place.
- In The Sandman (1989), the Lord of Chaos, Shivering Jemmy, manifests as a young blond girl with a balloon.
- Also Delirium of the Endless, who at first appears to be a crazy yet harmless young woman, but you really, really don't want to cross her.
- Spawn originally portrayed a feminine almighty being who had previously taken human form as Jesus and was in fact the mother of the series' more commonly-seen and antagonistic "God". In recent years following a Continuity Reboot, the one and only known God is portrayed as female.
Fan Works
- A Growing Affection has the Reaper, the goddess of Death. She appears as an unnaturally cute girl of no more than six years, and she doesn't even take offense at Naruto's accidental blasphemy.
- Unlike her canon counterpart in The Guardians of Childhood, who presents as a young woman, Mother Nature is a ten year-old girl who likes picnics and playing dress-up in the Return of the Guardians trilogy. Nonetheless, she's pretty much a Physical God with all planet Earth's forces at her beck and call.
- The original Oblivion in Resonance Days (not the six Puppet Queens that came after her disappearance). Calling her allmighty is a stretch, but an in-universe myth confirmed to be true by Word of God places her as the original creator of the afterlife, and the only one who can break its one unbreakable rule. She was originally a young girl who was contracted by an Incubator in the Mesolithic Era, and most likely still looks that way.
Films — Live-Action
- Cafe was a movie about a coffee shop that took place in a world as a computer program. The chief programmer was a teenage girl.
- Alanis Morissette is God in Dogma, and while she is more like a young adult woman, her childlike mannerisms are clearly meant to evoke this trope.
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie features an incarnation of God played by Whoopi Goldberg.
- Implied in Warlock (1989): The Warlock is looking for the Grand Grimoire, which will reveal God's secret name, which will destroy the universe if spoken backward. In the end, he gets the book and we see it spelling out the name. We can almost read it before it cuts away and it looks like it says either "Rokisha" or "Roaisha", which certainly sound like girl's names.
Literature
- Ivy (The Archive) in The Dresden Files contains the entire wealth of any knowledge that has ever been written down in any language throughout time... in the body of an 8-year old girl... who likes kitties.
- Aphrael, the Child Goddess in The Elenium. In The Tamuli, it's mentioned that a major part of why Danae will be such a new experience for her is that she can't get away with remaining in the form of a little girl and will have to grow up, though she's just barely getting out of her preferred range towards the end of the series. Aphrael's actual true form is apparently a young adult woman, but it's only glimpsed one time, and in a fuzzy mirror.
- The Ellimist, who "merely appears all-powerful from your limited perspective", once appears to the group by copying the form of a nearby girl.
- Faith in Jodi Picoult's Keeping Faith is assumed to be the Second Coming of Jesus.
- Land of Oz: Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz and the most powerfu magician in the world, is an immortal fairy queen who looks to be a 14 year old girl.
- Vin of Mistborn: The Original Trilogy is a 20-21-year-old, 5-foot-nothing girl who becomes 1/16 of a God. explanation
- Whilst never referred to as a god The Neverending Story has Moonchild, the Childlike Empress of Fantastica (note: it's Fantasia in the movies). It is said if she dies, then Fantastica will die with her - she is theoretically immortal but relies on human children's power of imagination to sustain her. Specifically, she needs a human child to rename her every few generations or she will die.
- Ryn, the main character of The One Who Eats Monsters, looks like a slightly underfed five-foot tall, sixteen-year old girl who weighs "one hundred and three pounds." She's actually the oldest "monster"" in the world, and if it weren't for the fact that in all her many millennia of existence, she never learned to blend in with humans, she'd be a goddess second only to the Fates themselves. She can control the weather, slice atoms off things, and kill things that literally can't be killed. Inside her heart is a portal to ''gehenna,'' a dark star so hot that if she eats someone's heart, it will burn up their souls.
- Kassandra in The Painter Knight is a five-year-old hereditary God Empress, who is able to release her God's power at will.
- In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Artemis and Hestia sometimes appear as pre-teen girls.
- In The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Hecate has three forms and first appears as a young girl.
- In VALIS, Sophia, a two-year-old girl who may be the incarnation of divine wisdom.
Live-Action TV
- In Angel, Wolfram & Hart's conduit to the Senior Partners would sometimes manifest as a sweet little girl.
- God took the shape of an elementary-school girl a couple of times in Joan of Arcadia.
- Parodied in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Parts: The Clonus Horror", when three omnipotent space children run away from home and use their powers to pester the cast.
- Supernatural: Lilith, arch-demon and de facto ruler of Hell while Satan is imprisoned, seems to prefer possessing little girls. While not God, she's at least as powerful as some small-g gods in the show.
- Tokusou Exceedraft has a variant where Archangel Michael appears a little girl, going by the name “Mika.”
Music
- Five Finger Death Punch consistently refers to God with she/her pronouns in their lyrics, contrasting with the Devil being referred to with he/him pronouns. The most prominent examples of this are in the songs "Wrong Side of Heaven" and "Thanks for Asking", both of which involve their respective protagonists being stuck between the influences of God and the Devil.
- The Groove Coverage song, "God Is a Girl" is just about that. The music video depicts the members of the music group as traveling show evangelists, convincing people into believing that an 11-year-old girl traveling with them is God.
- In one of the songs that are a part of the Happiness Series
of Vocaloid songs, Hatsune Miku is a goddess. Miku as a character in general is already meant to resemble a teenager, and the version portrayed in that song looks even younger than the typical Miku.
- Jack White refers to God with she/her pronouns in two verses of his song "Lazaretto" ("Even God Herself has more plans than me") and "And I shake God's hand / I jump up and let Her know when I can").
Tabletop Games
- In the sample campaign for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, several of the sample player characters are teen or younger girls with metaphysical powers. Jasper Irinka is the sun. Rinley Yatsukaya can manipulate the narrative logic of the RPG from within it. And Miramie Mesmer is potentially a little old to count as a "young girl", but fortunately so, as she has the power to destroy anything. Even concepts.
- It is implied in Demon: The Fallen fluff that the Old World of Darkness God is a girl. Though, since the Fallen are pretty much the only still-living beings who have actually seen God at the dawn of time, and the vast majority of the Fallen are still really, really pissed at God, don't put too much stock in their word. God also has an evil sister named Oblivion, short for "The Grand Maw of Oblivion." Grand Maw wanted to create her own universe, and saying that she "failed" is not putting it strongly enough. Now she and her "offspring" spend their time gnawing underneath the afterlife until the end of the world.
Video Games
- Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite effectively ascends to godhood the moment the Siphon is destroyed. While she is not almighty, since she is forced to operate within the limitations of constants and variables, by the end of the game, she can manipulate those variables and thus tweak the entire multiverse in any way she pleases. Exemplified by this exchange between her and the cynical, daredevil badass of a Player Character (which takes place even before her apotheosis):
Elizabeth: Booker, are you afraid of God?
Booker: No. But I am afraid of you. - Digimon Story: Time Stranger features Yggdrasil and Homeros, two host computers of their respective Digital Worlds (essentially making them the god of their worlds), whose physical avatars are in the form of little girls. And this isn't the first time Yggdrasil choose to appear as a little girl.
- In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, the Supreme Kai of Time is a short pink-skinned girl whose job is to make sure the Dragon Ball timeline is untouched and sends agents to fix anything that potentially goes wrong.
- Taken to the extreme in EXA_PICO series. Humans (and more) live in three gigantic towers that are also massive computers capable of potent magic. The Administrators of the towers are all little girls, especially Frelia.
- However, they aren't Goddesses in the literal sense of the word due to actually getting their names from three Goddesses that lived millennia prior to them, and the fact that they are considered as such due to keeping the Towers, the last safe haven for life in Ar Ciel, functioning. However, a few of the personae of the Planet Ar Ciel (which are the actual creators and maintainers of said planet and all life on it) do fit the definition.
- Eternal Daughter: Player character Mia is a demigod.
- Viridi from Kid Icarus: Uprising, despite being the goddess of nature and being implied to have been alive for a while, has the appearance of an 8 year old.
- Not technically a god, but the Fairy Queen in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker manifests to Link in a child-like form. And then hits on him.
- Zelda, the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword definitely counts.
- Almost every deity in the Neptunia series is a woman ranging from looking as young as five to being mid-twenties at the oldest.
- Oracle of Tao has Ambrosia, who for much of the first game is oblivious that she is God's avatar (she's about 20-30 though). This creates an odd situation, since she was literally sending herself on a quest. Later on though, she accepts being God fully, and the current version of God gets reincarnated so that Ambrosia can have a life with Nevras while her mother can have a life with God.
- In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, this is the true identity of Marle, being the physical manifestation of the Will of the World responsible for watching over the puzzle worlds, not to mention taking on the form of a young girl.
- A sort-of inversion: In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Lucifer appears as a little blonde girl in white dress, calling herself "Louisa Ferre."
- Ingrid of the Street Fighter series (though she debuted in Capcom Fighting Jam) definitely counts. It's implied that she is the creator/true owner of Bison's Psycho Power (and by extension, Rose's Soul Power) and she seems to be immortal, with the power to Time Travel at her leisure. Supplemental materials for Street Fighter X Tekken also credits her as the creator of Pandora, the god-like object that everyone's fighting over.
- Moriya Suwako from Touhou Project.
- And hey, Kanako Yasaka, why not, even though she's not as young-looking. She appears to be about 20 whereas Suwako looks like a pre-teen. Reality Warper Yukari Yakumo also may qualify. She's not God. Technically she's not even a divinity of any kind. But her Reality Warper powers are so great she might as well be.
- In fact, Touhou has a lot of goddesses. Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith, which brought Kanako and Suwako, also as the Aki sisters and Hina. The former fit the bill much more, but they're also incredibly weak.
- Many of the young girls in the Touhou Project franchise are incredibly powerful, but it's played disturbingly straight with Flandre Scarlet, who appears as an under-10 girl but has the power to destroy anything at will. And is a vampire. Naturally, she's kept locked in a sealed basement underneath her family's mansion and her character write-ups generally bluntly mention "It's recommended not to meet her."
Visual Novels
- Hanyuu of Higurashi: When They Cry is the true identity of Oyashiro-sama, and she takes the form of a young girl, appearing no older than Satoko or Rika.
- As the series focuses on various individuals reaching godhood and attaining control of the multiverse, it was perhaps inevitable that the Shinza Bansho Series would dabble in this trope eventually. In this case it is the 7th Heaven and current ruling god Hirumenote . And unfortunately she also happens to be a Bratty Half-Pint, though fortunately she doesn't abuse her powers as much as her title and her adoptive mother Rindou makes sure to keep her in line.
- The titular princess in Slay the Princess has god-like power in certain routes, and is eventually shown to be the incarnation of Change.
Webcomics
- An old, discontinued webcomic, Acid Reflux, had a little deity girl get her own (used) universe as a present. Her name, of course, was "God". Much humor occurs when she's sucked into said universe, a sort of high fantasy pastiche.
- Downplayed in El Goonish Shive. Pandora isn't a god - but she is an incredibly ancient immortal being with powers vastly beyond what the rest of her kind are capable of. She also happens to like taking the form of a mischievous little girl.
- minus. isn't really confirmed to be God in the comic - just a girl with limitless unexplained powers. But she does create the Afterlife, and is shown to run it whenever she isn't busy having fun.
Web Original
- In Bit F City, the most powerful Randomnian god, creator of a whole dimension, is a 6-year old. She also has the mentality of one.
- Holly in Captain Disillusion is an attractive young woman, usually just a floating head, but she temporarily generates herself a body in one episode.
- In Funny Business, Jeannette's powers are practically limitless, though she explicitly denies being a god.
- SCP-239 from the SCP Foundation seems to be a Reality Warper in the form of a young girl.
Western Animation
- Raava from The Legend of Korra is a female God-equivalent, albeit an inhuman one.