![why does your voice change as you get older why does your voice change as you get older](https://d3mvlb3hz2g78.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/thumb_720_450_dreamstime_xl_40401617-custom.jpg)
Though the voice will return to normal once the stimulus passes, people who are generally high-strung will often adopt some variation of this alarmed voice as their natural cadence. When we’re excited, nervous, or frightened, the muscles buttressing the larynx contract involuntarily, and tension in the vocal cords will increase to produce that high, unsteady pitch we associate with alarm. Our emotional state also affects how we speak. Here, the cold virus makes the vocal cords swell, causing them to rub together, which lends a rasp to our speech (the irritation is further aggravated by an urge to clear your throat, which makes the swelling worse). A temporary voice change happens when you catch a cold. That said, there are several factors that can influence vocal changes, many of which are fleeting, some of which are not. The voice you enter adulthood with is, by and large, the voice you’re stuck with for most of your life. It’s the slight variations around this anatomy that make our voices distinct. Although how a child’s voice develops owes something to mimicry of their parents, people from the same family will often sound alike because laryngeal anatomy is dictated by your ancestral DNA just like every other physical trait. Genetics also play a role in how our voices mature. Girl’s vocal folds will also grow a bit (about 3 mm compared to 10 mm in boys), but, since they’re not churning out testosterone, their voices remain comparatively high. Men that produce higher levels of testosterone during puberty will usually develop lower voices as they grow into adulthood. In males, the production of testosterone ramps up, and the larynx increases in size. During this time the vocal folds lengthen and thicken, causing them to resonate at a lower frequency, which produces a deeper pitch (think of the strings on a guitar). When we hit puberty, hormones invariably cause the voice to change. High frequency sounds reach our ears faster, partially explaining why kids’ voices can be so grating. The higher the Hz, or frequency of the sound wave, the higher the pitch. The length, size, and tension of the folds determine what’s known as the fundamental frequency of the resulting sound, which averages about 125 Hz in men, 210 Hz in women, and 300-plus Hz in children. These folds are stretched horizontally across the larynx (the voice box) and, when air is brought up from the lungs to speak, they vibrate. Anatomically, males have larger vocal folds (aka vocal cords) than females, so, even before hormones surge during adolescence, boys typically have deeper voices than girls. The first and most obvious vocal determinate is your sex. Height, weight, hormones, provenance, allergies, structural anomalies, emotions, and environmental factors all play a role in determining how your voice ultimately emerges, which means not only is your voice yours alone, but that you’ll have a few variations on that voice throughout your life. Though people may share a similar pitch or certain vocal characteristics, under close examination, no two voices are alike. As a marker of singularity, our voices are as effective as our fingerprints.