Delayed mental (and/or physical) maturity.

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Did anyone else experience delayed maturity? I felt like I was at least 3 years behind my peers at school both intellectually and mentally. I also had really late puberty, I didn't have a single arm-pit hair until I was about 18.

I feel like my delayed mental maturity was one reason I was bullied at school as I was away with the fairies a lot, and I had my nose buried in magical fantastical things all the time. I also read books that were for 7-10 year olds when I was 15 and thought nothing of it until people started bullying me because of it. I had my special interest which has always been animals and at the time of my early to mid teens was focused solely on reptiles and amphibians, I also kept several species as pets and it was all I could focus on, which is probably another reason, along side my delayed development, that my grades suffered.
My mother was looking at IQ raising pills during my exam years because she just thought I was dumb, it amazes me that she never thought it necessary to consult a doctor.

I was always "immature" for my age socially. I attained puberty a little late.

I reached puberty at the average stage (started growing breasts and under arm hair at 11, started periods at 13).

I reached all the milestones at average stages as a baby, but when I got to about 7 I seemed to be about 3 years younger in my self-awareness. I used to embarrass other children of the same age, and I said and did weird things at the lunch table at school, for example.

I did stop playing imaginary games at around 12-13, which is average. But I still liked building Lego at 15, although back then we didn't have internet in our house and I didn't have hardly any friends to hang about with, and besides watching TV or playing videogames or reading, what else would a pre-adult do?

depends how you define "mentally immature". in many ways, i'm very mature for my age. have alway been an old soul in a young person's body. but in other ways i'm quite immature. like in practical terms, i struggle keeping track of s**t that need to be done and tend to look for guidance from friends /family because i'm super clumsy.

people often say i'm "like a kid" 4 my ability to intensely get into hobbies that everything around me gets sucked in in my own imagination....

but i wouldn't call it immaturity tho... ?

Academically, I was above grade level. I attained my physical developmental milestones at the average time. I was socially immature and was always the shortest person in my class.

I was socially and emotionally immature, but I had a very sheltered upbringing so that might’ve been part of it.

I had delayed maturity too.
When I started high school we had to change into gym clothes in a locker room. All the other girls wore bras but my mother wouldn't get me one because I didn't need one. I was still wearing size 12 girls clothes and looked like a child.
I dreaded gym class for that reason.
I just stood in the locker room and waited for all the other girls to leave before I changed my clothes.

I didn't talk to the kids at school but played with younger kids in the neighborhood.

I collected animals too. I used to wander in the woods behind my house. I followed a stream into the woods and back again. Three years in a row I found baby robins who had fallen out of their nests.
I raised them like my own and two of them returned the next summer after migrating south for the winter. They landed on my porch and started begging for food.

I also found a dog that had wondered into my yard after a storm. She was a cocker spaniel and her hair was badly matted. I convinced my parents to let me keep her and then saved up my allowance until I had enough money to take her to a vet and have her matted hair shaved off.
My parents called me "the animal lady".

I got bad grades in high school. They thought I was stupid until they found out I had a above average IQ and scored in the 99th percentile on a abstract reasoning test. The school arranged for a psychiatrist to come and talk to me. He didn't talk to me though, he just took out some ink block cards but i didn't want to do the ink block test so he just left. I was disappointed because I wanted talk to him. I eventuality dropped out of high school.

That was all back in the late 50's early 60's and I had a rough life until I eventually took some classes at a community college in my mid to late thirties and got a night job as a mainframe programmer.
Now I'm retired and living on a tiny amount of social security, but at least I have that.

I was always tall as a kid, lost all my baby teeth faster than anyone else and hit puberty early. I had a full beard when I was 16. So nothing physically different I think but mentally... Yeah even now I'm still a kid