User blog comment:Illyrias Acolyte/Big Words in Creepypasta/@comment-5579451-20121009123329/@comment-1198866-20121010013311

The rest of the character - his actions, his home life, other parts of his narration - do not lead me to the conclusion that he is a well-informed young man. We could hope that someone would want to look up the big words, and indeed that's what I usually do (if I can't figure it out on my own), but when they're over-used and mishandled, it really takes me out of the story.

Lyra Belacqua is one of my favorite characters in literature. I believe her when she uses big or bigger words because she grew up in a university surrounded by professors. I do not believe that a modern thirteen year old would do this in most cases. It would take a bit more set up than I've seen in the CP I've read to convince me of this.