The show, “My Life as a Teenage Robot,” was one of my favorites as a child. It focused on a teenage girl robot named Jenny Wakeman (or XJ9, as her mom often called her) who had to balance her normal teenage life with fighting crime and danger. It sounds similar to “Kim Possible,” – except that the protagonist is a robot.
Some of my favorite aspects about the show include:
- The artistic style – it looks a lot like a futuristic cartoon with thick ink traced around the characters.
- The characters, such as Jenny’s friend, Brad, Brad’s little brother, Tuck, and Jenny’s mom. There are also other robots that Jenny’s mother didn’t bring to life until a later episode – they were also XJ’s, but ranging from 1 to 9.
- The theme song – it sounded like a rock song, sung by a woman.
One of the most memorable episodes was when Jenny’s friend, Brad, found out that Jenny was built 5 years before the setting of the show. So, she was technically 5 years old.
Authorities took Jenny away from the high school and put her in kindergarten. She showed off as smarter than the little kids and acted like a jerk. When she was forced to go back to go back to high school, she whined, “I’m only 5 years old.”
Another interesting moment was when Jenny was solving a problem in Japan and something got altered in her system. Jenny lost her ability to speak English and could only speak Japanese. That was very unique.
Now what I wonder is if Jenny will ever reach adulthood. In that kindergarten episode, Jenny’s mom revealed that she was built as a teenager. So, will Jenny ever go to college, get a job… retire even?
Yes, cartoon characters usually stay the same age for several seasons throughout the entire show duration or maybe age by one or two years. But I wonder how would Jenny feel when all her peers got jobs, married, started families, and so forth while she was still a teenager. Would she ever mature emotionally?
The show isn’t on TV anymore, although you can stream in on Paramount Plus. I don’t think we’ll ever get to see more episodes of “My Life as a Teenage Robot” or learn more about Jenny herself. As of now, there probably isn’t going to be a reboot.
The show only had 3 seasons, which I am fine with.