My Life as a Teenage Robot
Nickelodeon's art-deco superhero cartoon about XJ-9 — 'Jenny,' please — a world-saving robot who would rather be at the mall. Rocket fists, gorgeous retro-futurist design, and the eternal struggle of being both Earth's protector and the weird new kid.
Created by Rob Renzetti and produced by Frederator Studios with Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series began life as 'My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot,' a short that aired on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons showcase in December 1999. The full show premiered August 1, 2003: Dr. Nora Wakeman's XJ-9 is a flight-capable, missile-loaded global defense unit — who insists on being called Jenny and wants nothing more than a normal teenage life, squeezed in between saving the planet and getting to class.
What set it apart was the look. The show played like a 1940s sci-fi serial filtered through UPA-style flat design — all sweeping deco curves, limited palettes, and rounded rocket-age machinery — and the craft got noticed: artist Seonna Hong won a Primetime Emmy for individual achievement in animation in 2004, and the series drew multiple Annie Award nominations.
Ratings never matched the reviews. Nickelodeon cancelled it in 2005, and the completed third season was eventually burned off on the Nicktoons channel from October 2008 to May 2, 2009. Like a lot of underloved mid-2000s Nicktoons it aged into a cult favorite, with Jenny a fixture of fan art and best-forgotten-cartoons lists ever since.
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