Secret Identities and Double Lives on Tween TV

Secret Identities and Double Lives on Tween TV in introduces readers to the concepts of tweenhood and television (TV) tropes by providing historical and theoretical contexts and reviewing the history of TV targeted to tweens.

Through a qualitative analysis of various live-action sitcoms, this book explores the popularity of programming featuring characters leading secret lives and targeted to tweens. By unpacking various theoretical explanations of this distinct period of life and examining them through the critical lens of the content of these tween TV shows that feature secret identities, the book offers a unique understanding of the tween experience woven in the nexus of power, morality, friendship, romance, family life and self-identity.

This book’s analysis and understanding would benefit children’s media scholars and researchers, students of media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, adolescent studies, and child development.

Amy Richards Franzini is Professor of Communication Studies at Widener University, USA. She studies the representations of children, childhood, parents and parenting in popular media. She has written chapters in the books Fleeting Images: Portrayals of Children in Popular Culture, and Common Sense: Intelligence as Presented on Popular Television, and has articles published in Journal of Sex Research, Communication Teacher and Journal of Children and Media.