History Series / TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager

* CoolLoser: Ben, Amy and Grace to varying degrees, especially in Season 1.

* LysistrataGambit: Attempted via a [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbation]] campaign infamously known as "Just Say Me".

* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Just Say Me"- Apparently it’s boring activity to do (unless your Alice) so risking risk your life with sex is the better option. Yes not everyone likes masturbation in real life but no one in the cast is asexual.

* DreamTeam: Whenever Ashley and Adrian get to have a scene together.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Amy and Ricky. TheyDo... until the finale.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Adrian and Grace. Ben and Ricky.

** Grace has enjoyable sex once and her father dies in a plane crash the same night. Though the plane crash is (hopefully) not the direct result of Grace having sex, her Downs Syndrome-afflicted brother shouts at her, [[InsaneTrollLogic "You killed him!"]] She believes it on account of her own idiocy, though. Terrifyingly, this seems to be just the beginning as it appears that the concept of sex = death is [[IdiotPlot catching]].

* BedmateReveal: Turned UpToEleven in the Season 4 episode "And Circumstance". The last ten minutes is completely saturated with it. [[spoiler: Madison slept with Lauren's boyfriend, Henry hooks up with Adrian, Ben ends up in bed with a completely new girl named Dylan, though they explicitly stated that Ben and Dylan simply fell asleep together and didn't have sex...]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Try describing one episode to a friend who has never seen the show.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-secret-life-of-the-american-teenager1.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Expect the unexpected]]'']]

* SoundtrackDissonance: What is up with that 15-second theme song that doesn't fit the show ''at all?''
** In the episode "Just Say Me", a montage plays of the girls laying in their beds and beaming, since they have just finished masturbating. Apparently the best piece of music the writers could find to accompany this is the song ''Mister Sandman''.
** The students contemplate their futures, set to an acoustic version of ''Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend'' yes really.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: [[DevelopmentHell After being shopped around for ten years]], the show was picked up by ABC Family at the height of the "Pregnancy Pact" and {{teen pregnancy}} media frenzy.

* SexEqualsLove: Both averted and played absolutely straight.

* ShorterMeansSmarter: Ashley is somehow the only person to notice her sister is pregnant. She also crafted a coffee-drinking young rebel facade while she goes to dance for... messing with her mother. Most of her dialog also puts her in LittleMissSnarker territory. It's worth noting her intelligence eventually devolves to the level of her peers.

** The students contemplate their futures, set to an acoustic version of ''Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend''.
* SpeedSex: According to Amy, her first time with Ricky was "like two seconds". He must have just been having an off night, since he's [[ReallyGetsAround shown to be quite the ladies' man]] with everyone else and now that he and Amy are officially together, they have great sex.

* ThoseTwoGuys: A.K.A. "Useless Asian Friends." Same goes with Amy's friends.

** Ashley, too is recently becoming TooDumbToLive, including refusing to actually do any work after her dad cuts off her funds.

* TheVamp: We, the viewers, are meant to believe that Adrian Lee is this, though when looked at objectively, Adrian is actually a sexy Latina with a healthy libido, a [[DeadpanSnarker sharp tongue]], [[CloserToEarth a good head on her shoulders]], and a FreudianExcuse shoehorned into her character.

* VerySpecialEpisode - More like a Very Special Series... made up of very special episodes. Like the episode about fake [=IDs=]. Or the subsequent episode about underage marriage. Or the episode about coping with child abuse.

*** Amy deserves special mention. She is obnoxious, whiny, rude and constantly complaining in BOTH her relationships with Ben and Ricky, though she's toned down on the complaining in her and Ricky's relationship in later episodes of season four.
** As a "he see in her", Jack and Madison. Seriously, a nice, generally attractive and smart jock falling for an annoying, shrill, dumpy girl who has no point on the show other then to make Amy look prettier in comparison. She had a similar situation with Lauren's hot older brother that can only really be explained through WhereDaWhiteWomenAt?

** That actually was resolved. The gay couple decided they'd rather try to adopt their foster children, who they already loved and wanted. Plus, they had one meeting with Ricky and quickly realized that Ricky was against ANYONE adopting the kid.

** Ben and Ricky - Ben later had sex with Adrian in Season 2 and they all later found out she was pregnant in Season 3 as a result. Ricky later goes after Amy when Amy stops speaking to Ben. Ben constantly talks trash about Ricky to the other characters and have told both Amy and Adrian that the are too good for him.

* HighSchool: Ulysses S. Grant High School, though students are rarely seen attending class there. (Though considering the type of show this is are you surprised?)

* HouseHusband: George becomes this after Anne's business career takes off. Anne discovers that she enjoys that more than staying at home and George discovers that he likes staying home more than he likes working in the furniture store. However, it is not treated as a strange thing.

*** Apparently, Adrian was bullied in Elementary School for being poor and not having the same types of clothing as the other kids.

** Amy gives birth to her son at the end of the first season and, having not thought about any names, her sister offers up the name John. (Possibly justified because Amy went back and forth between keeping John and giving him up for adoption.)

** Inverted with [[spoiler: Ben and Adrian]].

* MsFanservice: Ashley. Damn, but [[http://images.tvrage.com/people/74/220171.jpg India Eisley]] brings an ungodly amount of sex appeal into her role.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: Amy. The show even points it out, strangely focusing on how much larger her breasts are after to the pregnancy.

* RightThroughHisPants: Played painfully straight. When the ModestyBedsheet is lifted, it's revealed that the girl is wearing a bra (occasionally a tank top) and modest panties and the guy always has his pants (in some cases ''jeans'') intact.

* RomanticFalseLead: Bamy and Radrian were this apparently.

** It appears that this is a prevailing belief in town as Grace and Madison are opposed to abortion (to the point where the former went to the clinic where Amy was to talk her out of one, despite not even really knowing the girl), while Amy's mother Anne doesn't want her daughter to have one either (though explicitly mentions this isn't because of religious reasons).

* HighSchool: Ulysses S. Grant High School, though students are rarely seen attending class there.
* HighSchoolDance: A bizarre example in that it's not a typical guy/girl dance, but a mother/daughter dance. Everyone is just sitting around talking until the guidance counselor makes a speech about her grandmother and great aunt who lived through the Holocaust and how everyone needs to stop being vindictive bitches. This inspires the ladies to dance the Hora (because remembering the fun times they had dancing is what kept Grandma and Great Aunt's spirits up during their horrible experience). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKl5etDbphE It can been seen here, beginning at about the three-and-a-half minute mark.]]
** A more typical example happens in season four when the students attend the "Senior Dance", which is essentially prom.

** [[spoiler: Ben becomes this after Mercy's death.]]

* JerkJock: Jack and Ricky, to varying degrees and at various instances.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ricky.

*** Apparently, Adrian was bullied in Elementary School for being poor and not having the same type of clothing as the other kids.

** Amy gives birth to her son at the end of the first season and, having not thought about any names, her sister offers up the name John. (Possibly justified in that Amy hadn't been certain for most of the pregnancy that she wouldn't give the baby up for adoption.)

* {{Foreshadowing}} : "Ben and I are just here ... to get free condoms." "Ricky is never going to marry you!"
* ForgottenBirthday: Everyone forgets Amy's 16th birthday when she's in New York. [[Creator/MollyRingwald Her mom]] felt horrible about it afterwards, saying "[[Film/SixteenCandles Everyone forgot my sixteenth birthday]] [[ShoutOut and it stayed with me forever]]!" Amy is mildly irritated, but gets over it pretty quickly. (She was in New York though a place most teens would love to visit.

** The gay couple sadly doesn’t count because they didn’t make it through the series
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Inverted! However you feel about Adrian, the fact is she at least tried to make her life work when she was pregnant. And the result? Her baby dead upon birth. Amy, however, did nothing but bitch and moan during her pregnancy, and yet has the happiest ending on the show.
* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: It's more Everybody Talks A Lot About Sex, but there's plenty of actual sex going on as well(though to date, there hasn't been any sex onscreen). The original title of the show was ''The Sex Life Of The American Teenager'', but Brenda Hampton said Googling that name brought up a lot of porn sites, so it was nixed. (Even The Walt Disney Company, ABC Family's parent corporation, didn't approve of the original title too.) As it is, there are few secrets on this show, either.

* ForgottenBirthday: Everyone forgets Amy's 16th birthday when she's in New York. [[Creator/MollyRingwald Her mom]] felt horrible about it afterwards, saying "[[Film/SixteenCandles Everyone forgot my sixteenth birthday]] [[ShoutOut and it stayed with me forever]]!" Amy is mildly irritated, but gets over it pretty quickly.

* FriendsRentControl: Everyone's houses and apartments are very nice and wonderfully decorated, despite everyone having various jobs that should create economic differences between them. Ricky's apartment gets a pass because it used to belong to Leo's wealthy parents. A few headscratchers in particular are Adrian and her mom having an upscale apartment in season one, even though they were supposed to be kinda poor. Daniel and his friends also manage to have lavish apartments, despite being college students.

* DysfunctionJunction: Amy's pregnant at 15, Ricky takes advantage of females [[spoiler:because his father sexually abused him]], Amy's parents have a poor relationship, Tom has Downs Syndrome... try finding a character on this show that ''doesn't'' in some way fit this trope.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Just Say Me".- Apparently it’s boring activity to do (unless your Alice) so risking risk your life with sex is the better option. Yes not everyone likes masturbation in real life but no one in the cast is asexual.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Just Say Me".

* DomesticAbuser¡: Bob Underwood.

* CoolLoser: Ben and Grace to varying degrees, especially in Season 1.

* BlackComedy: Unintentionally.

** For some this makes the show SoBadItsGood.