Clockwise from top left: Alex, Richard, Wendy, Felicity, Sam, Kato, Vivica, Nate, and Alicia.note
This is the character page for Growing Up, the player character, romanceable characters, family, and various adults with their own storylines.
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Player Character & Their Parents
Player Character
Player Character
- Accidental Pervert: If they're a boy, Vivica will come out of the girl's bathroom and call him out for being a pervert, even if he was just wandering outside. Turns out he could smell her smoking weed and was just wondering where it came from.
- Book Smart: They almost inevitably become this if you pay even a little bit of attention to your studies, giving them more turns during exams and increasing their chances to get A's or B's.
- Character Customization: Starting in elementary school, they can change their clothes and even request new ones from their parents. In middle school, they can also spend money on more clothes and even new hairstyles, but they can no longer request new clothes from their parents in high school.
- Friendly Rivalry: They can befriend/date Alex by joining her friendly competitions since she loves a good challenge.
- Game-Favored Gender: Choosing the protagonist's gender or randomizing it might look purely aesthetic at first since most of the romance options are open regardless, but some of those routes are locked out because the love interest's sexual orientation isn't always compatible with theirs. They can still try flirting or confessing their crush to them if they wish, but they'll be rejected.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: They can be named anything, even a name that's traditionally expected for the opposite gender. There's even a secret achievement for naming them after one of their parents.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Their parents forbid them from watching R-rated horror movies with Wendy, and the protagonist gets grounded if they do so.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Except for determining which classmates can be romanced, their gender has no impact on gameplay or events. Noticeably, it is just as easy for a girl to become a star football player and have an ending as a highly paid professional athlete, and the same is true for the law enforcement and military paths.
Parents
Parents
- Character Customization: You can choose from eight preset appearances for your parents, and your character will inherit their skin and hair color. However, this can only be done in your first playthrough as subsequent runs will use your character from the previous run and their love interestnote as the parents of the next protagonist.
- Education Mama: They set Side Quests called Expectations for you to complete starting in elementary school. These usually involve raising a certain stat or studying a certain subject several times. Accomplishing them within the number of turns given will raise their satisfaction meter, but failing to complete them will lower it. You can also raise the meter by mainly learning and mastering skills, and they'll give you extra allowance and grant you special requests if you raise it above 70. However, lowering it below 20 will prevent you from making requests from them and they'll also take away your allowance.
- Good Parents: They certainly take good care of you as you grow up, mostly by playing with you and teaching and giving you advice on how to succeed in life.
- Informed Poverty: Even if one of them has a low-paying job, usually from a low SAT score in a previous run, they'll still be willing to take you on an international vacation if they're proud of you enough.
- So Unfunny, It's Funny: They're very fond of "dad" jokes, and you can either laugh along with them or roll your eyes at them.
Romanceable Characters
Boys
Charles Hoffman
Re-Election Committee
- Abusive Parents: Charles' father pressures him into campaigning for student council to make him follow in his footsteps as a politician and also forces Charles' sister Anne to go to boarding school to "fix" her behavior. He also cheats on his wife and is homophobic, and he kicks Charles out of the family after the latter comes out to him, even in his good ending.
- Gay Option: While there's several bi options in the game, Charles is the sole exclusively gay male option.
- Gayngst: His route involves him coming to terms with his homosexuality and how it's affecting his political career in the student council. In high school, he comes out as gay to the protagonist when they catch him in crying in the bathroom after losing the elections. Then he comes over to their house to ask them for help in dealing with it because his sister caught him first and their father is homophobic. Thanks to the protagonist's support, Charles becomes brave enough to come out to his dad but still gets kicked out of the house, but he fights for LGBT+ rights in his good ending in the epilogue, looking to his sister for support (and also the protagonist if he marries him after years of on-again-off-again dating).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Charles Hoffman goes by "The Hoffer", even outside his campaign for student council. He eventually lets the protagonist call him by his first name or just "Hoffer" if he dates him.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When the protagonist first meets his father, Charles remarks on how similar they look since they have the same hairstyle, which is his "least favorite" thing about himself.
- Student Council President: Wanting to take after his father in politics, Charles actively runs for student council president, even if he's unopposed, using his confidence to win his voters over. You can support him by voting for him.
Jake Fletcher
Super Hero
- Alcoholic Parent: In high school, his dad starts drinking more, so Jake comes over to the protagonist's house to escape from him for a while.
- Affectionate Nickname: His Bully Turned Buddy Mort calls him "J-Dog".
- Childhood Friends: Besides Jake first meeting you in elementary, his classmates Buddy and Mort stick with him all the way to high school.
- Cruel Twist Ending: In his good ending, he gives up his gangster life to become a lawyer, but dies of an overdose tragically in his 30s.
- Delinquents: After trying out weed in elementary, he becomes a delinquent in middle school and starts his own gang, and the first thing he does is ask you for help in stealing some booze from a beggar. He chickens out and buys from the store instead, however.
- Downer Ending: Both of his endings end with him dying from drug overdose.
- Gangbangers: Starts a street gang before high school, initially as Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters to get rid of dealers and other petty criminals.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: He starts his own street gang to fight crime, but in high school, they get into serious fights with real criminals, and Jake gets severely injured.
- Reformed Criminal: He hates being told on for his behavior, but you have to call him out for his criminal activity and convince him that there's a better way to fight crime in order to convince him to give up the gangster life.
Kato Ababio
Two Worlds
- Black and Nerdy: He is a Black nerd who spends most of his school time studying to become a doctor and his free time playing MMORPGs. He struggles with balancing the two and is socially awkward in real-life dating.
- Defrosting Ice King: At first, he's cold towards you and refuses to team up with you for his school project, but as you befriend him, he slowly opens up to you about his love for video games and tabletop RPGs.
- Lovable Nerd: He may start out stoic and difficult to talk to, but he turns out to be a charming nerd who's happy to share his interests in online games and tabletop RPGs if you befriend/date him.
- School Forced Us Together: You meet him in high school when paired up for schoolwork, but he insists on doing it by himself. From there, you have to help him balance his studies and gaming life.
Nathan "Nate" Prior
Fate Averted
- The Aloner: He plans to live alone after high school to live the quiet life and escape his messy upbringing caused by his parents' breakup. He does so in both of his endings, but he'll reconcile with his parents with the protagonist's help in the good ending.
- Animal Lover: Besides writing poems and songs to deal with his parents' breakup, Nate likes feeding the ducks with peas at the park and volunteering at the animal shelter. He even becomes a vet in his route's good ending, liking the peace that comes with animal care.
- Broken Bird: He's an aloof but Nice Guy who feels at peace when he takes care of animals, but he also writes dark poetry to vent about his messy upbringing caused by his parents' breakup.
- Bully Magnet: Not popular in middle school because he often gets bullied for his dark poetry. In fact, he asks you to keep his notebook safe so that bullies won't find it and leak his poems to the whole campus.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He blames his rough home life on himself, believing that it was his fault that his parents were fighting and then broke up. Turns out it was just a tragic misunderstanding between them instead, and the parents were at fault over it.
- Driven to Suicide: He is found dead in his apartment in his route's bad ending. He committed suicide because he couldn't handle the stress of living alone and failed to cope with his parents' breakup.
Richard P. Nelson
Sound of the Future
- Black and Nerdy: He's Black and has a special interest in music, particularly electronica, movie and video game soundtracks. Because he's sensitive and introverted, he prefers making music behind the scenes instead of performing in front of the crowd.
- Cannot Spit It Out: He starts avoiding you and becomes tongue-tied in high school for reasons unknown. Trying to push him to talk will make him avoid you more, but he'll eventually confess that he fell in love with the summer camp instructor while also having feelings for you. He couldn't tell you earlier because he was so hung up with his emotions regarding his crushes.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: Besides music, he shows enthusiasm in dinosaurs as a kid, and Dino World is his favorite movie series. His love for dinos doesn't fade away even in adulthood since he makes a soundtrack inspired by his favorite dino movie if you marry him.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: He mentions having many siblings and that his parents hate paying for their movie tickets. He also gets a lot of hand-me-downs, which is why he doesn't like handouts.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: The P in his name isn't short for anything because it's just his mother's favorite letter.
- Nervous Wreck: He gets a nervous breakdown when he considers joining the school choir out of fear of his voice cracking in public. Pushing him to join it too many times will make him freak out and refuse to talk to you ever again.
- Shrinking Violet: He's soft-spoken when you first meet him and often clams up when he tries talking to you.
Sam Gordon
Peer Pressure
- The Bully: He starts out throwing an American football in your face and laughing at you, and you can choose to ignore him or call him out for it.
- Fratbro: He is your typical 90s jock, complete with his varsity sweater. He's a tough guy who enjoys American football and is a ladies' man in campus.
- Incompatible Orientation: While other love interests will politely reject you if they don't feel "that way" towards you, Sam will punch you and never speak to you again if you try kissing him as a boy.
- Jerk Jock: He establishes himself as a sports-loving bully by throwing an American football in your face. He enjoys bullying other students because he thinks they just can't take a joke. However, he gets over this if you befriend/date him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He is obsessed with American football and aims to win the big game in high school, but he wants to quit because he's only doing it for his father, who's pressuring him into believing that winning is everything.
Girls
Alexandra "Alex" Beauford
Number One
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: She is initially nervous about talking about her parents to you because they live and work at the carnival instead of having "normal" jobs. If you've befriended her well enough when you give her her missed homework, she'll be happy to take you around the carnival because she knows you won't judge her family for it.
- Camp Straight: Gender-inverted. For all her tomboyishness, especially in her elementary and middle school years, she's only dateable if you're a boy.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Every relationship with your elementary or middle school classmate is this, but she seems to invoke this slightly earlier than any other route by blushing at you if you hold her hand as a boy.
- Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: She is the most boyish girl in the game since she loves playing at the arcade, in comparison to her relatively traditional-looking mother who manages the carnival.
- Friendly Rivalry: You can be a competitive gamer with her, and if so, she'll also see her neighbor Shane as her friendly rival, even if she gets jealous when he beats her high score in Space Sheep. She even doesn't hold ill will against him when he gets injured in her dare in high school, but blames herself for it because she had to cut classes to visit him in the hospital. If you date her, she'll play Space Sheep with you in Shane's honor and even give you the choice to put his name in the scoreboard. He even becomes your wedding officiator in her good ending if you marry her.
- Gamer Chick: She loves playing at Starcade 80, and her favorite game is Space Sheep. She even buys the arcade and renames it "Alex's Arcade" (or "Space Sheep Arcade" if you marry her) in her route's good ending, wanting to share her competitive gaming spirit with future generations.
- Graceful Loser: While Alex gets a little upset when she loses, she doesn't take it so badly because it just motivates her to try winning next time. In fact, she doesn't like it if you deliberately lose to her, and she'll leave you if you do that too many times.
- Passing Notes in Class: She'll exchange notes with you during class if you befriend/date her.
- Spirited Competitor: She loves making everything a competition, even schoolwork when you motivate her with a bet.
- Tomboy: She likes playing with the boys, video games, and having friendly competitions, but she prefers being called "Alex" and also cuts her hair short in high school.
Alicia
Gal Pal
- Alpha Bitch: She is the richest and most popular girl in middle school who bullies you at the beginning of her route. She also has her own Girl Posse who follows her everywhere and she splurges on expensive clothes with her dad's credit card. She grows out of this as you get along with her through the years and also in high school when her dad forces her to volunteer at the hospital. Her wealthy upbringing made her forget that there are people less fortunate than her, and when her dad plans to close the hospital to build bigger businesses, she aspires to go to community college and become a registered nurse to continue helping the sick.
- The Bully: Your first encounter her bullying a girl over her loafers, and you can defend the girl and stand up to Alicia.
- Girl Posse: She has a gaggle of popular girls always following her around when she bullies you, and even invites you to join them if you get on her good graces. However, they go separate ways in high school.
- No Full Name Given: She's the only romanceable character whose last name isn't revealed.
- School Idol: Her popularity only soars higher through her school years, but it comes to a head when she's forced to volunteer at the hospital.
- Spoiled Brat: She burns her father's credit card on clothes and accessories and isn't the nicest girl when you first meet her. She becomes a Spoiled Sweet during her part-time hospital work, where she learns to be generous and caring towards people in need.
- The Unfavorite: Her parents dote on her brother more than her because her dad's training him to be next in line for his company. Alicia believes that her parents are only spoiling her to pretend that they care about her.
Felicity "Flick" Browers
Bathroom Troubles
- Abusive Parents: Her mother, Cathy, is out of the country hosting her talk show and doesn't bother taking care of Felicity, and she manipulates her into believing that she's lucky to have a "celebrity" mom. Cathy also exploits her son (Felicity's brother), Humphrey's illness for views. Cathy and her husband don't bother to visit Humphrey on his deathbed, leaving Felicity distressed.
- Pom-Pom Girl: She is the preppy cheerleader of the high school you attend. She puts a smile on her face and maintains a slim body so she can perform at her best, but she's actually forcing her smile and skipping meals to keep up with the pressure.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When the protagonist first eats out with Felicity at the diner, her mother's talk show, Chatty Cathy goes on air. They notice that Felicity looks just like her.
- Survivor Guilt: Whether you advise her to stay with her ailing brother or skip the visit to focus on her cheerleading, Felicity will feel guilty of herself when her brother dies.
Patty "Vivica" Valentine
Teen Spirit
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Vivica's mom dotes on her and takes her out to dinner in the beginning of her route, but Vivica absolutely can't stand it because her parents dote on her brother more than her since she's adopted. You can go to dinner with them to help ease the tension a bit.
- Adoption Angst: She can't bear to stay with her parents, who are "too nice" to her and dote on their biological son, whom they had after adopting her and realizing they could still conceive a child. She's trying to search for her birth parents to discover her origins, but their fate is left unknown by the end of her route. She'll still look for them unless you convince her that her adoptive family genuinely loves her, and her relationship with them will improve because she'll accept that they love her the way she is.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: She's a rebellious teen when you meet her in high school and she finds her family annoying.
- Butch Lesbian: She is a rebellious punk rocker who likes smoking weed and going to rock concerts, and she's only dateable if you're a girl.
- Embarrassing First Name: Prefers to be called Vivica rather than Patty, but gets used to being called the latter during her quest to find her birth parents.
- Fiery Redhead: A rebellious redhead who loves rock music.
- Gay Option: While there are several bi options in the game, Vivica is the sole exclusively lesbian option.
Roberta "Bobbie" Grail
All the World's a Stage
- Big Beautiful Woman: She is a plus-sized woman who believes that she can grace the stage despite her size. Her father tries discouraging her from following her dreams because of it, but she overcomes her fears by slapping her butt in front of the crowd when they laugh at her in her first stage gig in high school. The protagonist is even smitten by her beauty if they date her.
- Big Fun: She is a plump woman who enjoys belting out her favorite showtunes with you, and she doesn't like it when she's told to be quiet.
- Class Clown: She has aspirations towards being a Broadway actress and often interrupts classes with her jokes and loud singing. You can call her out for this, but she'll get upset about it.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Her dad calls her by her real name "Roberta", but she insists on going by her nickname "Bobbie".
- Hates Their Parent: She's at odds with her father, who discourages her from becoming an actress because it's "girly" and people might make fun of her for being fat. He becomes accepting of her dream after her final act becomes a success with your support.
- Large Ham: She enjoys being dramatic and loves yelling when she acts out her lines and sings her favorite showtunes, even off the stage. Because of this, people often tell her to pipe down, to her frustration.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: She is a big and loud aspiring actress in contrast to her quiet and serious military parents.
- Military Brat: She moves around a lot because her parents work in the military.
- Passing Notes in Class: Seems incapable of paying attention in class when you're present and passes notes to you because she's forced to keep quiet.
Wendy Cooke
Wendy Kreuger
- Artificial Limbs: She was born without her left arm, so she had it replaced with a wooden prosthetic, but she's conscious of it because bullies call her "Captain Hook" for it. However, she's inspired by it to make horror movie makeup and special effects.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: She may be skilled in makeup and VFX, but she would rather do anything except attend school, and even convinces you to cut classes with her. However, you can encourage her to focus on her studies, much as she hates it.
- Bully Magnet: Bullied relentlessly for her prosthesis, to the point that she plans to get her revenge on the bullies by scaring them off with a fake severed arm.
- I Have Brothers: Her rebellious nature comes from having many brothers. They often invite her to watch R-rated horror movies when their parents aren't looking.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: She often gets grounded for sneaking out to R-rated horror movies in middle school.
- Military Brat: She has military parents who are overprotective of her and strongly encourage her to study engineering.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She likes watching R-rated horror movies and aspires to do makeup and special effects for them because she's inspired by her wooden prosthetic, but her parents want her to take up engineering instead. She even makes a fake severed arm for a prank in high school if you encourage her to do so.
- You're Not My Father: She hates being reminded to do her homework that she often remarks that the protagonist is acting too much like her parents.
Adults
Adults
In General
- Mentor Archetype: All of them give you career advice in their story arcs and provide you with tips on how to pursue your passions.
Coach
Stone Head
- Adults Are Useless: In Sam's route, you can report him to the Coach, but he won't bother with helping you because he's too busy with his sports team while Sam will call you out for snitching on him.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Called "Stone Head" by the students. You can help him overcome the embarrassment.
Frank "The Lad" Fry
900 Series
- Alliterative Name: His real name is Frank Fry.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": If you compliment his moves and call him "Mr. Lad", he'll say that Mr. Lad is his father, and while he doesn't look young, he's still "spry".
Riley
To Protect and Serve
- Bald Head of Toughness: She shaved her head to show how tough she is as a retired ROTC instructor.
