It's My Life is a defunct website hosted by PBS Kids.
The website launched in 2002 and was mostly aimed at tweens. It focused on issues that 8-13 year olds deal with, such as puberty, school, and changing responsibilities. The website also hosted several webgames.
It's My Life was also a series where kids discuss topics. Though the website has been discontinued, the YouTube channel is still up
.
Not to be confused with the fanfic Its My Life.
List of games and interactives
- Be Your Own Boss
- Beach City Blues
- Beat the Bully - In the year 2248, bullies Krog and Snidra terrorize Britney Spears Memorial Junior High, and your player character (of selectable gender) challenges one of them to a "rocket race". Gameplay takes the form of being offered a scenario related to bullying and choosing the best answer to resolve it, each correct answer taking you closer to the finish line. Winning lets you play a "bonus race", and the format shifts to a simple arcade-style game where you must dodge obstacles.
- Bonko's Body Quiz - A quiz game where you answer questions about the effects either tobacco or certain drugs have on the human body. The titular Bonko is in terrible health from doing both, and you can examine some of his body parts and internal organs for information.
- Create A Story - A webpage-based interactive in the vein of Mad Libs, where you type words into a series of fields and find out how they fit into the story.
- Go Go Diego! - A hangman-style game. Diego is an anthropomorphic fox trying to ride his scooter to the park before it rains, and you help him get there by guessing the words to phrases related to anger management. Each incorrect guess manifests as an obstacle impeding his progress, in turn making his "Rage-O-Meter" higher, and making too many results in him getting rained on, failing the game. Level 1 grants you 8 chances, while Level 2 ups the difficulty by paring them down to 6 and making it easier for Diego's Rage-O-Meter to fill. Winning rewards you with the ability to download a free It's My Life-branded wallpaper.
- Mad Money - A life simulation game based around spending money wisely. You start out by choosing one of four "big-ticket" items: you have 30 in-game days to save up enough money to buy it, but you also have a "shopping list" of other purchases that must be dealt with first. $15 is added to your allowance every in-game week, smarter economic decisions can grant you an extra day of time, and there are periodic opportunities to gain even more money by accepting odd jobs at the expense of losing 1-3 days, but money can also be lost through occasional random "unexpected spending" events.
- Make Up or Break Up - A choose-your-own-adventure partially-illustrated Interactive Fiction game about navigating moments of tension between your friends, where your choices either mend or dissolve the friendship. It's divided into two stories:
- "Trouble In Alonbrea" - Playing as a girl in the fantasy land of Alonbrea, your friends Gwen, April, and Gloria are convinced you're lying about your horse Buttercup being sick, believing you're making up excuses to avoid them.
- "A Day In Neptuna" - Playing as a boy in the Underwater City of Neptuna, you find out your best friend James is mad at you for skipping out on plans to hang out the day prior, and that he's been badmouthing you to everyone at school for the past few days.
- Mortifying Monday
- Rumor Control - Rumors are literally flying through a school, and they are divided into three categories: Dangerous, Hurtful, and Harmless. You must click and drag clouds containing rumors, judge which type they are, and take the necessary action — Harmless Rumors can float by without issue, Hurtful Rumors go in the trash, and Dangerous Rumors are sent to Principal Godlewski's office.
- School Daze Crazy Maze - A maze game where you have 45 seconds to get to each of your 7 class periods, navigating through the school and avoiding hazards, bullies, and teachers, with periodic detours to the bathroom or your locker for extra challenge. The second level is on an "Activity Friday" of elective classes, now with more obstacles and only 30 seconds to get to each class. If you're late to three classes on one level, you lose the game.
- Send an E-Card - An assortment of e-cards one could send to others.
- Sidewalk to the Future - An interactive feature where you decorate your own square in the titular "sidewalk" by applying graphics and preselected words. Before the project's demise, one was able to share their square and view those of other users.
- Story Strips - You choose from 6 four-panel stories involving confrontations between friends, schoolmates, and family members, with two characters in each comic. The first panel has a static word bubble that sets the scene, and you choose how the story goes by selecting a response, filling blanks when needed, and customizing the characters' facial expressions (and hairstyles).
- To Cheat or Not to Cheat?
- Tough Crush Canyon - A choose-your-own-adventure Space Western game. You play as either a girl or a boy attending a weekend Ranger Camp on your home planet Lonestar 3's moon, developing a crush on a fellow Ranger and figuring out how to ask them out to the Rodeo Dance later; your success depends on the choices you make.
- Wheel Houz - An interactive feature where you create and decorate a circular chart by choosing which attributes best match your personality, the things you value, and your plans for the future. Like Sidewalk to the Future, these charts were also formerly able to be shared and viewed by others through the website.
- You're In Charge - You play as a child left to take care of the house while your mom's away, the object being to rack up points by making responsible decisions. There are two levels: the first is easier, having you babysit your younger brother Billy while managing a few other tasks; the second is more challenging, with more chores as you supervise your neighbor's new puppy Sailor.
This website provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: While her popularity is not dwelled upon much, Beat the Bully's Snidra otherwise fits this trope to a T. She exemplifies the more psychological types of bullying: she spreads lies about other students, purposefully ostracizes people, makes fun of them behind their back, and insults their looks. Other kids, like Jenny Jupiter, are so intimidated by her they join in on her bullying so she doesn't target them.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: The characters in the games have skin tones such as purple and green.
- Animate Body Parts: In Bonko's Body Quiz, examining his lungs while taking the quiz on drugs shows each lung with a face as they cough at each other from marijuana use. Clicking on his immune system also represents the germs and white blood cells in his body as armless circular/blob-shaped Cephalothoraxes with faces, legs, and shoes.
- Animesque: A downplayed example for Beat the Bully. The male player character has highlights in his hair rendered as a solid white "halo" reminiscent of contemporary anime, and Krog's facial features strongly evoke Akira Toriyama's signature style.
- Barbaric Bully: Krog from Beat the Bully is a big, hulking kid who's one of the most notorious bullies at his school (alongside Snidra). Mousing over his name on the "choose your bully" screen reveals he picks on anyone smaller than him, steals other kids' stuff, threatens to beat them up, and cheats by copying his classmates' schoolwork.
- The Blank: An odd unintentional case in the article "Middle School: Stan and Sarah". The page features a photograph meant to represent the two children, but it's so overexposed their faces (and most of Stan's body) are completely obscured by white light.
- Celeb Crush: The article "Celebrity Crushes" describes them as "mostly safe, fun, ways to test our feelings of love and attraction", though warns against getting too "star-struck" or neglecting your personal relationships in the process. As an extra measure of assurance, it brings up examples of celebrities who have experienced celebrity crushes themselves, including the members of *NSYNC, Kirsten Dunst, and Mary J. Blige.
- Challenging the Bully: One game involves writing a story where a kid confronts a bully.
- Disappeared Dad: While You're in Charge makes it clear that your character and Billy are being raised by their mother, who just happens to be The Ghost for the purposes of the game, a father is never mentioned. The player character being next in the chain of authority after their mother suggests he's completely absent from their lives or at least in a situation making him physically unavailable to take her place (like military service or long-term hospital care).
- Edutainment Game: The games teach children life skills such as running a business or being responsible.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The player character and their little brother Billy in You're in Charge have this dynamic. Your explicit goal is to make the right decisions as you mind the house in Mom's absence, while Billy has to be actively distracted from playing in the fireplace and wants to play outside in the dark. Potentially inverted if one deliberately chooses all the incorrect options, making both of you Foolish Siblings.
- Foul Cafeteria Food: When you go to lunch in School Daze Crazy Maze, the resulting cutscene shows a tray with what looks like a giant lint ball (that seems to be "dancing" to the background music) and some sort of bubbling red-orange liquid.
- Funny Animal: The title character from Go Go Diego! is an anthropomorphic fox who wears clothes (save for shoes) and rides a scooter.
- Game-Breaking Bug: In School Daze Crazy Maze, it's possible to be accidentally locked into only being able to move in one direction. You can pass through walls, but the map won't move with you, making it impossible to advance.
- Game-Favored Gender: In Tough Crush Canyon, there's a heavy imbalance between the possible paths towards a Good Ending and Downer Ending between the two genders.
- Playing as a girl, the only one way to obtain the bad ending is to try to figure out Cal's feelings towards you without asking him, followed by you agreeing to the plan of putting Sand Snake on Lucy's bed.
- Playing as a boy, if Luke ever finds out your crush on Susie, you can only achieve a Bittersweet Ending at best. Further more, there's multiple ways to receive the bad ending unlike the story meant for girls.
- Gift for an Outgrown Interest: This question concerns a girl named Talia who was a fan of American Girl dolls when she was younger. Her mother wants to take her to American Girl Place in New York, not realizing that her daughter's long moved on from them.
- In the Dreaming Stage of Grief: Conversed in the article on grief, which says that if you're mourning a dead person, you might start to think that the person is not really dead, either because they're on a secret mission or you're dreaming.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: One of the scenarios in Beat the Bully involves a girl named Jenny Jupiter who's nice to the player character by herself, but partakes in Snidra's bullying when she's around. The correct answer reveals Jenny really does like you, but siding with Snidra makes her feel more powerful. The resulting paragraph ends on the note that one day she might stand up for herself.
- Missed Meal Aesop: Downplayed for the article on eating disorders. It tells you not to skip meals as that can lead to eating disorders, but also tells you that eating too much can also lead to eating disorders.
- Named After Somebody Famous: The characters of Beat the Bully go to school at Britney Spears Memorial Junior High.
- Precocious Crush: "Crushes on Adults" centers entirely around this subject. The article lets the child audience know that this is a normal thing to experience, but it should not be treated the same as a crush on a peer, and explicitly advises against "counting the years until you're old enough to say something about your feelings".
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Played straight for Beat the Bully. You choose between a male or female player character, but the game plays the exact same regardless of who you pick. In an odd variant, the game also features a case of "Purely Aesthetic Enemy"; you choose either Krog or Snidra as your competitor in the race, yet the game gives you questions about both bullies (or general questions not mentioning either). It's entirely possible to select Krog, then only receive scenarios involving Snidra (and vice versa).
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: If you don't close the window in the first level of You're in Charge, a pair of red eyes with a sinister expression will pop up, peering in the direction of your little brother. After a while, the voyeur will grasp their pitch-black hands on the windowsill, and stays there for the rest of the level.
- Shout-Out: James and your character in "A Day In Neptuna" are both fans of a show called "The Shrimpsons"
- Snake People: Snidra from Beat the Bully is a pink snake with humanoid arms.
- Space Western: Tough Crush Canyon takes place on the moon of a planet called Lonestar 3, yet the visuals depict cowboy-hatted youths and a rocky desert environment resembling those seen in the western United States. Characters also speak in a stereotypically "country" manner, with dialogue written phonetically at points to convey their accents ("ya" instead of "you", "pardner" instead of "partner", etc.)
- Sugar Causes Hyperactivity: In You're in Charge, giving Billy some cake causes him to become so hyperactive he morphs into a ball and literally bounces off the walls, knocking over a soda can and injuring himself.
- Too Smart for Strangers: Among the challenges you're tasked with as a child home alone in You're in Charge are random events where someone will either knock on the door or call the house phone. Unless they're a family friend (who knows the family password of "Luna") or delivering a specific package your mom ordered, the game will repeatedly inform you, regardless of the option you pick, that the correct move is to refuse to open the door or speak to any of them.
- Urine Trouble: In level 2 of You're in Charge, this is a scenario that can happen with Sailor the dog. If Sailor whines, that means she's about to pee on the floor unless you put newspaper down.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Downplayed for You're in Charge. If Billy hurts himself, you can choose to not help him and make the poor little guy cry indefinitely, and you can ignore Sailor the puppy's requests for affection and food. Bizarrely, while helping them in these scenarios does grant points, you aren't penalized for not helping them either.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Krog from Beat the Bully wears only a pair of red shorts and a golden bracer on each arm, with no shirt (or shoes) whatsoever. Britney Spears Memorial Junior High presumably has No Dress Code.
