History Main / MinorLivingAlone

!!Examples

* The titular hero from ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' lived alone in the woods for a long time. It is pretty clearly implied that this is true of almost all [[HalfHumanHybrid hanyou]] because they are hated and shunned by both humans and [[{{Youkai}} youkai]].
** The sequel ''Anime/YashahimePrincessHalfDemon'' shows Moroha, Setsuna and Towa. Setsuna and Towa were abandoned in the woods by their father, Sesshomaru, to help them learn to become stronger. At the time they were two young children. Moroha was raised by a wolf demon tribe since she was young. In both these cases, it is revealed that Sesshomaru's retainer Jaken was the one responsible for delivering the kids to these locations, and he did pop by occasionally to check on them.

* Fourteen-year-old Makoto Kino from ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' lives alone because her parents are dead.

* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': Tobias has technically been one since the first book after his ModeLock into an adult hawk, eventually getting his own territory and living as a hawk, since in his human life he was an orphan taken in by a separated aunt and uncle who didn't care about him (once he disappeared, both thought he was living with the other). Then a cousin of his shows up wanting to take care of him ([[spoiler:actually Visser Three tracking down Elfangor's human son]]), and the lawyer handling the case says Tobias looks healthy and well-dressed enough for someone living off the grid (the former because he acquired his human form thanks to TimeTravel, the latter because [[TheFashionista Rachel]] picked out his clothes for the meeting). He does come off as having NoSocialSkills, but that's because he's no longer used to human emotions.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': [[PlayerCharacter Link]] in his various incarnations is perpetually orphaned and often alone. For instance, in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', he's a teenage FarmBoy who starts off living by himself in Ordon Village.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Nagito reveals in his Free Time Events that his parents were killed in a plane crash when he was in elementary school. Seeing as how he also mentions having no [[Main/{{Nephewism}} other ]] [[RaisedByGrandparents relatives]] or any [[StayingWithFriends friends]], it's safe to assume that this is how he grew up.
* Before the events of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' start, Shirou and Rin both live alone in fairly big houses. In Shirou's case, Taiga (old family friend, daughter of the landlord, and Shirou's homeroom teacher) keeps checking in every day, however, and Sakura Matou comes by daily to help as well (ever since Shirou got a serious shoulder injury, though by the start of the visual novels, it has healed long ago), to the point that Sakura even has her own set of keys.
* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' has the main character (default name Hiyoko Tokasa) live alone as a hunter-gatherer in a CAVE. This is because [[spoiler: her parents were crisis negotiators who died in a terrorist attack on the Hatoful House orphanage.]] When she was younger, she was StayingWithFriends at her best friend Ryouta's place, but she eventually left to avoid being a further burden on the already impoverished Kawara family.
* Rika and Satoko from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' are orphans who live together despite the fact they're elementary students. It helps that they live in a small, rural community. It's still odd that in one arc Child Services rescues Satoko from her abusive uncle, only to let her go back to living alone with her roommate who isn't even 13. Later on Rika's relative Hanyuu rooms with them too despite also being young. [[spoiler:Physically at least. Hanyuu has been a ghost for centuries and died an ''adult'', who even had a kid Rika's age, but takes on the appearance of a child]].
* Yuuya from ''VisualNovel/MyHaremHeavenIsYandereHell'' is a teenage orphan who lives in his parents' house. Until he turns eighteen, he has to be regularly checked on by his landlady.
* Akira from ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'' is in his last year of high school but already has his own apartment in favour of staying with [[{{Nephewism}} his aunt]]. This is to keep his job as an underground brawler a secret from her, and because he likes the freedom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Subverted in ''Literature/MaxAndRuby''. It looks like Max and Ruby live alone but WordOfGod is that they have InvisibleParents. Later seasons introduce their parents on-screen.

* All of the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' live without parental supervision in their island headquarters and they fight crime. It makes you wonder if maybe their city lacks a child services department.

->'''Cherie Johnson:''' You know what, Punky? You're my idol.\\

* The title character of ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' lives like this in the pilot episode until Henry adopts her.

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/{{Toradora}}'', through Taiga Aisaka's story. Typical examples of this trope have children acting like perfect miniature adults who expertly cook, clean house, do laundry, pay bills, and sometimes even hold jobs; Taiga lives alone because she can't get along with anyone in her family, but her parents never taught her any domestic skills before they (effectively) threw her out of the house, and they don't bother checking up on her once she's gone. Until she meets Ryuuji, she's [[TrashOfThetitans living in filth and squalor]], subsisting on a diet of convenience store food and suffering from chronic allergies due to her terrible living conditions. ''And'' she's never held a job either. The series emphasizes the fact that even though she's technically living on her own, she's actually completely dependent on Ryuuji's care [[spoiler: and the monthly cash deposits she gets from her father.]] Part of her character growth arc involves her learning to acknowledge that she can't do everything on her own and start to address the issues that led to her isolation in the first place; this leads her to [[spoiler: return to her family home so she can rekindle her relationship with them and, through this, become a better person before she and Ryuuji can start out a new life together.]]

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/{{Toradora}}'', through Taiga Aisaka's story. Typical examples of this trope have children acting like perfect miniature adults who expertly cook, clean house, do laundry, pay bills, and sometimes even hold jobs; Taiga lives alone because she can't get along with anyone in her family, but her parents never taught her any domestic skills before they (effectively) threw her out of the house, and they don't bother checking up on her once she's gone. Until she meets Ryuuji, she's [[TrashOfThetitans living in filth and squalor]], subsisting on a diet of convenience store food and suffering from chronic allergies due to her terrible living conditions. ''And'' she's never held a job either. The series emphasizes the fact that even though she's technically living on her own, she's actually completely dependent on Ryuuji's care [[spoiler: and the monthly cash deposits she gets from her father.]] Part of her character growth arc involves her learning to acknowledge that she can't do everything on her own and start to address the issues that led to her isolation in the first place; this leads her to [[spoiler: return to her family home so she can rekindle her relationship with them and, through this, become a better person before she and Ryuuji can start out a new life together.]]

* Occasionally American teenagers from troubled homes move out with their parents' agreement rather than go into the foster care system. This doesn't require a full emancipation process, especially if the lease is signed and paid by the adult guardian.
* This actually does happen in Japan albeit rarely, because high schools are not region based. They're more like universities, and as such, some students' parents rent them apartments or rooms so they can go to school they attend without waking up really early or the whole family having to move. They usually ''do'' have some form of adult supervision, either with a family member from the area who checks in on them or a hired caregiver. A more common situation is the student staying in a dormitory within the school itself.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': [[Characters/BeavisAndButtHeadTitularCharacters Beavis and Butt-Head]] definitely don't live with their parents; no other adult authority figure (outside of the Highland High staff) is ever seen or mentioned. The show never explains how this happened; no one at their school seems aware of it. Though it's hinted they live with their mothers (and it's likely they handle the house bills), they're just never around. From their talk about them and ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica Do America]]'', it's heavily hinted that they're actually prostitutes or call girls. In ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoTheUniverse Do the Universe]]'', it's confirmed that the house belongs to Beavis' mother.

* Parodied in a bonus chapter of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' that turns the series into a ClicheStorm of a harem manga, where Shirogane and Kei are mentioned by the narrator to be living alone while their parents work overseas. Shriogane immediately sees this as a red flag and wonders why child protective services haven't intervened. The series proper on the other hand averts this, as the only ones who don't either live with their parents or in the school dorms are Kaguya and Hayasaka, and even then, their mansion has multiple adult servents present. [[spoiler:Hayasaka does eventually move out of the mansion after quitting her job, but it's unclear if she moved in with her parents or got an appartment of her own (and even if she did, she was only 2 months away from turning 18).]]

* Parodied in a bonus chapter of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' that turns the series into a ClicheStorm of a harem manga, where Shirogane and Kei are mentioned by the narrator to be living alone while their parents work overseas. Shriogane immediately sees this as a red flag and wonders why child protective services haven't intervened. The series proper on the other hand averts this, as the only ones who don't either live with their parents or in the school dorms are Kaguya and Hayasaka, and even then, their mansion has multiple adult servents present. [[spoler:Hayasaka does eventually move out of the mansion after quitting her job, but it's unclear if she moved in with her parents or got an appartment of her own (and even if she did, she was only 2 months away from turning 18).]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': Beavis and Butt-Head definitely don't live with their parents; no other adult authority figure (outside of the Highland High staff) is ever seen or mentioned. The show never explains how this happened; no one at their school seems aware of it. Though it's hinted they live with their mothers (and it's likely they handle the house bills), they're just never around. From their talk about them and ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica Do America]]'', it's heavily hinted that they're actually prostitutes or call girls. In ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoTheUniverse Do the Universe]]'', it's confirmed that the house belongs to Beavis' mother.

* ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'': For the first three seasons, The Chipettes lived in a fully furnished tree house, with a living room, a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, however, in the Season Four opener, school officials find out about this, and threaten to split them up and put them in foster care; Dave temporarily adopts them, however they and The Chipmunks start getting on each other's nerves, so Alvin talks his neighbor Beatrice Miller into adopting them in one episode. From then on, the girls live with her and soon consider her as their mother figure.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': Beavis and Butt-Head definitely don't live with their parents, and no other adult authority figure (outside of the Highland High staff) is ever seen or mentioned. The show never explains how this happened, and no one at their school seems aware of it. Though it's hinted they live with their mothers (and, as mentioned above, it's likely they handle the house bills), they're just never around. From their talk about them and the movie, it's heavily hinted that they're actually prostitutes or call girls. In ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoTheUniverse'' it's confirmed that the house belongs to Beavis's mother.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': Beavis and Butt-Head definitely don't live with their parents, and no other adult authority figure (outside of the Highland High staff) is ever seen or mentioned. The show never explains how this happened, and no one at their school seems aware of it. Though it's hinted they live with their mothers (and, as mentioned above, it's likely they handle the house bills), they're just never around. From their talk about them and the movie, it's heavily hinted that they're actually prostitutes or call girls.

* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': Momo is a little orphan kid who lives alone in the ruins of an old amphitheater despite being twelve years old at best. Momo has no known family, she absolutely refuses to go to an orphanage, she does not want to be adopted either, and she insists she can take care of herself; so the people living near the amphitheater decide to help her by cleaning up and making habitable the dungeon she had settled in, bringing her food and checking on her routinely.

** Orihime Inoue's older brother Sora kidnapped her when he was eighteen and she was three to save her from ''dangerous'' parental abuse. After that, he [[PromotionToParent raised her alone]] until she was twelve, when he died in a car accident. Orihime has lived alone ever since, although she is financially supported by an aunt on the condition that she does well at school, [[DitzyGenius which she does]]. She also works part-time in a bakery after the TimeSkip.

** Uryuu Ishida refuses to live with his father, who has rejected their Quincy heritage for [[MysteriousPast mysterious reasons]] and objects to Ishida's pursuit of it. Ishida perceives his father's [[HeroicNeutral behaviour]] as a betrayal of their family legacy and refuses to even acknowledge their kinship, instead calling Ryuuken by his first name and living by his deceased [[OldMaster grandfather's teachings]]. It's strongly implied that Ishidas life has been in danger ever since his mother Kanae's CruelAndUnusualDeath, and that Ryuuken has sacrificed being a Quincy to keep him alive.

** 16 year old Yamcha was introduced living alone with Puar, a 9 year old FunnyAnimal, in a desert as [[DesertBandits thieves]]. Its said they've been doing it for 2 and a half years. Unlike Goku, their parents or other relatives are never mentioned.
* At the start of ''Manga/FlyMeToTheMoon'', Nasa is living this way. Just before his high school entrance exams, he'd gotten hit by a truck, and only survived due to the intervention of a mysterious girl named Tsukasa. He spent a long time in rehab, resulting in him missing the chance to do entrance exams, and ultimately dropped out to work. Not wanting his parents to worry about him, he ended up getting his own apartment, which is later revealed to be some distance from his family's home. Around the time he turned 18, Tsukasa found him, and they got married.

* In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', most students who go to the school ships seem to live in apartments on the ship, while their parents live and work on land. Yukari is one of the few exceptions, since her family owns a hair salon on the ship, and it's possible that other children of people who work on the school ships have similar circumstances.

** The sequel ''Anime/YashahimePrincessHalfDemon'' shows Moroha, Setsuna and Towa. Setsuna and Towa were abandoned in the woods by their father, Sesshomaru, to help them learn to become stronger. At the time they were two young children. Moroha was raised by a wolf demon trinbe since she was young. In both these cases, it is revelaed that Sesshomaru's reainer, Jaken, was the one responsible for deliviering the kids to these locations, and he did pop by ocassionally to check on them.

* Rei from ''Manga/MarchComesInLikeALion'' started living in his own apartment at the age of 17, after starting high school a year late. Though he has a foster family to go back to, he found his presence damaging to the blood-related family members while he was still living with them, making him leave in the first place.. His earnings as a shogi player are enough for him to sustain himself, even if he sends a portion of it back to his foster family.
* ''Manga/MidoriDays'': Seiji lives alone, since his parents are said to be traveling abroad and his older sister, Rin, lives with her boyfriend. She drops by, every other month or so, to give him enough funds to cover food and expenses.
* In ''Manga/MinamiKe'', the three Minami sisters live alone. No explanation is given why their parents are absent.

** Brock was raising his nine younger siblings alone and running the Pewter City Gym on his own while his parents were ran off. In the 4kids dub they decided to kill off Brock's mother, likely because both parents leaving was just too tragic, however several years later Brock's mom [[DubInducedPlotHole was introduced]].

* In ''Manga/PrivateActress'', Shiho Kobayakawa was initially raised by her maternal grandmother, but after she died she rents a small apartment on her own and wroks as a P.A to make ends meet. It's justified since not only [[spoiler: she's the HeroicBastard of a famous actor (who doesn't even know of Shiho's existence)]], but her mother Sayuri is ''also'' an actress and she ''can't'' let the press know that Shiho is her child, since unmarried mothers are heavily looked down in Japan and ''both'' their lives would be ruined if the secret leaked.

** Ukyo Kuonji has been supporting herself ever since she ran away from from home to track down Ranma and his father, Genma. She successfully runs her own business, while still being in high school.

* Fourteen year old Makoto Kino from ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' lives alone because her parents are dead.
* ''Manga/SallyTheWitch'': Sally Yumeno, aka the Princess of the Astoria realm, lives with her adoptive siblings Poron and Cab alone in a BigFancyHouse that Sally created with her magical powers. Her parents are alive and well but are the RulingCouple of Astoria so they can't really live with the three kids, [[spoiler: though in an episode they drop by when Sally's teacher shows concern about the kids' situation, tricking him into believing that they work abroads.]]
* When we see twelve-year old Amy's house in ''Anime/SonicX'' there are no signs of any parents. There's even a sign in front of it that says "House Of Amy Rose".

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Both of Satomi's parents died years ago, leaving her to look after herself and her kid brother, Daisuke. But, because of his medical expenses, [[PerpetualPoverty she barely earns enough to support them]], despite working two jobs. Which is how [[NebulousEvilOrganization The Jahana Group]] manipulates her into entering the VG tournament.
* Rei Kuroki from ''Anime/VividredOperation'' lives alone with her pet parakeet in her apartment complex because her parents died from an accident.

* Fourteen-year-old Kousei from ''Manga/YourLieInApril'' lives alone. His mother died a few years prior and his father is usually traveling. Part-way through the series one of his mom's old friends starts becoming a ParentalSubstitute for him.

** Fuu and Itsuki are orphans who live alone. Despite both being middle schoolers, Fuu is considered her little sisters legal guardian.

* Justified in ''Manga/YuruYuri'' with Yui. Yui's aunt is the landlady of the apartment she rents. Her parents objected to her living on her own at first, but decided it would be good for her maturity.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': After Tim's mother is murdered and his recovering father is abducted he ends up living alone while Bruce tries to track down his father. He's also stuck as Robin to [=AzBats=] during this time which means that after school he's trying to keep someone in PoweredArmor from killing people after said person tried to kill him and bricked up all the known entrances to the batcave. For a period after his father died and while he was still too angry at Bruce for his role in Stephanie's death to consider Bruce's offer to adopt him he lived on his own in Bludhaven. Later still as ComicBook/RedRobin he moved out of the manor and started living in his own flat in Crime Alley, which was evidently preferable to living with a little brother that keeps making little attempts on his life.
* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' is about well, Runaways, the youngest being eleven at the start of the series and the oldest starting at seventeen, that have superpowers and live alone after running away from their super villain parents and then again from child protective services that wanted to keep them apart (and put their dinosaur in storage...ItMakesSenseInContext).

** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'': Fifteen-year-old ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} lived alone in her own apartment during several months until she was adopted by Lana Lang.
** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2011'': When she returns to Earth after [[ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton leaving the Red Lanterns]], sixteen-year-old Kara finds a job as waitress and rents a flat in NYC Queens. When Superman meets with her in ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'', she has spent several weeks living on her own, and insists on going on living with no supervision.
** In ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'', teenager Lena Thorul lives alone due to have no known relatives.
* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': Tintin is 14-15 in the comics, and 17 in the live-action CGI movie. Lives completely alone. The movie is set in the 1930s while the comics go from the 1930s to the 1970s. Tintin may be ageless or just have really extended lifespan without early maturation (living 16 times longer, and also needing 16 times longer to mature). In Comics and movies set in the 1930s, Tintin may still be chronologically a minor (under-18, under-21 pre-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), but it is before the age of child welfare laws, so mature and intelligent teenagers could masquerade as adults in society without too much trouble in those days.

* In the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' ElsewhereFic ''Fanfic/BoyScoutsOneHalf'', there is a character named Kenneth Pendrell. He is the youngest of the main characters, most of whom are also minors. Almost all of them have had family, including parents, appearing in story or at least referenced as existing. There are even a pair of characters who are established as orphaned minors living with an adult over sister. But in the case of Kenny, the narrative seems to go out of its way to avoid even mentioning any family for him, even when the story has scenes which take place in house which is described as having an "un-lived-in" feel to it. (Kenny himself likely lives in his massive underground la''bor''atory beneath the house.)

* The ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fic ''Fanfic/PowersOfInvisibility'' has Juleka Couffaine, a fifteen-year-old when we meet her, living alone in an apartment in Paris paid for by her parents, who spend most of the year teaching archaeology in China or doing research elsewhere, though they "usually" come back for Christmas. Dialogue implies that this has been going on for at least five years, and Juleka doesn't seem to get that how ''not normal'' this kind of parenting is, reacting with honest confusion when her friends or their families react with shock or anger upon learning about it.
* Six-year old Naruto is considered too old for the orphanage in ''Fanfic/PrincessOfKonoha''.
* ''Fanfic/ReBoundRWBY'': Seventeen year old Pyrrha moved out into her own apartment at age fourteen because she couldn't stand the grandeur of her parent's mansion. Her parents agreed that, as long as she kept winning tournaments, they'd pay for her apartment and let her live on her own.
* Mobians in ''Fanfic/SpeedAndPurpose'' are given adult freedoms at age fourteen, including being able to move out. Their village council, or something similar, give them an allowance until they're eighteen.

* ''Film/EnolaHolmes2'': Sherlock lets Enola keep her own place despite being an underage girl in Victorian London. Passerby tend to be a little scandalized that she can live, work, and move around unsupervised.
* In ''Film/HomeAlone1'', Kevin is accidentally left home alone for a few days when his family leaves for Paris. The cashier is clearly suspicious to see him shopping alone but it is not enough to call the police. His parents try to call the house and have the police check on him but the phone lines were all down due to a storm and the officer did not find anyone in the house (as Kevin was frightened and was hiding under the bed). All the neighbors are off on vacation so they don't notice his presence either.
* In the novel and FilmOfTheBook ''Film/{{Hugo}}'', the titular 12 year old character is living alone in a train station after he was orphaned and his uncle abandoned him.

* In ''Literature/AccelWorld'', Kuroyukihime lives alone, and is estranged from her parents [[spoiler:because after Kuroyukihime's sister tricked her into killing Red Rider, Kuroyukihime confronted her sister with a knife, leading to Kuroyukihime getting kicked out of the house]].

* In Jeramey Kraatz's ''Literature/TheCloakSociety'' novel ''Villains Rising'', it is not a minor but seven minors, the oldest fourteen. On the other hand, they are extremely mature about it; the six who can't do anything useful toward the rescue until the GadgeteerGenius devises a way spend their days training to keep up their abilities.

* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': Momo is a little orphan kid who lives alone in the ruins of an old amphitheater despite being twelve-year-old at best. Momo has no known family, she absolutely refuses to go to an orphanage, she does not want to be adopted either, and she insists she can take care of herself; so the people living near from the amphitheater decided to help her by cleaning up and making habitable the dungeon she had settled in, bringing her food and checking on her routinely.

* The title character Nickel in ''Literature/NickelPlated'' lives alone at age 12, after having [[DarkAndTroubledPast escaped from child pornographers]] (and it's implied [[spoiler:killed them]]). He signed the lease by paying a homeless guy to pretend to be his dad, and makes enough money to survive by selling marijuana to high schoolers, blackmailing pedophiles on the internet, and working as a KidDetective (usually for people who don't know his age).
* ''Literature/PippiLongstocking'' lives alone in Sweden with a horse and a monkey in her own house. Her father is king of a southern island, her mother is deceased. Pippi even avoids school because she sees no need for education and she's wealthy given how much gold her father left behind for her. At times, the adults in the town want to help or assist her, but she prefers to take care of herself most of the time. Her father did offer to pick her up, but she couldn't bear leaving Tommy and Annika behind and seeing that Pippi has grown more attached to her two best friends than to her father, she declines going to the seas with him.

* Watch in ''Literature/{{Spooksville}}''. His Mom, Dad and sister all live in seperate states and while he first claims to live with an aunt, it's eventually made clear he lives alone. It's never explained how this all came to be but he seems well off despite all this, although this does cause him to be rather lonely.

* In the ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote'' novel ''The Youkai Computer Knows'', Nanaki is in this condition due to the application of OnOneCondition--he can only inherit the family if he stays in the family mention until 20, and he's 12 at the point. While he doesn't mind, [[AudienceSurrogate Aya]], after recalling her FriendlessBackground, finds this appalling.

* Daniel Striped Tiger of ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' is a tiger cub who lives all by himself in a the clocktower of the Kingdom of Make-Believe. He is explicitly said to be an orphan and no one appears to be supervising him. Oddly, the sequel series, ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' portrays the now-grown up tiger as the son of Grandpere Tiger, suggesting he was adopted at some point between the two shows.
* In a later episode of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', Jessica becomes concerned about a boy who regularly does yard work for her, as his teacher says he's been missing school. Worried, Jessica investigates and realizes that the boy's mother is missing, and that he's been living on his own for a few days. When she reappears, she becomes a prime suspect in a murder case. Jessica becomes the boy's foster parent until she clears his mother's name.

* Seen plenty of times on ''Series/OneTreeHill''. Most noticeably are Peyton, whose father is a longshoreman who has to work from home to support the family and whose mother died in a car accident when she was eight and Brooke, who's a LonelyRichKid with a workaholic father and a socialite mother, both of whom are too self-absorbed to give her any of their time.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': [[PlayerCharacter Link]] in his various incarnations is perpetually orphaned and often alone. For instance, in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', he's a teenaged FarmBoy who starts off living by himself in Ordon Village.

* In ''VideoGame/ProjectSekai'', Kanade lives by herself (although [[SweetBaker Honami]] comes by once a week to help with cleaning) -- her mother is dead and her father is comatose. She attends school online, and while she has a grandmother she keeps in contact with, for the most part her income comes from writing music.

** In [[VideoGame/TheSims1 the original Sims]] if a parent died a child would live alone...but couldn't pay bills or cook meals. They could live off of snacks in the fridge food from the buy menu, and make some money through grades and painting however. This leads to sort of UnintentionallyUnwinnable state for the game, as children can't grow up to become adults without mods or a spell in Makin' Magic, leading to a very limited gameplay.
** Almost {{averted}} in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' where the social worker would pick up orphaned kids. Orphaned teens however, could live alone and could at least pay bills and cook, unlike younger kids. They could also get part-time jobs, which don't pay well but at least give the household a steady cash flow. (It's also possible for a teen to sell most of the crafts that adults can, such as paintings, but this requires a lot of time and/or skill points.)

** ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' continues the "orphaned teenager can live alone" trend. They can also register as self employed with the ''Ambitions'' expansion pack, almost eliminating the need for parents.

** According to ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', twelve year old Amy lives alone in an apartment in Station Square. By ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'' Amy's moved to Central City.

* Before the events of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' start, Shirou and Rin both live alone in fairly big houses. In Shirou's case, Taiga (old family friend, daughter of the landlord and Shirou's homeroom teacher) keeps checking in every day, however, and Sakura Matou comes by daily to help as well (ever since Shirou got a serious shoulder injury, though by the start of the visual novels, it has healed long ago), to the point that Sakura even has her own set of keys.
* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend ''has the main character (default name Hiyoko Tokasa) live alone as a hunter gatherer in a CAVE. This is because [[spoiler: her parents were crisis negotiators that died in a terrorist attack on the Hatoful House orphanage.]] When she was younger she was StayingWithFriends at her best friend Ryouta's place, but she eventually left to avoid being a further burden on the already impoverished Kawara family.
* Rika and Satoko from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' are orphans who live together despite the fact they're elementary students. It helps they live in a small, rural community. It's still odd that in one arc Child Services rescues Satoko from her abusive uncle, only to let her go back to living alone with her roommate who isn't even 13. Later on Rika's relative Hanyuu rooms with them too despite also being young. [[spoiler:Physically at least. Hanyuu has been a ghost for centuries and died an ''adult'', who even had a kid Rika's age, but takes on the appearance of a child]].
* Yuuya from ''VisualNovel/MyHaremHeavenIsYandereHell'' is a teenaged orphan who lives in his parents' house. Until he turns eighteen, he has to be regularly checked on by his landlady.

* Willa Dragonfly of ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'' seems to be quite the responsible 13-year-old. Her grandfather (who is her only family) regularly goes off on long journeys that last months, and Willa is responsible for feeding herself in the meantime. It's more "Extremely FreeRangeChildren" than "ParentalAbandonment".

** Yakko, Wakko and Dot live inside the water tower at WB studios. Despite being kids, they take care of themselves without any parental supervision.

* Universal lack of parents is one of the most notable features of ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrol''. While toddlers like Alex, Julia, and Julius have guardians (though no known parents), school age children like Ryder, Katie, Carlos, Danny, and Ace are all shown living on their own, having jobs, and even running their own businesses with no parents seen or mentioned and no adults expecting them to have any. The general consensus is that the series takes place in a society where it's normal for people to reach the age of majority when they're what we would consider children and live on their own and support themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': Played with in "Bachelor Gus", in which Gus overhears what he thinks is his parents talking about moving away (again), and not wanting to move again, let alone leave his friends at Third Street School, he runs away, and turns the jungle gym into his own bachelor pad. He likes it at first, but is scared by nightfall, and when his parents find him, he learns that they were talking about moving him into the bigger bedroom, not moving away altogether.

** Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' as Cyborg is explicitly eighteen. His [[VagueAge age was never stated]] in the original series but here he is old enough to be the other's guardians, or at least count as adult supervision.

* Occasionally American teenagers from troubled homes move out with their parents agreement rather than go into the foster care system. This doesn't require a full emancipation process, especially if the lease is signed and paid by the adult guardian.

* UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's grandfather, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump Frederick]] immigrated into the United States from Europe via steamship alone, without parents, at the age of 16, though he lived with extended family relatives that had immigrated to America previously. Parent-less teenage immigration into the United States wasn't that uncommon prior to World War One. Along with that, a lot more teenagers were independent of their parents in the US at the time, since little legal restriction on this existed (they often worked to support their family anyway even when still with them).

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' as Cyborg is explicitly eighteen. His [[VagueAge age was never stated]] in the original series but here he is old enough to be the other's guardians, or at least count as adult supervision.

** The sequel ''Anime/YashahimePrincessHalfDemon'' shows Moroha, Setsuna and Towa. Setsuna and Towa were abandoned in the woods by their father to help them learn to become stronger. At the time they were two young children. And Moroha seems to have been alone all her life, not even knowing who her parents are.

* While most of the girls in ''Manga/KOn'' have [[InvisibleParents offscreen parents]] Yui and Ui's parents have been travelling the world for almost the whole three years of the show's timeframe, with their only adult supervision being the old lady who lives nearby. Yui is totally useless at household chores, meaning that from age 14 to 17, Ui was doing all the cooking and cleaning.

** 16 year old Yamcha was introduced living alone with Puar, a 9 year old FunnyAnimal in a desert as [[DesertBandits thieves]]. Its said they've been doing it for 2 and a half years. Unlike Goku, their parents or other relatives are never mentioned.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

** Morehowever, the protagonist Ash is a ten-year-old boy who travels around the country without adult supervision despite having a living mother. This is normal in their universe as many ten-year-olds roam with only their Pokémon for protection. ''Sun and Moon'' and ''Journeys'' avoids this as he stays with Professors Kukui and Cerise respectively during those arcs.

** Played with. Sector V of the titular KND spend most of their time in their treehouse headquarters, even having their own rooms for sleeping in. However, all five members have families and seem to split their time between headquarters and home (Sector V's treehouse, for instance, is in Numbah One's backyard.)

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': The teenaged slackers live in a house without any adult supervision.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

Children that live alone are sometimes rather mature and capable and may even have a job in order to support themselves. If they live with younger siblings, [[PromotionToParent expect them to take on the role of]] ParentalSubstitute. RulesOfOrphanEconomics may apply.

* ''Literature/PippiLongstocking'' lives alone in Sweden with a horse and a monkey in her own house. Her father is king of a southern island, her mother is deceased. Pippi even avoids school because she sees no need for education and she's wealthy given how much gold her father left behind for her. At times, the adults in the town wants to help or assist her, but she prefers to take care of herself most of the time. Her father did offer to pick her up, but she couldn't bear leaving Tommy and Anika behind and seeing that Pippi has grown more attached to her two best friends than to her father, she declines going to the seas with him.