15 Best Teenage Cartoon Characters (Ranked)

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The best teenage cartoon characters take the most awkward, identity-scrambling years of life and turn them into something funny or epic or both.

That specific magic is why so many of us still go back to these shows well into adulthood.

One rule shaped this list: everyone here really is a teenager, ages 13 to 19.

That knocked out some famous faces who are secretly younger, like the 12-year-old Mabel Pines of Gravity Falls, plus a couple of grown adults who somehow show up on other roundups.

What is left is fifteen real teens, ranked by popularity, with the fact-checked canon age called out on every one.

The Best Teenage Cartoon Characters, Ranked

Unsupervised (2012)

Gary and Joel, the teenage cartoon characters of Unsupervised

Unsupervised is the deep cut of this list, a short-lived FXX comedy about two relentlessly optimistic teens basically raising themselves. Gary and Joel navigate high school and absent parents with a sweetness the crude humor never quite buries.

  • The teens: Gary and Joel, two hopelessly upbeat best friends
  • Premise: two 15-year-olds parenting themselves with no adults around
  • Claim to fame: an underseen, oddly sweet cult one-season comedy
Canon age: around 15. A solid teen fit that almost nobody remembers.

Clone High (2002-2003, revived 2023-2024)

The teenage clone cartoon characters of Clone High

Clone High takes the most absurd premise imaginable, a high school full of cloned historical figures, and plays it completely straight as teen melodrama. Abe, Joan, JFK, and Cleopatra are all angst-ridden 17-year-olds, which is exactly the joke.

  • The teens: clones of Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, JFK, and Cleopatra
  • Premise: a high school populated entirely by cloned historical figures
  • Claim to fame: a cult MTV comedy revived two decades later
Canon age: around 17. Peak teen angst, delivered by history’s most dramatic clones.

As Told by Ginger (2000-2006)

Ginger Foutley, the teenage cartoon character from As Told by Ginger

As Told by Ginger is quietly one of the most mature cartoons here, following Ginger from the bottom of the middle-school food chain on up. Its best trick is that it let her age in real time, growing from a tween into a full teenager across its run.

  • The teen: Ginger Foutley, a thoughtful, observant outsider
  • Premise: a grounded look at friendship and social ladders
  • Claim to fame: a rare cartoon that let its cast visibly grow up
Canon age: starts at 12 and grows into her mid-teens. One of the few cartoons that let its lead truly become a teenager.

6teen (2004-2010)

The mall crew of 6teen, sixteen-year-old teenage cartoon characters

6teen is the most on-the-nose entry here, a show whose entire identity is being sixteen and stuck working at the mall. The six friends juggle terrible retail jobs, crushes, and food-court drama, all running on that specific new-to-a-paycheck energy. It was co-created by Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis.

  • The teens: Jonesy, Jen, Nikki, Jude, Wyatt, and Caitlin
  • Premise: six sixteen-year-olds surviving mall jobs together
  • Claim to fame: a Canadian favorite built entirely around being 16
Canon age: 16 for the whole crew. Aged perfectly for its title, and proud of it.

My Life as a Teenage Robot (2003-2009)

Jenny XJ-9, the teenage robot cartoon character

Jenny, also known as XJ-9, is a globe-defending robot who would much rather be a normal teenage girl. Built to look sixteen, she is torn between saving the world and surviving high school, which turns out to be a smarter metaphor for adolescence than it first appears.

  • The teen: Jenny (XJ-9), a superpowered robot girl
  • Premise: a weapon of mass destruction who just wants to fit in
  • Claim to fame: a stylish, retro-futurist Nickelodeon cult hit
Canon age: 16 by design. A robot built to be a teenager, and the show means it.

Beavis and Butt-Head (1993-1997, 2011, 2022)

Beavis and Butt-Head, the teenage cartoon characters of the MTV show

Beavis and Butt-Head are the patron saints of teenage stupidity, two snickering metalheads whose entire lives orbit a couch, a TV, and a string of terrible decisions. They are crude, dim, and weirdly enduring, a 90s MTV landmark that refuses to stay retired.

  • The teens: Beavis and Butt-Head, dim-witted metalhead buddies
  • Premise: two teenagers snickering at the world and causing chaos
  • Claim to fame: a defining, controversial 90s MTV icon
Canon age: around 15. Fuzzy on the exact number, unmistakably teenage in spirit.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-2019)

Star Butterfly and Marco, teenage cartoon characters from Star vs the Forces of Evil

Star Butterfly is a 14-year-old magical princess dropped onto Earth as a foreign-exchange student, with her level-headed friend Marco along for the chaos. What starts as a monster-of-the-week comedy grows into a surprisingly ambitious story about family and destiny.

  • The teens: Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz
  • Premise: an interdimensional princess learns Earth while wielding a magic wand
  • Claim to fame: a Disney show that got shockingly ambitious with its lore
Canon age: 14. Squarely teen, and the show lets them grow into it.

The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009)

Peter Parker, the teenage cartoon character in The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man is, for a lot of fans, the definitive animated Peter Parker. It nails the core tension of the character, a brilliant 16-year-old crushed under the weight of high school, money, and great responsibility, and its fight choreography is some of the best ever storyboarded.

  • The teen: Peter Parker, high-schooler by day, Spider-Man by night
  • Premise: a teenage genius balancing homework, jobs, and crime-fighting
  • Claim to fame: widely called the best animated Spider-Man
Canon age: 16. A textbook teenage superhero, cancelled far too soon.

Big Mouth (2017-2025)

The 13-year-old teenage cartoon characters of Big Mouth

Big Mouth is the youngest-skewing entry here, an unflinching (and extremely crude) adult comedy about the misery of puberty. Its 12- and 13-year-olds are haunted by literal Hormone Monsters, and somehow it lands as one of the most honest shows about early adolescence ever made.

  • The teens: Nick, Andrew, Jessi, and their classmates
  • Premise: the horrors of puberty, personified by hormone monsters
  • Claim to fame: a raunchy Netflix smash about the start of the teen years
Canon age: 12 to 13, with Jessi and Andrew confirmed at 13. The youngest fit on this list, right at the doorway of the teen years.

Daria (1997-2002)

Daria Morgendorffer, the deadpan teenage cartoon character

Daria is the deadpan queen of teenage cartoons, a razor-smart girl radiating contempt for the shallow world of Lawndale High. Spun off from Beavis and Butt-Head, she became a 90s icon precisely because she refused to perform enthusiasm for anyone.

  • The teen: Daria Morgendorffer, cynical and brilliant
  • Premise: a smart, sardonic girl enduring high school on her own terms
  • Claim to fame: a Beavis and Butt-Head spinoff that outgrew its parent
Canon age: 16 to 17. An ironclad teen icon and the coolest kid to ever hate high school.

The Owl House (2020-2023)

Luz Noceda, the teenage cartoon character from The Owl House

Luz Noceda is a 14-year-old misfit who stumbles into a demon realm and decides to become a witch instead of going home. The Owl House became a landmark for its warmth and its groundbreaking queer representation on the Disney Channel.

  • The teen: Luz Noceda, a bubbly, bookish oddball
  • Premise: a human teen trains as a witch in a magical demon realm
  • Claim to fame: a milestone for LGBTQ representation at Disney
Canon age: 14. A clear teen, and one of the most beloved leads of the last decade.

Steven Universe (2013-2020)

Steven Universe, the teenage half-Gem hero of his cartoon

Steven Universe starts as a sweet, goofy kid learning to wield his late mother’s alien powers, then grows into one of the most emotionally sophisticated shows on TV. The series was a milestone for Cartoon Network and let Steven visibly age across its run.

  • The teen: Steven, a half-human, half-Gem hero
  • Premise: a boy learns to use alien Gem powers to protect Earth
  • Claim to fame: Rebecca Sugar’s genre-redefining, deeply emotional hit
Canon age: 14, aging to 16 by Steven Universe Future. Comfortably teen, and the show grows up right alongside him.

Danny Phantom (2004-2007)

Danny Fenton, the 14-year-old teenage cartoon character Danny Phantom

Danny Fenton is a 14-year-old who gets half-turned into a ghost by his parents’ lab equipment, then spends his nights protecting his town from the spirit world. Balancing secret heroics with high-school life, he became one of Nickelodeon’s most beloved teen heroes.

  • The teen: Danny Fenton, a shy kid with ghost powers
  • Premise: a lab accident makes him half-ghost, half-teenager
  • Claim to fame: a beloved Butch Hartman Nickelodeon staple
Canon age: 14. A perfect teenage-superhero double life, ghostly half included.

Kim Possible (2002-2007)

Kim Possible, a teenage cartoon character and high-school crime-fighter

Kim Possible does it all: high-school cheerleader by day, globe-trotting secret agent by night, with her hapless best friend Ron Stoppable in tow. She was a defining Disney Channel hero of the 2000s, proving a teenage girl could headline a full-blown action franchise.

  • The teen: Kim Possible, cheerleader and secret agent
  • Premise: a high-schooler saves the world between classes
  • Claim to fame: a 2000s Disney Channel powerhouse
Canon age: 16. A flawless teen-hero fit, and an all-timer for the era.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko, the teenage heroes of Avatar The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender lands at the top because it is simply one of the greatest animated series ever made, teen cast or not. Katara, Sokka, and Zuko are all teenagers carrying an entire war on their backs, while 12-year-old Aang learns to master the elements and grow up fast.

  • The teens: Katara, Sokka, and Zuko, alongside young Aang and Toph
  • Premise: a young Avatar must master the elements to end a war
  • Claim to fame: routinely ranked among the greatest cartoons ever
Canon age: the core team spans 12 to 16 (Katara 14, Sokka 15, Zuko 16). A properly teenage ensemble, even with a 12-year-old Avatar at its heart.

My Quick Teen-Cartoon Takeaway

Most popular: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Best written: Steven Universe
Most iconic 90s teen: Daria
Youngest fit: Big Mouth, at 13

Teenage Cartoon Characters FAQ

Who is the most popular teenage cartoon character? The Avatar team, Kim Possible, and Danny Phantom top most lists, with Avatar: The Last Airbender usually taking the overall crown.

Which cartoon “teens” are secretly 12, not teenagers? Dipper and Mabel from Gravity Falls, Gumball Watterson, and Doug Funnie are all 12 or younger, which is exactly why they did not make this list.

What is the best teen cartoon of all time? Avatar: The Last Airbender is the near-universal pick, praised for treating its teenage cast with real depth.

Are the Big Mouth characters teenagers? Just barely. They are 12 to 13 years old, right at the start of the teen years, which makes them the youngest entry here.

From Lawndale to the Boiling Isles, these teenage cartoon characters prove adolescence is animation’s richest material.

So who did I miss, and who is your favorite cartoon teen?

Let me know in the comments.