WordGirl

WordGirl is a hero from PBS Kids Go with her sidekick, Captain Huggy Face. She battles villains in her hometown ranging from stealing cards from children to wiping out all sense/causing chaos. She also enjoys unicorns. Her true name is Becky Botsford

The titular character is a superheroine whose superpowers include flying at the speed of sound, super hearing, super strength, and a comprehensive vocabulary. Her symbol is a yellow star against a red shield; when she strikes an enemy or shoots into the sky, she leaves a twinkling star at the end of her sonic streak, similar to the trail of a shooting star. As "mild-mannered" (though she's actually quite plucky whether she's Wordgirl or not) fifth grader Becky Botsford from Fair City's Woodview Elementary School, she instantly changes into her WordGirl costume by touching her shirt where her emblem would be, and speaking her catchphrase, “Word up!” The backstory found her and Lexiconian Air Force pilot Captain Huggy Face crashing on Earth after leaving the planet Lexicon in a spaceship for a test flight where she unknowingly crawled aboard the ship as a baby which she still uses as her base of operation away from her adopted parents, Tim and Sally Botsford, who found her on their doorstep reading a Sunday newspaper and doing the crossword puzzle therein, even though another flashback shows that the Botsfords found her in the woods.

Becky, who is age 10½, spends her time reading, going to school, decorating her dollhouse, collecting unicorns and trying to hide her secret identity. Her lone setbacks are that she is not good at dancing, and she struggles with art but she is a great singer. No one is aware of WordGirl's true identity with the exception of Captain Huggy Face (who gets mad when TJ says things about him), Bampy Botsford (Becky's grandfather), and, of course, the Narrator who, of course, gets to see everything. Despite obvious similarities, only a few others have made the connection; in "Dr. Two-Brains Forgets", the villain does find out and tells WordGirl/Becky’s family, but they all forget when they are hit with his amnesia ray, which was redirected toward a mirror by TJ thanks to his WordGirl boomerang and hits everyone but WordGirl and Captain Huggy Face. Scoops realizes that Becky doubles as WordGirl when she runs into him, forgetting that she is still wearing the WordGirl cape; Scoops observes that she’s also worn the costume frequently, having chosen WordGirl as her Halloween costume. However, his suspicions dissipate when Becky painstakingly misdefines a word in the episode "Vocab Bee". At one point, in "Becky's Birthday", her parents begin to make the connection, but just when they are about to figure it out, Captain Huggy Face (a.k.a. Bob) distracts them by getting wrapped up in party decorations. In some short episodes, Tobey thinks Becky is WordGirl and tries to destroy her house with a robot, but Captain Huggy Face, disguised as WordGirl, shows up and Becky picks him up and destroys the robot. Also, in the episode "Big's Big Bounce", Becky knew the definition of the word "boost" and Mr. Big becomes suspicious for a while. However, Becky reveals her identity to her dad and TJ in "WordGirl Makes a Mistake", but her parents didn't believe her. In a recent episode, Becky's grandfather, Bampy Botsford, figures out Becky's identity. In another recent episode, "By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robots", Tobey realizes Becky's identity by her shoes. She, however, outsmarts him using a WordGirl doll.

Even though she may be a superhero, Becky has a love for ponies and other animals, as any fifth-grade girl might. Her favorite book is “Princess Triana” (a parody of Harry Potter), while her favorite TV show is "The Pretty Princess and Sparkling Pony Power Hour". The series' title character and her alter ego is voiced by Dannah Phirman; though producers originally wanted Reese Witherspoon for the role. Phirman was chosen for her knack to nail her scripts in one take.

WordGirl seems to be a direct parody of Superman: they both came to Earth as infants, they both share powers of superhuman strength and speed, flight, and super hearing, and they are both vulnerable to radioactive fragments from their homeworlds.

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