Overalls, coveralls, dungarees. No matter what word you use for them, they're a simple piece of clothing that's good at covering up kids and keeping them—well, maybe not clean, but at least less dirty than they would be otherwise.
Overalls — or shortalls — can take the brunt of kids' activity better than a party dress or a fancy suit, and cover up clothing to keep what's underneath clean—namely, the kid. They're also good at conveying a lot about your Kid Hero. Children in overalls, unlike the more adult perception, visually say a child is active, messy, rambunctious, and/or likely very rough on their clothes. You wouldn't put a preppy, fussy Momma's Boy in overalls, but you'd put them on a young Farmer's Daughter, Country Cousin, or the Bratty Half-Pint.
Boys are put in these often as basic playwear, but it's a unisex garment, even in the past when girls were expected to wear dresses to look "nice." A Tomboy can wear these to show she's not a frilly girl or prissy like other girls — and if she has a bit of girliness, she might wear a jumpernote or her overalls in pastel colors, blending the best of both traits. Jumper dresses (called pinafore dresses in the UK) are a variant, where the pants lower half is replaced with a skirt, and can be made of denim as well as something fancier; they also convey older ideas of pinafores, a separate bib-and-apron garment worn over nice clothing which was easier to launder in a time when washing clothes was not only hard work for the launderer but rough on the clothes.
Overalls on kids additionally conveys some level of being unable to dress themselves easily; it's easy to get a kid into overalls since they're a one-piece garment that covers the majority of the torso and legs, meaning less clothing to put on, less clothing to get ruined, and more protection from scrapes and bruises on knees with long pants. In some cases, overalls are done when a child is prone to taking their clothes off in public — it's much harder for a young child to strip completely out of overalls fast, though not impossible. They sometimes show up as a more formal outfit for young boys who aren't quite old enough for a suit and have them be, if not dressed up, dressy enough.
Kids can also be in overalls as the rural character variant (such as the Country Cousin) that signifies them as of rural background, poverty, or country "bumpkin" assumptions compared to more "towny" characters. The urban/inner city variant with street smarts/cool fashion interpretation, like with older characters, has started to fall out of fashion but might still be referenced.
The Kiddy Coveralls look is particularly prevalent in animated and illustrated works, or works aimed at children, but can be in almost any media.
Note: Just wearing overalls and being a kid isn't enough of a trait to be listed here. The overalls have to be symbolic of the kid character's personality, looks, background, and/or actions.
A Sub-Trope of Clothing Reflects Personality and Meaningful Appearance. The Tomboy is prone to wearing these, as is the Bratty Half-Pint and a younger Country Cousin. Compare Overalls and Gingham and Boyish Shorts (unlike that trope, this can be a Unisex Trope). Can be put on someone hit by the Fountain of Youth. This trope is focused only on kids (about 12 or younger); the grown-up Super-Trope (often with a job) is Rough Overalls and applies to adults and teens even if they're dressing to appear younger for whatever reason.
Examples:
- Candy♡Candy: Candy White wears green overalls and likes doing woodwork, spending time in nature, riding horses, and playing with her pet raccoon. She's One of the Boys even though she's a girly girl herself.
- Hello! Sandybell:
- Sandybell Christie wears orange overalls and enjoys playing with animals and in nature, defies the adults who tell her where she can't play, and is the ringleader of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- Ricky wears blue overalls over a red sweater and is a mischievous little boy who likes to steal Mr. Ronwood's van and drive it around. Like Sandybell, he's full of energy and playful, and the two often get up to Zany Schemes together.
- Pretty Cure:
- Smile Pre Cure: Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace is the Token Mini-Moe and a Shrinking Violet to the team who's a big fan of various anime and otaku media, often treated like one of the youngest members. Her default clothing when not in school is a yellow overall-dress to go with her childish personality.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Yuko Omori/Cure Honey is the most tomboyish of the Cures, belonging to a family of rice farmers and restauranteurs. Her default outfit is a pair of amber overalls.
- Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Hikaru Hoshina/Cure Star is an immature fangirl of all things outer space, and she wears a blue overall dress.
- Soaring Sky! PreCure: Sora Harewataru/Cure Sky is a rough-and-tumble tomboy, and her winter outfit includes a pair of blue overalls.
- The Beano: Ivy the Terrible is notably younger than most Beano characters (a toddler rather than a pre-teen) but just as much of a troublemaker (in her initial strip she challenges Dennis the Menace (UK) for the title of "toughest kid in Beanotown"). She's always shown wearing a sweater under overalls.
- Disney Mouse and Duck Comics: Most modern incarnations of Mickey Mouse's nephews, Morty and Ferdie, have them wearing overalls along with whoopee caps and they're known to get into trouble.
- Baby Blues: Several strips depict Wren, The Baby of the Bunch and an energetic tomboy, wearing overalls. However, due to the cast having an Unlimited Wardrobe, this is not a consistent choice.
- Dennis the Menace (US):
- Dennis Mitchell is a five-year-old boy whose basic attire consists of a blue striped shirt and red overalls. He is very mischievous and free-spirited, especially to his parents and his next-door neighbor, Mr. Wilson.
- Dennis' best friend Joey McDonald is a five-year-old boy who wears a pair of black loose strapped overalls — it's more like suspenders, and are bibless. In contrast to Dennis' mischievous, free-spirited personality, Joey is more shy and timid.
- Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles: Sophie Small, a headstrong, energetic tween, wears a black overall dress.
- The Care Bears Movie: The Care Bears are trying to find and help Jason and Kim, a brother-and-sister duo of orphans who have an adoptive family waiting for them. Jason is the younger of the pair and is seen sporting overalls, indicating a slightly more rough-and-tumble nature than his older sister.
- Agnes, the youngest of Gru's three adopted daughters, from the Despicable Me franchise, wears denim overalls and is a sweet, young girl. Additionally, the Minions all wear denim overalls and are known for their innocent, clumsy nature.
- Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return: Dorothy wears a plain, denim jumper dress with cowboy boots, really reflecting that she's a Kansas farm girl while in Oz.
- The titular character from Dennis the Menace — just as troublesome as his cartoon origin — spends the beginning of his movie wearing a pair of blue overalls with no shirt. He starts wearing a shirt after Alice has to take him to Margaret's house for a play date before she heads off to work.
- The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy's iconic dress is a gingham jumper dress, which alludes to her Kansas farm background both in the gingham and the jumper dress style. Given that Judy Garland was in her late teens at the time, the effort was to make her look closer to the age of the character she was playing — twelve.
- Hello Kitty: Kitty and her twin sister Mimmy typically wear overalls, and they're elementary schoolers who are prone to childlike behavior such as hating vegetables like bell peppers. Kitty in particular can be short-sighted and impulsive (particularly in the Growing Up with Hello Kitty series), though Mimmy tends to be somewhat more level-headed.
- American Girl:
- Kit Kittridge, The Great Depression character, wears these often. She's a Tomboy who dislikes wearing dresses, lace and ruffles, and other "flouncy" things, and while her family is located in the city, her father Jack grew up in rural Kentucky. When her family is struggling to keep their house and start raising vegetables and chickens in their backyard for extra money, she starts wearing overalls to work in the backyard — but isn't allowed to wear them in public, as her Uptown Girl mother doesn't want people thinking they're "country" or lower class. (As it is, Margaret is embarrassed by the family selling eggs and farming in the backyard). Kit's collection included a set of overalls three separate times, she's wearing them on the older stand-alone covers of Kit Saves the Day and during much of the action, and she wears them freely when she's visiting Aunt Millie in Kentucky and isn't obligated to look "nice."
- Nicki Hoffman, as part of her skater girl Tomboy persona, wears overalls frequently and has an outfit focused on overalls.
- Blaire Wilson, who lives on a farm with a farm-to-table restaurant (and often cares for animals like pigs, chickens, and lambs) has her gardening outfit
, which consists of denim shortalls and wellie boots. She's not a tomboy to the degree of Kit, but she's active and rural.
- Ramona of the Ramona Quimby (and Henry Huggins) series when first introduced, is almost always wearing overalls when she's not obligated to wear nice dresses — and is a messy, trouble-making, Bratty Half-Pint to her beleaguered older sister Beezus. She stops wearing them later in the series as she matures.
- Tomboy Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird almost always runs around in overalls, as does her older brother Jem; they're rural Free-Range Children and with their father being widowed, don't have a mother to keep Scout acting like a lady (the Black cook does a decent job). Scout is outspoken, scrappy, a fighter, and direct in a way not expected of girls in the era (which bothers her Aunt Alexandra). In the film, she's frequently portrayed in overalls.
- Mark Twain: Multiple portrayals of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn put the crafty, idle, and trouble-making title characters in some form of overalls, showing they don't want to be "civilized", behave, or fit in with city ways the way other kids do.
- Mork & Mindy: Mearth is a child, but looks like an old man because he's a Half-Human Hybrid and his father's species (Orkans) age backwards. He wears overalls as a visual reminder to the audience that while he looks adult, he's still a child.
- Silver Sun: Crewmembers aboard the Silversun are required to wear uniforms when on duty, in colors corresponding to their gender (red for females, green for males). This includes siblings Cinnamon & Tycho. Unlike their teen crewmates who wear blazers, their uniforms consist of overalls with a zippered-bib. This indicates their Tagalong Kid status among the crew, as they are not yet mature enough to carry on more difficult tasks like their crewmates. It has also been shown how living in space since they could barely remember Earth, they have matured into Kiddie Kids due to not having other children their own age to interact with.
- Lalaloopsy: Sunny Side Up, a rough-and-tumble farmer, wears a pair of overalls. By contrast, her more feminine twin sister, Berry Jars 'n' Jam, wears a dress.
- Story of Seasons: Many of the children your player character can have will wear these at some point when young, often as a toddler or child; this is both to show their youth and related to the idea that Overalls and Gingham means "rural life."
- Contemplating Reiko: Conjoined Twins Zeni and Nadi's Iconic Outfit is a pair of overalls uniquely designed to have four straps, two each containing their first initials.
- Ozy and Millie: Millie is a hyperactive fox girl, prone to random acts of destruction, who always wears denim overalls.
- Amphibia: Polly, originally a polliwog only wearing a bow, is seen wearing a set of overalls during the first Time Skip in "The Hardest Thing", having grown up to be a Wrench Wench.
- D. W. from Arthur wears a pink jumper and is a Bratty Half-Pint.
- Big City Greens: Cricket only wears overalls with no shirt or shoes, establishing not only as being from the country but also as a rambunctious troublemaker.
- Caillou: In some episodes that take place when Caillou was three, he's occasionally seen wearing overalls, and he can still be a Bratty Half-Pint at his worst.
- Chuck's Choice: In "So Wrong Its Right", Chuck has a reality warp that all the tests he takes are easy. However in a case of Be Careful What You Wish For, all his tests are easy because he's sent back to kindergarten, where he's put to wearing shortalls due to his Kiddie Kid status.
- Fireman Sam:
- 1987 series: Sarah, who is implied to be the youngest of the three kids, wears pink dungarees.
- 2008 series: Lily, the youngest character at roughly two years old, wears light pink overalls. Meanwhile, Sarah has had her outfit updated to a vest and jeans, as she's matured into a more adventurous child, as well as being confirmed to be the older twin between her and James.
- The Get Along Gang: Bingo Beaver wears these with a red patch on one knee. He's a prankster and gambler whose betting often gets the gang in trouble, and the overalls also evoke the "blue collar worker" aspect as beavers are known for building dams.
- The Loud House:
- Lana is a rambunctious young Tomboy whose signature outfit includes overalls. She's the Wrench Wench who fixes the plumbing and electrics around the house, in addition to doing repairs on the family van.
- In the episode "One Of The Boys", Leif Loud (the male equivalent of Lana) wears overalls without a shirt underneath. Doesn't stop him from taking Lincoln's shirts, though.
- Muppet Babies (1984): Gonzo wears red overalls—they're short, evoking the look of a romper—and out of all of the babies, he's the weirdest. Not only is he not a recognizable animal or person, he's most of the time seen as a Cloudcuckoolander.
- Muppet Babies (2018):
- Gonzo, the strangest of the kids and the only one not a recognizable animal or person, has been updated to wear red overalls down to his ankles with a yellow T-shirt. Like all the kids, he's active and playful but stands out as the strangest.
- Rozzie Bear, Fozzie's adopted sister who is a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, wears pastel overalls. Her favorite toy is a dump truck and she's just as comfortable playing with the girls as she is with the boys.
- Baljeet Tjinder from Phineas and Ferb wears shortalls; he's slightly smaller than Phineas, is obsessed with good grades and math, and is a Bollywood Nerd.
- Postman Pat: In the earliest seasons, farm twins Katy and Tom Pottage wear matching blue overalls. In later appearances, after some Divergent Character Evolution, they instead wear regular shirts and jeans.
- Rosie's Rules: Rosie's Iconic Outfit is blue overalls which fits both her Constantly Curious and Genki Girl persona.
- Rugrats:
- These are the default outfits for Phil and Lil; Lil is wearing the jumper version, while Phil pairs his coverall top with Boyish Shorts underneath to simulate shortalls. They're a lot more wild and messy than Tommy and Chuckie and into Toilet Humor and gross things, including bugs and worms.
- In the series premiere, "Tommy's First Birthday", Tommy wears a red shirt with blue overalls for his birthday party. He's quickly established to have a naive, infant personality when he thinks eating dog food will turn him into a dog.
- The "trying to keep a baby dressed" variant occurs in "Naked Tommy"; Tommy, who has been stripping out of his clothes lately, is put into the Pickles Baby Suspenders (a Homemade Invention of his Bungling Inventor father Stu) to keep him dressed; they consist of a locking bib and corded straps that go around the diaper. Tommy breaks them and gets naked anyway during Grandpa's speech.
- The Simpsons: Bart and Lisa have broken their Limited Wardrobe to wear overalls on occasion, mostly for Down on the Farm-themed episodes. In flashbacks to when one or the other (or both) were toddlers Bart and/or Lisa are shown wearing overalls to show how young they are compared to the present.
- Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City: Lemon Meringue's outfit features overalls as part of her new characterization as a rough, hardworking inventor/mechanic.
- Molly Cunningham from TaleSpin is a six-year-old bear cub who wears blue overalls with her pink shirt. She is occasionally rambunctious and sometimes sneaks into the Sea Duck to join Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker on their adventures around the world. She also sometimes pretends to be Danger Woman, her favorite superheroine.
- Winston's Potty Chair: The titular Winston is a young toddler who wears a pair of light blue overalls with his white shirt. He is a very imaginative toddler who prior to finding out what his potty chair is used for, imagines it as many different things, such as a car seat, a jet ski, and a saddle. He has no trouble with undoing his overalls whenever he tries to use his potty.
