The three young boys couldn't be more different. And it comes across in their sometimes-shaky video and refreshing openness in the first episode of a new TLC series as they take viewers on a tour of their homes, introduce their parents, show where they play.
Joshua, 7, lives in Baltimore; Marc, 7, is from Monterey Park, and Cole, 8, calls Los Angeles home. They are three of 20 children given digital video cameras to document who they are in “My Life as a Child.” They were chosen from more than 400 who responded to TLC's request this time last year for children ages 7 to 12 to submit videos.
Josh lives with his mother and younger sister in an area that, he confides to the camera, is “not that much of a good neighborhood . . . I cry myself to sleep. I hear the gunshots, and it scares me.”
He lives during the week with his grandmother so he can go to a school in her neighborhood, and you see him happily reunite with his mom for weekends.
Marc is a remarkably disciplined prodigy whose dream is to become a concert pianist. Through weekly lessons and six-to-eight-hour daily practice sessions, he strives to improve.
TV DATEBOOK
"My Life As a Child"
Children ages 7 to 12 use cameras to document their lives.
7 p.m. Monday, TLC
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“I want to learn how to make every phrase, every note, so it hurts because it's so wonderful,” he says.
But his video also catches tender moments with his mom and goofing off with his piano teacher.
Cole talks matter-of-factly about being disabled: “It means doing everything but that one thing that makes you disabled. For me, it's not being able to walk . . . and that's sad.”
But that doesn't stop him from taking karate lessons and challenging himself.
There are five more episodes in the series, produced by BBC Productions, which TLC calls its first “user-generated” program. The children taped themselves for about four months.
Future episodes will include, 11-year-old Miashanti, the only girl in her local football league, and 10-year-old African-American Lisetanne, whose take on race is shaped by the relationship with her Caucasian adoptive mother.
They and other stars of the series will discuss their experiences at www.tlc.com and offer tips on how to make their own videos.
