glass child

English

Etymology

Popularized on TikTok in 2023.

Noun

glass child (plural glass children)

1. (neologism) A child who feels "invisible" to their parents due to having a sibling with a serious health condition or disability who occupies a disproportionate amount of their parents' attention.
   • 2023 March 23, Georgia Mooney, “Young people on TikTok are sharing what it means to be a glass child and their experiences”, in The Tab‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-05-29:

     On the other hand, TikTok users are sharing their guilt after learning their siblings were the glass child because of them.

   • 2023 September 30, Soo Kim, “I Was A 'Glass Child'—It Made Me an Anxious Adult”, in Newsweek‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Newsweek Publishing LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-17:

     Missud said the pressure that glass children put on themselves to "keep the peace, be overly self-sufficient and remain the unproblematic 'golden child'" can be extremely challenging to unlearn.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see glass,‎ child. (a child made of glass)
   • 2018 December 27, Aida Edemariam, “Roxane Gay: ’Public discourse rarely allows for nuance. And see where that’s gotten us’”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-15:

     There is a story in Roxane Gay's second collection of short fiction, Difficult Women, in which a big, strong man who works in a quarry goes for a walk on the beach and, seeing an extra glint in the sand, discovers a woman made of glass. He falls in love, marries her, they have a glass child.