Dictionary

glass child en · NOUN

Etymology

Popularized on TikTok in 2023.

Meanings

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.
   • On the other hand, TikTok users are sharing their guilt after learning their siblings were the glass child because of them. 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, archived from the original on 29 May 2023:
   • 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. 2023 September 30, Soo Kim, “I Was A 'Glass Child'—It Made Me an Anxious Adult”, in Newsweek, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek Publishing LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2023:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see glass, child. (a child made of glass)
   • 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. 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, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Oct 2023:

Forms