Young people on TikTok are sharing what it means to be a glass child and their experiences

‘Did you get enough love, my little love?’

2 years ago

This new TikTok trend is seeing people sharing their experiences of glass child syndrome and when they felt invisible during their childhood. Here’s an explanation of the trend that has over 58 million views and millions of likes on TikTok.

What is a glass child?

The term itself has been spoken about in the media for over 10 years. Back in 2010 Alicia Maples gave a Ted Talks on her experience of being a glass child and having grown up with a sibling that has autism.

To break it down, a glass child is the sibling of a child who has disabilities. Although glass suggests something which breaks easily, it’s actually to do with the fact that the kid is see through. It represents caregivers who see straight through the child and don’t meet their needs due to the focus given and attention being on their sibling.

@healingwithrose555

#glasschild

♬ som original – ju

“Did you get enough love, my little love?” is the audio which accompanies many of the videos created by people explaining how the trend relates to them.

Since the trend started to circulate on TikTok, there have been millions of views on the hashtag. One person posted a video describing how as a six-year-old she was with the “20th babysitter who was available and hardly knows your name,” while her mum was gone all day with her brother to the hospital and her dad slept all day because he spends nights at the hospital with her brother.

@demonbutter666

My fyp loves to hurt me lol #glasschildsyndrome #glasschild

♬ som original – ju

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

A few glass child siblings say they don’t feel sadness about it because they didn’t get attention but “also I don’t have literal cancer,” @umcasey said.