
The glass child: Learning to live for you (with Alicia Meneses Maples)
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About this listen
What happens to the child who’s always told to “be good” while all the attention goes to their sibling? They grow up invisible. They become the Glass Child.
In the third and final episode of our Parentification Series, I talk with TEDx speaker Alicia Meneses Maples, who coined the term glass child, about what it’s really like to be the sibling who carries the burden quietly. We go deep into:
The crushing pressure of being “the good kid”
Parents leaning on you like their therapist
The silence and shame of having no space for your own emotions
How it all shows up later in toxic relationships and burnout
And what healing, boundaries, and acceptance actually look like
If you’ve ever felt unseen in your own family, this one will hit home.
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🎙Guest speaker: Alicia Meneses Maples
Related content:
Alicia’s TEDx on recognizing the “Glass Child”
“The parentified child: Why they’re often the eldest daughter”