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With siblings, there’s usually the responsible older child, the gets-away-with-everything younger child, and then… there’s the middle child. Born too late to be the first born and too early to be the baby of the family, middle children often get stuck in a kind of limbo – loved but… forgotten or ignored, no matter how much they might try to make themselves an equal part of the family. Being the middle child can lead to one becoming a bit of a black sheep, their outcast nature at home bleeding out into the rest of their life. Many middle children on screen are actually the geniuses of their families (a surprisingly pervasive subtrope!) And, even given all of their struggles in childhood, middle children can actually have a good shot at ending up the most well adjusted adults out of their siblings. It’s time to give middle children their moment in the spotlight – so let’s unpack this trope!

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