The oldest daughter discourse. Dun dun duuuun.
As an oldest daughter myself, I have mixed feelings on the onslaught of “oldest daughter” memes, articles, and psychoanalysis that has pervaded the internet over the past few years. Do I relate to a lot of it? Absolutely. Do I relate to all of it? No.
I wonder if this deluge came about because all of us oldest daughters collectively snapped during the pandemic, when our “take care of everyone else and not yourself” tendencies got pushed to the limit and we could rant about it on TikTok. For me, I started exploring this topic when I was contemplating doing the absolute unthinkable for an oldest daughter: moving far away from my parents. It didn’t matter that my younger sister had moved far away from home at age 18; the voices in my head berated me for being so selfish and so irresponsible for “abandoning” my parents and my entire extended family to move to my husband’s hometown. (My parents were supportive, but I was wrestling with my own feelings about this change.)
Once I was exposed to oldest daughter content, I started paying closer attention to how they were portrayed in media. Today, I’m sharing some oldest daughter characters that I have found the most compelling. Disclaimer: This is not a list of the best oldest daughter characters in fiction, just the ones that have meant the most to me personally. Sorry Meg March stans, we’re Team Beth in this house.

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