UPDATED April 26, 2018
From Jan Brady to Malcolm in the Middle, the peanut butter of the child sandwich has always been portrayed as having unique crises and special problems. Middle children get a bad rap—they’re often stereotyped as the black sheep, overlooked by parents and overshadowed by older and younger siblings. But certain middle child personality traits give them special, badass hidden powers.
In celebration of Middle Child’s Day on August 12, we celebrate the Jans and the Malcolms for their fearlessness and sometimes edgy rebellion. For so long we’ve seen the characteristics of middle kids in a negative light, but as Katrin Schumann, co-author of The Secret Power of Middle Children, writes, “Contrary to expectations, middleborns are agents of change in business, politics, and science—more so than firstborns or lastborns.” To help you delve into the middle child personality, we’ve come up with 12 reasons middle children are total badasses.
