Glass Children & Parentification: How Childhood Cancer Shaped Two Sisters’ Lives
Description
In this episode of Trauma Candy Salad, we take our first trip outside the studio to The Glitter Factory to sit down with sisters Britney and Madison for a deeply honest conversation about growing up as parentified glass children.
When their baby brother was diagnosed with a very rare childhood cancer, Britney and Madison were still kids themselves—yet suddenly expected to be strong, self-sufficient, and emotionally invisible while helping care for him and their two younger siblings. In this episode, they unpack how parentification, sibling illness, and medical trauma shaped their childhood, their identities, and the way they move through adulthood today.
We talk about what it means to be a glass child, how family dynamics change when survival becomes the priority, and why so many siblings of medically complex children grow up feeling unseen. This conversation is tender, validating, and a reminder that trauma doesn’t always come from what happened to you—but from what you were never allowed to need.
✨ Recorded on location at The Glitter Factory
🍬 Candy included, obviously
Content note: childhood illness, medical trauma, parentification
United States
