+
upworthy
More

Celebrate National Middle Child Day with these 5 incredible facts.

Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, and Abraham Lincoln. They all have something surprising in common.

Bill Gates photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images. Kim Kardashian photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images. Abraham Lincoln photo via Alexander Gardner/Getty Images.


No, it's not a bizarre time-shifting reality show (which I'd totally watch, by the way).

They're all middle children.

GIF from "The Brady Bunch."

Not so fast, Jan! If Oreo cookies and the "Star Wars" films have taught us anything, it's that the middle is where you can find some of the best stuff.

In honor of Middle Child Day, here are five surprising facts about growing up a middle child.

1. Middle children stand for truth, justice, and even more justice.

According to Katrin Schumann, co-author of "The Secret Power of Middle Children," middles are justice-seekers. She said in Psychology Today that middle children "are focused on fairness; they perceive injustice in their family and are attuned to the needs of others as they grow up."

Middles also tend to be fiercely loyal and stick up for the underdog. No surprise, then, that Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela were all in-betweeners.


Like a 12-year-old at the mall, these middles loved justice. Susan B. Anthony photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. photo by Reg Lancaster/Express/Getty Images. Nelson Mandela photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

2. Middleborns tend to be more sex-positive.

Yes, your birth order can shed some light on your attitude toward sex. While firstborns tend to have the most sexual partners, middles are less judgmental of other people's sex lives. According to a recent study, they're more likely to try new things in the bedroom.

Yes, Mr. Sex Positivity himself, Dan Savage, is the third of four children. Coincidence? Maybe not. Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for The Webby Awards.

3. Need to strike a deal? Call a middle child.

Middle children grow up having to navigate complex family and sibling dynamics, which makes them top-notch negotiators. Dr. Frank Sulloway, author of "Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives," told Parents magazine: "Middle-borns are the most willing to wheel and deal. They are agreeable, diplomatic, and compromising."

It's no wonder 52% of U.S. presidents since 1787 were middle children.


John F. Kennedy, master negotiator and middle child. Photo via National Archive/Newsmakers.

4. Yes, middle children get less attention from their parents, but it comes with a hidden benefit.

Parents tend to place a lot of expectations on the firstborn, especially when it comes to academic and professional achievement. When parental attention gets divided among multiple children, middles tend to lose out. But that's not always a bad thing.

Catherine Salmon, Schumann's co-author, told NPR "In a certain way, they're free to find out what they really are good at on their own time and in their own way, and then excel at that."

In addition to being the second of three sisters, Jennifer Lopez is a singer, actress, dancer, TV star, and producer. Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for Kohl's.

5. And now, middle children are the subject of cutting-edge research.

But that's because experts are finally taking notice. In a 2010 review of over 200 birth-order studies, researchers found that "second-born children are largely ignored in the research literature." Ouch. Adding insult to injury, the research gap may have a lot to do with the fact that many of the researchers themselves are first-born.

Fair enough, Jan. You can be mad about this one. GIF still from "The Brady Bunch."

But any group that includes Chris Hemsworth, Warren Buffett, Barbara Walters, and Britney Spears has a lot to be happy about.

Rise up, middle children! Today is your day, you justice-seeking, sexually adventurous free spirits. Continue to make the world a wild and wonderful place.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less

A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

Keep ReadingShow less

A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

Keep ReadingShow less

An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

Keep ReadingShow less