| abstract | - A common Fairy Tale situation. Whenever multiple siblings are portrayed, the youngest is the hero; the older ones are either evil or just boring. In a standard story template that often goes along with this, each child in turn receives instructions from a (usually magical) source on how to make their fortune; the older two ignore the advice and suffer the consequences, while the youngest one follows it and gets a happy ending. This child is often more foolish or weaker than his siblings -- The Runt At the End, in fact. Even if he isn't, the older children are prone to believe that he is. The youngest daughter is often the most beautiful or otherwise most desirable. In cultures where the daughters must be married off in order of age, this can really complicate life. However, if the older children are stepchildren, that usually trumps this trope; the younger children usually succeed only if they are not hostile to their half siblings. (When the children are stepsiblings, the hero is usually both the youngest and the stepchild.) Also, this trope usually applies to a set of all sisters or all brothers. "Hansel and Gretel" is perhaps the best known of the many tales where children of mixed-sex work well together. If there are several girls and one boy, he is the hero; if there are several boys and one girl, she is the hero. Indeed, in some tales, the older children do not feature as characters; their only purpose is to make the hero a youngest child. Usually when this occurs the number of children is numerologically significant: three, seven, or occasionally twelve. Often this carries undertones of underdog vindication, as in any setting in which inheritance occurs by primogeniture the youngest will naturally get the short end of the stick. Examples of Youngest Child Wins include:
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