It's not every day that you hit a Unicorn in the face with a rock...
Ghosts. Aliens. Fairies. Santa Claus. Entrances to other worlds. Be it magical or advanced life forms, for whatever reason, the youngest person in the group seems to be the first to see it. This trope can be played for lighthearted works, but it has equal, and just as potent, uses for more sinister stories.
The force in question needn't necessarily appear to the adults in the story, but they must appear to the youngest member of the group first, and then subsequently appear to older members. Adults who do learn the truth may be amazed, or horrified, to learn that what their child was telling them was Real After All.
If the supernatural or otherworldly force only appears to one person, then it is not this trope, even if that person is the youngest.
Compare Invisible to Adults, where an otherworldly being can only appear to the young. Also compare Children Are Special. In stories about a family with multiple children, this trope easily overlaps with Youngest Child Wins, at least in more light-hearted works. For good or ill, there can be overlap with Not-So-Imaginary Friend.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Flying Witch: Zig-zagged. While Chinatsu is the first to witness any actual act of magic from her cousin, Makoto, the rest of the family already knew of her "witch" status.
- My Neighbor Totoro: The titular spirit appears to Mei, the youngest child, first. He reveals himself to her older sister, Satsuki, later. Though their parents never actually see Totoro, they see enough hints that they don't doubt his existence by the story's end.
- Haruhi Suzumiya: Zig-zagged due to Timey-Wimey Ball. Haruhi met "John Smith" (actually Kyon), when she was only twelve. But this was after Kyon had met time-travelers, ESPers, and aliens, as well as being told that Haruhi was a Physical God, albeit an unaware one...three years in the future.
- Ponyo does this twice over. Sosuke is the first person to encounter the titular Ponyo, a rather unconventional mermaid. On the flip-side, for Ponyo thinks of the surface world as a magical place, and she is the youngest of her sisters. Both sides quickly learn of the existence of the other when Ponyo decides to try and stay in the surface world.
- Sailor Moon: Helios visits the Kid from the Future Chibiusa first when Queen Nehelenia takes over the realm he's from, Elysion, and turns it into a desolate wasteland.
Comic Books
- Fantastic Four: In the build-up to the Onslaught story, Franklin Richards was visited by his "imaginary friend", Charlie. Charlie was a manifestation of Onslaught, who was, initially, gestating in the brain and body of Charles Xavier. Eventually, the entire Marvel Universe would be reeling from just how real he was.
- Bode Locke of Locke & Key is the youngest child of the Locke family and is the first and only one to find any new keys hidden around the property. This is revealed in supplementary materials to have been invoked by an ally of the Locke family in the past. He enchanted the front door of the Locke house with a Weirdness Censor that veils knowledge of the keys from adults to keep them from exploiting the power of the keys.
Comic Strips
- Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Nine-year-old Phoebe Howell is the first person to meet Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, an honest to goodness Unicorn, but she quickly introduces the magnificent (just ask Marigold) Unicorn to her classmates (and presumably the teacher as well, as it was during Show and Tell), and her parents (Dad wonders if Marigold is housebroken, while Mom tells Marigold she simply has to paint her, though Marigold is curious as to which color).
Films — Live-Action
- Beetlejuice: When the Maitlands, as ghosts, try to drive out the new family that has moved into their home, and begun remodeling it, the only person who is initially aware of their presence is teen daughter Lydia. Before too long, though, everyone is aware of the ghosts in the house, especially after a Calypso-inspired dance number via possession.
- In Casper, even though the Whipstaff Manor was rumoured to be haunted from the get-go and characters occasionally experienced weird stuff in there (such as being Covered in Gunge or having their head reversed) the first person to actually see the ghosts is Kat, a teenage girl. It doesn't take long for her father to learn the truth, though.
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Barry Guiler is the first person to actually see the aliens in the film, though a select few are quickly made aware of their presence. Barry is also clearly unafraid of the extraterrestrial beings, while others who see their presence are initially terrified of the unknown. Fortunately, the aliens turn out to be benevolent.
- Dark Skies: Zig-zagged. The film makes it seem like the youngest son is the target of the aliens, until the older son, Jesse is abducted. However, when his mother goes through his older drawings, she finds sketches of the aliens by Jesse from when he was an only child, and therefore the youngest when the visitations began.
- Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Eight-year-old Sally is the first to be made aware of the existence of the "tooth fairies" living in the Blackwood house. However, before long, her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim learn the reality of their existence. These Tooth Fairies, though, are not benevolent creatures, and try to abduct Sally. Kim saves her, but at the cost of her own humanity, as the tooth fairies seize her and transform her into one of their own.
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Phoebe, who is only twelve, is the first to experience any hint of supernatural activity when her family moves to Summerville the ghost of her grandfather, Egon Spengler, trying to reach out. Before the film is over, she has joined forces with her older brother, Trevor, the girl he's attracted to, Lucky, a classmate, "Podcast", her mother, Callie, and the surviving original Ghostbusters to battle none other than Gozer the Gozerian.
- Pete's Dragon (1977): Elliot is a dragon who only appears to the young Pete, until the climax of the film, when Pete's adoptive family are in a crisis, and Elliot manifests himself before them all in order to help.
- Poltergeist (1982): Carol Anne Freeling is the first to encounter the mysterious presence in their new home. However, events move swiftly to reveal that the poltergeists are quite real, especially after Carol Anne is abducted by the spirits.
- SHAZAM! (2019): Thaddeus Sivana is the youngest member of the Sivana family. As a child, he was transported to the Rock of Eternity, where he met the Wizard Shazam, and was declared unworthy of possessing the power. He is able, years later, to return to the Rock of Eternity, seize the power of the Seven Deadly Sins for himself, and then demonstrate to his father and older brother that his claims of supernatural events were quite real...to their detriment.
Literature
- The Boogieman, a short story by Stephen King, has the narrator tell a psychiatrist about how his three children were all terrorized and subsequently killed by the eponymous Boogieman. The narrator noted that he began seeing signs that his children actually saw the creature. They move houses, and lose the Boogieman for a bit. But then the creature finds them after the third child is born. The wife leaves town for a family emergency, and the narrator, to save his own skin when he learns the Boogieman is real, puts his son in a separate room. The child dies, and the narrator's wife realizes that her husband sacrificed their son to save himself, and subsequently leaves him. Then the narrator learns that the psychiatrist is actually the Boogieman.
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the group, discover the path to Narnia first. Edmund, the next youngest, also learns of Narnia's existence, but having fallen under the influence of the White Witch, lies and tells Susan and Peter that it was merely a game the two played. The Professor who has taken them in (and whom we later learn has good reason to believe Lucy) points out to Peter and Susan that if Lucy is the one who has a history of honesty, and Edmund is noted for being the more mischievous of the pair, then why are they doubting Lucy? This prompts them to enter the wardrobe with Lucy and Edmund, and learn the truth for themselves.
- A Wrinkle in Time: Charles Wallace is the youngest of the Murry children, and the first to meet Mrs. Whatsit and her friends, having chased the family dog onto their property. It isn't long before the rest of his family meets them. And it isn't much longer after that that the Mrs. Ws are whisking them off on an interstellar adventure to rescue their father from the planet Camazotz.
Live-Action TV
- Series 5 of Doctor Who plays with this. Amelia Pond as a young girl is the first person to encounter the latest incarnation of The Doctor (MattSmith's very quirky Eleven). She spent the next twelve years, and four psychiatrists (she kept biting them) with people trying to convince her it was all just a dream that she had. But she's vindicated when The Doctor reenters her life (for him it was a five minute jump). In short order, all of Leadworth learns that The Doctor is very real.
Western Animation
- The Real Ghostbusters: A horrifying aspect of some of the Ghostbuster's foes.
- Zig-zagged. This is the modus operandi of the eponymous character of "The Grundel". It seeks out young children, encourages them to do bad things, which causes them to transform into Grundels themselves. Usually, by the time anyone else in the family has any suspicion of anything going wrong, it's too late, and the child is forever transformed into a Grundel. The Ghostbusters learn that Alec is being corrupted by a Grundel from his brother, Lee. However, while they've never encountered one before, the Ghostbusters already know of the existence of creatures like the Grundel.
- "The Boogieman Cometh". The Boogieman targets young children to terrify, feeding on their fear. Typically, their parents don't believe the children about his existence. But when the Carter children tell the Ghostbusters, Egon, a past victim of the Boogieman, agrees to investigate. By the time the Ghostbusters are done, the Carter parents are just in time to see the 'Busters finish off the Boogieman, at which point they believe their kids.
