Basic Trope: Children get supernatural bonuses, such as seeing supernatural creatures, that adults don't.
- Straight: All children can see fairies, but they stop being able to see them at either puberty or age thirteen (whichever comes first).
- Exaggerated: Children can see fairies, talk to animals, go to other dimensions, be visited by Things That Go "Bump" in the Night and protected from them by fairies, and are immune to certain diseases. Once they hit thirteen, however, these perks just vanish without a trace and the teen has no memory of them.
- Downplayed:
- Fairies can only be seen by people who believe in them, but it's usually kids who believe.
- Adults can experience some supernatural things, but children can experience more.
- Fairies can be seen by anyone, but they only grant wishes to kids.
- Justified:
- Fairies want to keep their existence a secret, but they still want to communicate with humans to some extent. They decide to only show themselves to human children, since children often tell wild imaginary stories, so if a child told their parents that they saw fairies, the parents would chalk it up to a fantasy.
- Fairies are afraid of being hurt by humans, but they feel that Children Are Innocent and thus won't hurt them.
- Inverted: Only teens and adults can see fairies.
- Subverted: Little Alice can see the fairies while her parents can't, but then it turns out to be due to her belief in them rather than her age.
- Double Subverted: They still can't grant wishes to adults though.
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged: Only children can see fairies but they protect whoever knows of their existence, everyone can talk to animals, access to other dimensions is determined by who believes in them which is most often children, monsters hide under the beds of children and teens, but not adults, and magical diseases can only infect children.
- Averted: Fairies either don't exist, or can be seen by anyone.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Why do kids get all the supernatural stuff?!"
- Invoked: Fairies deliberately make themselves invisible to adult humans.
- Exploited: Malevolent creatures frequently hurt and torment children, since they know that they likely won't be caught.
- Defied: Fairies decide to show themselves to all humans, regardless of age.
- Discussed: "So, can grown-ups see you guys too, or is it only kids?"
- Conversed: "Man, pubersure is a raw deal in fantasy stories."
- Implied: Only children are seen interacting with fairies.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Alice, a human girl, doesn't want to grow up because her best friend is a fairy.
- Played for Horror: Monsters really do live under children's beds, but since adults can't see them, they don't know why children keep dying or disappearing.
Back to Children Are Special.
