No, that is not how she is. I'm sure you mean well, but I have a selective mutism specialist working with her who would not agree that she is self-aggrandizing. She has been this way since infancy.

No. Some kids do teach themselves how to read. They even, sometimes, teach themselves from cereal boxes and street signs because their minds are hungry for writing and their parents are indifferent and don't have books around.

That's the truth. I tell my son when he is doing a good job, but I also point out what things are special about his peers, what gifts and talents they have, or how much effort they put in. That's something we want children to learn- to be less self involved and think more about other people.

I was taught at a young age that I was special, and that not only was I special, but so was everyone else. Telling children that they are special is not the issue. The issue is not showing them the ways that everyone else is special.

This is hard for me. I definitely suffer from the failure-related anxiety, but I don't think it was a result of thinking I was really smart - more from thinking that I'm not when my logical brain knows I'm no idiot. So actually I feel like for me that if I had been told more that I could do things, I might have…

I heard a lot about responsibility, to the point of it also almost becoming a complex. Teachers and other adults kind of had a tendency to take advantage of younger me's reliability**. A little would probably be good, though! I didn't hear as much about kindness, but I imagine praising it wouldn't hurt. Beyond that, I…

For really real though? Some kids really are gifted. Some kids really are more intelligent than the others. In the school board I grew up in, all kids get tested with the same test in public school regardless of demographic and gifted classes happen or don't regardless of parental pushing or how much they believe their…

I was a "gifted" child. I started reading when I was two, playing piano when I was three, and was writing music and taking voice and piano lessons when I was six. And while my parents were very encouraging, they never made me out to be better than any other kid. I would say my teachers were more detrimental to my…

You know what's worse, never telling your child their special and have them live their life in a perpetual state of feeling like their not good enough. Whilst these omg I'm so special kids are annoying I'm pretty sure they're a hell of a lot happier than those of us who live the other side of the coin.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, OCD (hoarding), depression

I'm guessing Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I feel your feels. I don't know why, but I have a deep, visceral dislike for frosted pink lipstick. And its not like I have hatred against pink because my wardrobe looks like Barbie and Betsey Johnson got wasted on (pink) moscato and had an orgy. For some reason this color is always called "blow-job pink" in my head…

Armchair from me: I think Little Edie had the larger "actual" mental illness, and I'd say delusional disorder along with some sort of low social IQ. There's something oddly too childlike about her.

I wouldn't know, but their relationship seems to come straight out of The Drama of the Gifted Child, by psychologist Alice Miller, about (emotional) parental child abuse.

I'm glad you escaped.

I am distantly related to these people, though through the line without money or influence, but through the line that carries these particular mental disorders. I barely just escaped being "Little Edie'd" by my mother, and she still managed to steal a good part of my life. The documentary is more like a horror film…

I can't fully judge the camp thing because the Beales were funny, odd and entertaining. But as with most camp, there's a dark and dismal edge there that a lot of people (like you and I) have a hard time with.

Totally. It's, like, the number one way to look like you have a mustache when you don't really.

Omg saaaaaame. Those plain white frames they do are the bomb.

I was a bride. I planned a big(ish) wedding. I changed my (already pretty intense, because I love that sort of thing) workout routine to focus on arms, shoulders and back given my dress. I felt good about all of it and in no small part I chalk that up to 100% avoiding The Knot entirely as I went through my wedding…