The Infanta Sofia is already 18 years old. The photos shared by the Royal Household show her smiling, in a relaxed environment, and with that youthful air that she still retains.
However, the transition to adulthood, for someone who grows up within an institution such as the monarchy, comes with a burden that goes far beyond the symbolic.
Infanta Sofia under royal pressure?
While everyone is commenting on her new look or her upcoming university studies, the portal Semana spoke with psychologist Lara Ferreiro, who has put the focus on something less visible.
According to Ferreiro, coming of age as the youngest daughter of the kings is not as easy as it seems.
The psychologist talks about something that is rarely mentioned in public. Growing up next to a sister destined to be queen, like Leonor, can awaken a silent struggle to find a place of one’s own.
It’s not a matter of jealousy or enmity, she says. It’s a question of expectations. Because while one receives all the institutional attention, the other may feel in the background, even if family affection is present.
This emotional imbalance, if not addressed, could leave its mark over time, the expert points out.
Sofia, by all accounts, has learned to move carefully. Ferreiro believes that she has been able to modulate her way of being so as not to clash, especially with her mother, Queen Letizia.
That effort to fit in can become a source of insecurity or, on the contrary, lead to a more distant attitude in adulthood.
The relationship with his father seems to have been different. According to the psychologist, Felipe VI would have been a more flexible and closer figure for Sofia, someone who represents the unconditional affection that so many daughters seek in their father. And that, in her case, could have been an important support.
But there is another element that weighs. Living with the knowledge that any gesture, phrase or choice can become a headline forces you to develop a kind of permanent emotional radar.
That constant tension, says Ferreiro, can end in anxiety, isolation or a deep need to protect one’s private life at all costs.
Turning 18 means freedom for most young people. In her case, that freedom is conditioned.
Institutional commitments, protocols, media pressure and family decisions will mark every step. And that friction between what they want and what they should do can lead to what the expert defines as “emotional dissonance”.
Ferreiro offers a final piece of advice. She recommends Sofia to keep those emotional refuges that have nothing to do with her degree. Hobbies, sincere friends, intimate spaces that remind her that before being Infanta, she is a person.