:first-child CSS pseudo-class

p {
 font-weight: bold;
}

li:first-child {
 border: 2px solid orange;
}

<p>Track &amp; field champions:</p>
<ul>
 <li>Adhemar da Silva</li>
 <li>Wang Junxia</li>
 <li>Wilma Rudolph</li>
 <li>Babe Didrikson-Zaharias</li>
 <li>Betty Cuthbert</li>
 <li>Fanny Blankers-Koen</li>
 <li>Florence Griffith-Joyner</li>
 <li>Irena Szewinska</li>
 <li>Jackie Joyner-Kersee</li>
 <li>Shirley Strickland</li>
 <li>Carl Lewis</li>
 <li>Emil Zatopek</li>
 <li>Haile Gebrselassie</li>
 <li>Jesse Owens</li>
 <li>Jim Thorpe</li>
 <li>Paavo Nurmi</li>
 <li>Sergei Bubka</li>
 <li>Usain Bolt</li>
</ul>

:first-child {
 /* ... */
}

<div>
 <p>This text is selected!</p>
 <p>This text isn't selected.</p>
</div>

<div>
 <h2>This text isn't selected: it's not a `p`.</h2>
 <p>This text isn't selected.</p>
</div>

p:first-child {
 color: lime;
 background-color: black;
 padding: 5px;
}

<ul>
 <li>Item 1</li>
 <li>Item 2</li>
 <li>
 Item 3
 <ul>
 <li>Item 3.1</li>
 <li>Item 3.2</li>
 <li>Item 3.3</li>
 </ul>
 </li>
</ul>

ul li {
 color: blue;
}

ul li:first-child {
 color: red;
 font-weight: bold;
}

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This page was last modified on Apr 17, 2026 by MDN contributors.