Meg Griffin, full name Megan Griffin, is the teenage daughter of Peter and Lois Griffin on Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane and first appearing in the pilot episode Death Has a Shadow, which aired January 31, 1999. Lacey Chabert voiced her in the first season; Mila Kunis took over with season two and has remained the voice since. She is the older sister of Chris and Stewie and, in the early seasons, an ordinary insecure high-school girl who is embarrassed by her family, angling for the popular crowd at James Woods Regional High School, and more often the embarrassed witness to Peter’s schemes than their target. A running gag has Peter altering her birth certificate to Megatron, one of many small humiliations that start as background and later become the point.

After the show’s return from cancellation, the writing shifts her into the family’s scapegoat. Peter, Lois, Chris, and much of Quahog bully her for sport, the catchphrase “shut up, Meg” hardens into a pattern, and episodes treat her social failure and plain appearance as the joke rather than the setup. That treatment is the main development of the character for many seasons: a girl who keeps taking odd jobs, keeps trying to date, and keeps being shoved back to the margin. Occasional episodes break the pattern. In Peter’s Sister she recognizes that Peter’s abusive aunt shaped the way he treats her, and Peter briefly apologizes. Better Off Meg lets her leave town under a mistaken death and try on another life. Other later episodes give her a biathlon berth, a real friendship, or a moment of competence the family has refused to notice.

She never fully escapes the punching-bag role, and the series has been open about using her that way. What changes over time is how often the show lets her answer back, leave, or be good at something before the status quo returns. From the 1999 premiere through the long post-revival run, Meg stays the Griffin most aware that her family is cruel, and the one the writers most often punish for noticing.