Fairy tales inform us about the social representations concerning the issues at stake in psychic development, as a privileged site of the messages of adults to children. From my experience of a therapeutic group based on Grimm’s fairy tales, it is possible to distinguish fairy tales for girls from those for boys. In fairy tales for girls the theme of envy between mother and daughter seems primordial. The tale of the Juniper Tree is taken as an example. While envy, in keeping with Melanie Klein’s assertions, is inherent to the development of both sexes, its role in girls seems much more fundamental in the process of becoming a woman and becoming a mother. Envy concerns the creative capacities of the mother. It belongs initially to the narcissistic register, that of narcissistic seduction and of the ante-Oedipus. Its vicissitudes will be different in girls and boys, girls remaining threatened by regression and incestuous non-differentiation.