Meanwhile, I did some research, and it seems that, at least on r.a.c.s., the people who thought under-twelve Aypo's behavior was just fine, are the same people who thought the Martian Creature deserved every smackdown she got and more. I don't know how far back the Yahoo group goes, but I remember bringing this up with them before I was blocked, and it seemed they had been okay with Aypo back in the day, while more recently despising the Martian Creature.
Someone on this blog once said, during the whole Creature in the Basement/TTH sequence, that Lynn and KAN's attitude towards April illustrated "society's utter contempt for teenage girls." And Liz's role in the strip, after April's birth and before Liz's departure for uni, would seem to bear that out. Nizzie was held responsible for her actions. She wasn't punished harshly, but the message was clear and direct that she shouldn't have done whatever it was, and she was responsible for the action and consequences. Whereas I only recall one instance of April being punished. (During the Sockhead sequence, she used Liz's bra as a slingshot. And even then, Elly was insensible with giggles before she laid down the law.) Many times, Elly skipped over April and demanded to know how LIZ could have let whatever it was happen.
In a way, it almost sucks more for Liz, because both she and April were teen girls prioritized dead last by their family, but Liz didn't have the luxury of first being the under-twelve who got everything her way. OTOH, since she was one of the ones dumping on the Martian, I can't feel too sorry for her. Point is, though, many readers thought then that Liz was out of line, and many of them are the same ones who thought April was "having a year-long pity party for herself." I can understand if Lynn was thinking "Teenage girls get dramatic over anything, everything and nothing," but in both cases, it was not NOTHING that they were getting upset about. And I've never gotten a response, either on Yahoo or r.a.c.s., about what would have been an acceptable reaction from April during the Housening. I guess she just wasn't supposed to react at all. And I'm certain that if it had happened when she was 6 or 8 or 10, and she'd reacted negatively, KAN would have choked Lynn's (pre-Coffee Talk) inbox with demands to know why Elly and John were doing this terrible thing to April.