 <p>Either make the selector more specific: </p> <pre><code>ul li ul li:first-child{background-color:transparent} </code></pre> <p>Or add a class to the UL And select the first child there:</p> <pre><code>ul.nested li:first-child{background-color: #fff;} ... &lt;li&gt;one &lt;ul class="nested"&gt; &lt;li&gt;two&lt;/li&gt; ... </code></pre> <p><a href="http://jsfiddle.net/Kyle_Sevenoaks/fX9Gy/15/" rel="nofollow">http://jsfiddle.net/Kyle_Sevenoaks/fX9Gy/15/</a></p>