I bought a switch for my girlfriend for Christmas because she really wanted to play animal crossing. She had to leave for work before she could try it, so I did the testing. Made an island and everything. She joined as a second player later and that's when we realized you can only have one island per switch. Thats fine, no biggie, but now it seems like that certain upgrades or progress objectives are being handed to me (as the island creator) only.

For instance she couldn't donate insects to the npc. She didn't have the option. I did get that mission before she could speak with the npc so I assumed it is a one time thing for one user, but now she also had no option to donate the 30 woods and iron to set up the shop at all. I can't actually recall if I picked that mission up somehow or not, maybe I did.

So hence my question before she really progresses that far into the game because I don't plan on playing that much on it: Is there a distinction between the first and the second player? Like the first is considered to be the main player and only they can progress certain key objectives, or the whole thing was just unlucky for her and I simply talked to the npcs first and the game handles it as a mission for only the player who picked it up?

Basically I want her to be able to progress on her own without having to wait for me to do certain key things, and it would be better if she started a new island now before we progress further.