Burnt Out at Sixteen: The Silent Struggles of India’s ‘Perfect’ Teenagers

In the heart of India, high-achieving teens like Isha appear flawless. But beneath the

medals and merit certificates lies a crisis of identity, pressure, and quiet desperation.

16-year-old Isha looks in the mirror. She looks haggard-her hair falling out of her ponytail

with shadows under her eyes. Without turning around, she says, “There’s just too much on

my plate. I don’t want to let anyone down but I can’t handle everything.”

Let’s rewind. Isha is just a normal school-going teenager in urban Bangalore. In the chic

neighbourhood of Indiranagar, she is the golden child. Good at studies, good at sports,

weekend volunteering, she seems perfect to everyone who sees her. She governs her life

strictly, never straying from her timetable and never letting in any distractions. She works

hard to be the best, the first, the finest. This is not the ego trip you think it is. This is the

greatness born out of necessity.

Imagine a childhood where every conversation turns itself to the Ivy Leagues. You are

groomed to perform and your friends see their social circle as competition. You, yourself,

start forcing and pushing your limits. This life is what Isha faces.

Let’s see what a normal day in her life looks like.

At 5 AM she gets up to go to her sports coaching. Then, she has her school for 7 hours. Although she is too bright for tuitions, career counselling and grooming take that place. To ‘balance her left and right brain’, she goes for music classes as well. She also does dance classes for an hour. At night, exhausted, she struggles to finish up with her homework. Her weekends are filled with volunteer/charity work. And it repeats - a never-ending vicious cycle that starts from pressure and ends with pressure.

There is no place for indulgence. No fun, no me-time. Nothing that is just hers. She goes to

dance because her mother used to love it. Her music classes are because of her dad’s unrequited rockstar dreams. Her other activities are to stay ahead of a surge of up-and-

coming friends. Her parents pressurise her to live THEIR unfulfilled desires. She has no life of her own.

But under that perfect façade, the cracks start to show. When asked about her busy life she

sighed and said,

“I don’t even know why I do most of these things anymore,” eyes fixed on the floor. “I just... have to.”

And yet, as the spark dims, people wonder aloud:

“She was such a lively child. What happened?”

What happened is this—many of India’s youth are growing up without ever truly living. They are moving through life like robots, checking boxes, driven by fear of failure and a desperate need to make others proud. In this transitional period between the old way of life and the new-age, fragile India, millions of teenagers like her are lost as to how to live their lives on their own terms.

Let’s move to some numbers. 75% of high school students and 50% of middle schoolers

consistently feel stressed due to high workloads. Among the 15 to 24-year-olds in India, one

out of seven often feels depressed or has little interest in doing things. Aren’t these numbers

quite shocking? The typical Indian society stifles us and our ambitions and forces us into

things that don’t capture our interest. Why? For the sake of getting into a good college? What is the point of getting into a good college if you lose yourself along the way?

The Need for Change

It’s time we ask ourselves: What is the cost of our definition of success?

Does admission into a top college matter if one loses their joy, confidence, and mental health in the process? What is the point of preparing a teenager for the future if they are too broken to enjoy it?

The societal script that glorifies overachievement and dismisses burnout must change.

We must stop assuming that just because a teenager is “capable,” they are invincible. They

are not.

A Message to Parents, Educators, and Teens

To parents: Your children are more than your second chance at a dream. Let them explore.

Let them fail. Let them rest.

To educators: Value creativity, curiosity, and emotional intelligence—not just grades and

rankings.

To every teenager out there:

You are enough.

You are not defined by your marks, your trophies, or your college acceptance letters.

You are not a project. You are a person—with the right to dream your own dreams.

Written by Myra Kanshal

Myra wrote this article as a participant of the Media-Makers Fellowship's May'25 cohort.