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What India’s Teens Are Hiding

  • Student Journalist
  • Jun 17
  • 3 min read

When Sanvi Hegde plays games at night, her room is silent except for the quiet tapping of her keyboard and the glow of a screen that lights up her face. She’s alert, strategizing a multiplayer mission with people from four different countries. It’s 2:13 AM, and while most of her classmates are asleep, Sanvi is fully awake, not cramming for an exam or revising math

formulas - but leading a global team in a digital world that, for her, feels more real than the one outside her door.


She does this in secret. Because if her parents knew, they’d ask her why she was “wasting time on a boy’s hobby.”


Sanvi’s story isn’t rare. In today’s India, many teenagers live double lives—balancing the version of themselves they show to their families with the version that feels most real to them. Whether it’s gaming, writing, queerness, mental health struggles, or even just wanting a different career path, teens across the country are hiding parts of who they are to survive in a culture that often prioritizes obedience and academic success over self-expression.


According to a 2021 study by Careers360, over 60% of Indian students aged 15–18 reported

feeling significant parental pressure when it came to choosing their careers. For many, this

pressure translates into a quiet suppression of dreams. A teenager who wants to become a

filmmaker chooses science instead. A boy who loves painting says he’s studying commerce. A girl like Sanvi deletes gaming apps before exams just to appear more serious.


“I’ve tried telling my mom that gaming isn’t just mindless,” Sanvi says.

“It’s teamwork, it’s problem-solving, and honestly? It’s where I feel most confident. But she just thinks it’s a waste. I’ve stopped trying to explain.”

Many teens learn early on that being honest about their passions, emotions, or mental health often leads to judgment, dismissal, or in some cases, punishment. A 2019 report by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) found that 70–90% of adolescents experiencing mental health issues do not seek help, largely due to stigma, fear of being misunderstood, or lack of family support.


For these teenagers, silence becomes survival.


Take Priya, 17, a Class 12 student in Mumbai. She loves to write late at night—stories, poems, sometimes entire chapters of fantasy novels. But she’s never shared them with anyone.

“My dad wants me to focus on engineering,” she says. “He says I can write after I get a job. But I don’t even know if I’ll have words left by then.”

This tendency to compartmentalize one’s identity—to perform the role of the “good child” while hiding real interests or emotions—can have long-term effects. Psychologists warn that sustained self-suppression can contribute to anxiety, depression, and a disconnection from one’s own desires.


“In therapy, I often meet teens who don’t even know what they like anymore,” says Dr. Aarti

Mishra, a clinical psychologist based in Pune.

“They’ve spent so long hiding who they are that they’ve lost touch with their actual selves. This is emotional invisibility.”

Yet, despite all this, Indian teens are resourceful. They find ways to carve out their identities in the margins—on private Instagram accounts, in anonymous Discord chats, in notes apps filled with poetry or playlists. Technology has become both an escape and a sanctuary.


But the need to hide still hurts. It chips away at the joy of being young and curious and weird and complicated. And it builds a quiet ache—the desire to be known, just as one is.


“Sometimes I wish I could just be honest,” Sanvi says, “Like tell my parents, ‘this is something I love.’ But I don’t think they’d get it. And honestly? I don’t want to disappoint them.”

The truth is, most teens don’t want to rebel. They want to be understood. They want to talk about their dreams without being laughed at. They want to admit when they’re sad without being told they’re overreacting. They want to be more than marks and medals. And for that to happen, society has to shift. Families need to listen more, judge less. Schools need to open up, not just tighten down.


Because behind every perfect student is a person. And they’re carrying entire worlds we never see.


Written by Mauli Darda

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

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