More than 60 years ago, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, the world celebrated him as a hero. Overnight, he transformed from a person into a symbol, an icon of achievement whose smile was plastered across newspapers. But behind that image was a man whose private fears, flaws and exhaustion were rarely recognized.

On a smaller scale, senior Zaina Khan, who said she usually gets labeled as a “high achiever,” said labels often obscure far more than they reveal.

“I don’t know if I’d really call myself a high-achieving student,” she said. “Any label can’t really encompass who a person is entirely. Not to say that being seen as high-achieving is necessarily bad but it may be pressuring if that is seen as someone’s entire ‘identity.’”

The Pressure of an Image

Many of these labels start innocently from friends or parents. However, according to the National Institute of Health, when parents’ academic expectations surpass their children’s, the resulting pressure can impair cognition and raise the risk of depression. 

For many students, like Khan, achievement brings a reputation, and with it, expectations that cling tightly.

“It’s kind of like the reputation that comes with being a hardworking student,” Khan said. “The second people hear that I got below an A- on a test or that I didn’t do well at some competition, it’s like someone out there is talking about it. I know none of it comes from ill will, though it’s just a bit shocking, maybe even reassuring for others like, ‘Oh, even high-achieving students don’t always do well.’”

But the real pressure, she said, doesn’t come from peers. It comes from herself. For Khan, that self-imposed bar, she said, is often far higher and far harsher than anything her teachers or classmates set for her.

“Missing a single point on a micro(economics) test when I’ve yet to miss a point in that class makes me feel like I can’t sleep at night,” she said. “It isn’t like anyone is telling me that missing one point will make me less successful in their eyes; it’s just my own perception of myself.”

Khan said college applications amplify this stress.

“It feels like I need to start defining my achievements like something from a résumé,” she said. “Are my awards better than theirs? Do my extracurriculars have more impact? It’s draining.”

Even so, she said she tries to maintain her own definition of success.

“I think I’m successful if people can hear my name and a smile comes to their face,” she said. “I think I’d like people’s expectations to not just be that I do well in class, but maybe that they hold me to high moral standards too.”

When Achievement Becomes Identity

School psychologist Kymberle Roberts said the experience Khan described is far from unusual.

“Self-worth based on achievement is an ageless phenomenon,” Roberts said. “It’s seen as much in the workplace as it is during formal education.”

 But at competitive schools—especially one the size and scale of Carmel—this pressure can intensify.

“When the class average is 95%, even a strong B+ can feel like failure,” Roberts said. “Some students internalize community expectations, interpreting them as personal requirements.”

Roberts said that pressure makes vulnerability difficult. This is an issue often seen in schools such as Carmel, which has a particular sense of prestige attached to the name, often worsening the emotional strain.

“Cultural standards seem to play a major role in fueling perfectionism. Once individuals meet high expectations or receive public recognition, they often feel compelled to maintain that level of success,” Roberts said. “Culture celebrates the polished end result: the award, the highlight reel, the headline. What remains hidden are the years of struggle, practice and failure that make those achievements possible.”

This cycle existed even for historic figures. After Gagarin became the first human in space, the world viewed him as the pinnacle of Soviet achievement. However, that level of recognition also confined him. According to the book “Into the Cosmos,” the pressure to remain perfect and to always embody the heroic ideal took a tremendous personal toll on Gagarin. The same psychology applies to students who feel they must live up to an image others have created for them.

With that in mind, some students, like junior Alex Tichindelean, said his academic drive found a way to transfer away from pressure and more toward genuine curiosity.

“I think that internal drive is what motivates me,” Tichindelean said. “I’m glad to have access to so many courses so that I can find things that interest me, since that ultimately motivates me to learn more.”

Yet even for students like Tichindelean, who rely primarily on self-driven motivation, he said stress shows up in predictable waves.

“I think that ultimately my accomplishments are much less defining of my identity than my personality and pastimes,” he said. 

What Students Need Most

But not all students feel the same freedom. 

Roberts said addressing perfectionism isn’t about lowering expectations; it’s about broadening them.

“Parents and influential adults should recognize that affirmation must extend beyond athletic or academic achievement,” she said. “Students possess strengths that are often overlooked, kindness, empathy, persistence.”

She emphasized the importance of balance: hobbies, rest, relationships and opportunities to fail safely.

“Without this balance, many young people experience unnecessary stress as they try to meet what they perceive as everyone else’s expectations,” Roberts said.

Beyond the Spotlight

Roberts said society has always struggled to see the whole human behind success, whether in celebrities, historical figures or standout students.

“We center on an unrealistic perception of perfection,” she said. “Achievements are stressed while human characteristics or negative events are diminished or ignored.”

Over time, she said, this creates a dangerous cycle: students perform, are praised and then feel pressured to maintain the same level indefinitely.

“For those who succeed, the pressure does not disappear—it shifts,” Roberts said. “Achievements can feel like benchmarks that must be continuously maintained.”

Finding Identity Beyond the A+

Even in an environment shaped by competition, many students, like Tichindelean, believe they would thrive more by looking inward rather than sideways.

“The pressure to perform makes you compare yourself to others,” he said. “You’d probably have more success just being motivated by yourself.”

And for others, like Khan, balancing perfectionism and burnout, the hope is that people begin to see high achievers not as machines, but as whole people.

“I wish people understood that what we’ve done is enough,” Khan said. “We should all be proud of it.”