Children who were always told they were the smart one in the family aren't thriving in adulthood the way their parents expected. They're paralyzed by the fear that any failure will prove the label was wrong.

Children who were always told they were the smart one in the family aren't thriving in adulthood the way their parents expected. They're paralyzed by the fear that any failure will prove the label was wrong.

Add DMNews to your Google News feed. Tension: The kids who were praised as gifted are the adults most afraid to try — because when intelligence is your identity, every failure threatens to erase who you are. Noise: Parents meant well with the ‘smart one’ label, but decades of research show that praising innate traits over effort creates a fixed mindset that trades resilience for a fragile sense of self, leaving former prodigies avoiding risk, t…