I want some things to be clear.

Your not better for being gifted/ high IQ. You receive more respect then those with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, and/or low IQ. You shouldn’t. Your not better then them. Gifted students are the RUDEST to those with ID or learning disabilities or anything else. The rudest to those in special education.

If your gifted get your head out your ass. You think your better for not being in special education, (many schools include gifted as SpEd) and there’s nothing wrong with needing the extra help. I’ve seen it with my own two (one hehe :>) eye. Gifted kids are rude to those who need extra help, ive seen it happen to myself and others. Stop that shit.

If your gifted and go onto people spaces who talk about being the opposite of you. Don’t make it about you. We have our space to talk about the problems related to being gifted, stay there. We have our space and they have theirs. You don’t need to turn a space not about you into yours. You job when hearing stories from those with ID, LD or anything else isn’t to make it about being gifted, it’s to listen, accept, change and spread their words. If people who struggle to pass schools for whatever reason decide to speak up on that, don’t say you also have it hard with your advance classes.

And most importantly. You are not the least common group in disabilities related spaces. Don’t act like you are. More people talk about being gifted and disabled then they talk about learning disorders or ID. You’ll be shocked how many know about gifted and how many know and ID (a hint: not many people know about ID even if they know about gifted).

Thank you :)

You haven’t failed if you haven’t accomplished as much as you wanted to by now. There’s so much more time, and you are so much more than what you can do.

My favorite scenes in Young Royals that showed me Omar's huge acting talent are those with Micke.

it's also the details filmed like this one - for example his nervous fingers wiggling:

Him making faces in the kitchen, bc he doesn't want to make any noise and get caught.

But also it's his voice that Simon tries to keep steady while looking for his fathers medicaments.

The struggle is real and you can feel it. I was so mindblown hearing it's his first role ever, bc he made Simon a person made of flesh and blood and multidimentional. And he looks like he really knew what to do. But I think it's also thanks to the people on set - Rojda and Lisa who led him. I'm very impressed.

If I can't have what these 2 have can I at least have a fraction of their intelligence 🥺

- me, a struggling college student, often wondering how the hell Rachel gets 4.0 GPA with her multiple lives. What a time management master.

But then again of course, cuz she's Rachel Amber.

I NEED A proper "Rachel studying hard" art to motivate myself 😭 so far I only have one where she's sleeping on her desk 😅

Intelligence aside it's really her effort and diligence that I admire. Probably only Chloe and Rach's "parents" saw how much effort she put in to live up to that "gifted child" image. An efficient learner!

Finally, a song that describes someone whom "every time their heart breaks it entertains us" -- by Taylor Swift

"I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try."

"I'll show you every version of myself tonight."

Just screams Rachel Amber to me.

One day, there'll be a Rachel Amber (vulnerable version) inspired song list coming your way. Just you wait.

I was a gifted child in grade four so you can only imagine the kind of mental health I have now

Does anyone else feel like gifted children actually struggle more with not getting positive feedback? Like, if you get 100s on everything in school, then it becomes an expectation, and then you can never exceed anyone's expectations, so positive feedback is actually really hard to get, or at least feel is genuine.

What am I but my ability to be useful?

- Eldest daughters everywhere

When I was in elementary school our Talented and Gifted program was called “Flight” (as in like soaring to great heights or whatever, idk don’t ask me), and I think the fondest memories of my entire child/tween years were in that little room in another school (and then another little room in middle school).

No matter who we were or who we hung out with outside of that class, for an hour each day we just chatted and laughed at/with each other and learned together. No one was “popular” or “cool”-- we were all just a bunch of nerds that liked to chatter constantly.

That Flight class taught me to give speeches/presentations, to work hard and not give up when I didn’t know something, and to just reach for the goddamned stars. It taught me that it wasn’t such an awful thing to be different, and that the way I saw the world didn’t make me any lesser than the neurotypical kids my age.

This sounds like a total exaggeration, but i genuinely think that class saved my life. There were so many issues that Mrs. Penn (the T&G teacher a few years ago) helped me through and taught me how to navigate, and I owe literally all of my achievements to being taught to be resilient and confident in my intelligence and potential. Being a “gifted” kid sucked/still sucks sometimes, but I couldn’t imagine ever knowing myself to be any different.

a reminder to teachers: if there's a really talented kid in your class that's already doing really well and you see their huge potential and want to push them to do even better: don't. if you want to see the child thrive and do even better, DO NOT do it through negative criticism. this kid is already a perfectionist, they are doing their absolute best. and if you only point out the flaws, if you judge them harshly than their peers and criticize the shit out of them in order to perfect them, they'll burn out. you're not creating a diamond by applying pressure. you're stomping them into the ground. this child is learning that their hard work is not good enough. they're learning that no matter what they do, they will fail. they're learning that they can't trust themselves to asses their work because even though they're satisfied with it, the teacher they desperately seek approval from will never be. so they think they're not good, actually. they're trash. they're not good at anything. because the field in which they've been the strongest, they're actually bad at. they're learning that their worth is dependent on how well they do in school.

what you should do instead is show them exactly what they did well. i'm not saying to never correct them. show them what they could do better, absolutely. but do it gently. these perfectionist kids will take your criticism and they will better their work. you don't need to worry that they won't, you don't need to shove it in their faces in order for them to understand.

give them opportunities. give them additional work that they can do if they wanna get even better, but don't have to. and don't punish their creativity and their worldview if it's different from yours. they don't have to like what you like. they don't have to do things the way you did them. they are not an extension of you. they're not tools through which you can realize the success you never had. they're fragile little humans that need your guidance and love, not your tough hand.

and praise them. tell them you see their efforts, tell them the truth: that they're hardworking, intelligent, extremely creative people. because by doing the opposite, you will not get them to go far. you're going to destroy them.

and also, show they they're more than their success. that their succes or lack there of doesn't determine their worth. that is the most important part.

sincerely,

a "gifted child" that was belittled and pushed to the ground in order to be even better, but only burned out, is mentally ill and has not been able to grow to their fullest potential (yet) because they had to recover first.

"gifted child syndrome" aka discovering you arent as superior as you were made to believe and now you’re having a hard time accepting you’re just like everybody else since you’ve already fabricated a halo of being special

“teacher’s pet” “gifted child” “golden child” “mature for their age and therefore liked by adults child” is pick me girl eldest sibling with mommy issues edition

I am so tired of people not seeing me as neurodivergent. I am gifted, which is an actual form of being neurodivergent. But most people think gifted is just some stupid label for parents to give their kids to show they’re “smarter” or “better” than other kids. And yes, being gifted means I have a higher IQ than most people. But that’s not just it. I have many symptoms of ADHD without having ADHD. Gifted kids are more likely to get anxiety. My brain is literally wired differently than normal people. It is more active than the normal brain. There are so many times something has made perfect sense in my mind but is confusing to everybody else. My head is constantly filled with thoughts and random music and stuff. I can’t even imagine my head being silent. And that’s not even mentioning the pressure that comes with being a gifted kid.

But noooooo! I must have ADHD or something. Because there’s no way being gifted means you’re neurodivergent. And why do you get to be called gifted when my sweet little angel isn’t? You must think you’re better than everybody else! I am so tired of people saying this stuff to me and other gifted kids. I need advice.

Ok, you seem very angry right now. And I understand. Here’s a flower and take a deep breath 🌻

So, you believe you have ADHD? Well, if it’s possible, talk about that with your parents! Or if you don’t have a very safe relationship with your parents or if you don’t entirely feel comfortable talking to them, go to your school’s guidance counselor. That’s their job, after all. Dr. Amanda (the therapist who lets me live in her office) used to be a school guidance counselor!

Gifted child syndrome is a very real problem, and a huge epidemic amongst neurodivergent children. Yknow, back in my hive, I was somewhat of a gifted child. Everyone expected me to go out and collect all that pollen and would’ve been the greatest pollen collector the hive has ever seen, and no one would’ve expected I’d be here, giving my advice on the internet. But, yknow what? Who cares what they think! I’m happy doing what I am doing right now, and it’s mainly because I had someone willing to hear my struggles, Dr. Amanda! So try to find someone you feel safe enough to talk to so you can perhaps get a proper diagnosis! So here’s my advice lovely anon. Bee yourself! There’s nothing to be angry about when it comes to being neurodivergent. And those humans simply being rude to you? Laugh at them! Laugh in their faces for being so silly to think that you are foolish for knowing you are neurodivergent! You know yourself better than they will ever know you! You don’t need to prove yourself to any of them! Just prove yourself to yourself!

former gifted child + eldest daughter + depression = i havent studied and therefore haven't passed 50% of the courses i ve had in uni

*ACADEMIC WEAPON PLAYING ON THE BACKGROUND*

where---where do i even start

Being good at school no matter what is it's own kind of torture. That seems confusing, but for me, my grades somehow do not slip no matter how mentally exhausted I am. I can be on the verge of killing myself and I still drag myself to school without studying because I spent the night in a depressive spiral and somehow pull off a 95 on a bio or English test. That might sound like a good thing, but it is not, because the system is so messed up that it considers your school performance directly proportional to how much you need help.

People quite literally laugh off any attempt from me to get help. The phrases "I trust you to figure it out" and "you're smart, you've got this" give me nightmares because that's all I've ever gotten when I ask for help. I've had teachers recognize that I'm under an unreasonable amount of stress. They've recognized and acknowledged that I'm probably neurodivergent. But they've refused to acknowledge any of my struggle because I do too well in school. I, and many other girls like me, are victims of our own success. We are too "put-together" and "bright" to even be considered for the things that are killing us from the inside out.