Teens and Fake Personality By Nayanika

A lonely girl in a huge school changed herself to fit in with the ‘cool kids’. She told them what they wanted to hear, and became the person they wanted her to become. Shaped her personality like modelling clay.

Yes. That's right, children and teens these days cover up their true personality just to make themselves look better and fit in. It’s becoming a real problem not just for teens, but for parents, who want to see their child blossom, not become someone they are not.

Picture this; You moved to a new school and don't have any friends at all, then you meet a group of people who you think are ‘cool’ and change your personality to be someone you’re not, just to become friends with them. Teens are doing this more often as time goes by and now it’s becoming very concerning for Parents. We all tend to think sometimes that being ourselves isn't enough, and that may lead us to change ourselves.

“Teens often put on masks that cover up their real identity and reveal a false individual, just to impress others”, Says Brian. S, a teen behavioural specialist. As Brian. S said, its all just to impress others and fit in. There are a wide range of stories, from as simple as a girl changing her likes and dislikes to her friend’s, or major stories like teens who change who they are completely and leave no trace behind of their real personality. Many such stories happening all around us. We just need to dig deeper to reveal the truth.


Some people experience major stress as they forget their true personality and can't seem to be their real selves, which leads them to become that fake person permanently. Teens get so caught up in their school and social lives that they start to make up their own different identity and find themselves caught between two stools.


I asked a few grade 8 students on their personal stories that they may have experienced with this issue, and one really stuck out to me.

“I have seen people fake their personality every day. It happens more often than you think. So many of them talk behind their best friend’s back to get attention. Its ridiculous”, Says the student.

Indeed this is very true, occurring more often that anyone may think. Some seemed to think developing fake identities could be a cause of indirect peer pressure and are pressurised by society to become this ‘Ideal person’ that everyone wants to be. If we just take into account that we don't need to change ourselves to be liked.

Changes like these in personality are just drastic. Healthy changes are tiny things that you want to change about yourself to make you a better person and make yourself happy. You don't have to change yourself to please others.

Many teenagers are very insecure about themselves. Teenage years are very crucial to Identity. These years are when they develop their sense of identity and find their real selves. But now, teens find it very hard to do that because of all the fake personalities everywhere. One wrong move and they could easily change their personal identity.


Another place you could find fake personalities are… basically everywhere on the Internet. The Internet is filled with people not being themselves. They think the screen can cover up their true personality and identity. People pretending to be someone they are not, whether this is physically or personality wise. Everywhere you go there are people being fake. Posting pretentious things about themselves, posting rude snarky comments based off of their friend’s likes and dislikes, but not their own. Social network can be a cause to change identity too. Teens hearing bad things about themselves constantly may not take a good toll on them and could lead them to change themselves for others.


Overall I would say that I think society needs to be more considerate of other people’s feelings and put themselves in other’s shoes for once and try and understand what they might go through. Don't give up your crucial teen years being someone you're not. Find out who you really are on the inside and don't take into account what other people want you to be. Just go and be yourself! And also keep your eyes open and have a heart to heart talk to someone who may be going through this. Help someone out! They will surely be very grateful.


Sources: "Artificial Personality." Artificial Personality. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.:

Elmore, Tim. "From 13 to 23: A Study in Artificial Maturity." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.