Wilton Youth Council to Host Talk with “Never Enough” Author Jennifer Wallace, on ‘Toxic’ Achievement Culture in Schools

The Wilton community is invited to hear New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Breheny Wallace discuss Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — and What We Can Do About It.

The event will be held at Wilton Library on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. A book signing will follow the discussion, and books will be available for purchase. The program is hosted by Wilton Library, Wilton Youth Council, Susan Bauerfeld, PhD, and Thrive with a Guide.

In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. Their schedules are packed with AP classes and resume-padding activities, while family resources are stretched to a breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Yet this drive to optimize performance has only resulted in skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in America’s highest-achieving schools. According to the author, it does not need to be this way.

The book includes Wilton and research done here, including input from local youth advocates.

The community is invited to join the discussion with Wallace and Bauerfeld, a Wilton clinicial psychologist, on the deep roots of toxic achievement culture and what the response needs to be. Wallace draws on interviews with families, educators, and today’s leading child psychologists as well as an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents.

Through this deep research, (including what was conducted in Wilton), Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter, and have intrinsic self-worth not contingent upon external achievements. Packed with memorable stories and offering a powerful toolkit for positive change, Never Enough offers an urgent, humane view of the crisis plaguing today’s teens and a practical framework for how to help. 

Psychologist Lisa Damour, bestselling author of Untangled, called this book, “A pathbreaking introduction to one of the most powerful ways to protect our children’s mental health: mattering.”

Wallace is an award-winning reporter, social commentator and author. She frequently contributes to The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. More information about this topic is available on Wallace’s website.

GOOD Morning Wilton is a media sponsor of Wilton Library author talks.

Register on the Wilton Library website.

A follow-up book discussion group with Wilton Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Kevin Smith will be held on Thursday, Oct. 26, from 10-11:30 a.m. at Comstock Community Center. Registration information will soon be available on the Wilton Youth Council website.