Born to Indian immigrant parents and raised in the largely white suburbs of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Prachi Gupta grew up in a household that embodied the outward image of success. Her father was a respected doctor. Her mother maintained the home. From the outside, they were the picture of upward mobility—the American Dream fulfilled.
But inside that dream lived invisible pressures.
In many immigrant households, achievement is not simply encouraged—it is expected. For Prachi Gupta, excellence was not optional; it was survival. To be exceptional was to belong. To falter was to risk shame.
She internalized the message that her worth was tied to performance. Academic success, ambition, prestige—these were the currencies of love and safety. Yet beneath the surface, her family wrestled with mental health struggles and emotional fractures that the “model minority” narrative refused to acknowledge.
It would take years—and unimaginable personal loss—for Prachi Gupta to untangle those contradictions and speak openly about them.
Prachi Gupta: Education and Early Drive
Prachi Gupta graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 with degrees in English Writing and Finance. At Pitt, she wasn’t just a scholar; she was also a Division I cross-country athlete, balancing the demands of competitive sports with rigorous academics.
The discipline required to compete at that level shaped her approach to journalism later in life. Reporting, like distance running, demands endurance. It requires resilience in the face of exhaustion. It demands clarity when the finish line feels far away.
But even in college, the seeds of storytelling were already taking root. English writing wasn’t simply a major—it was a calling. Numbers may have satisfied expectations, but words gave her freedom.
Building a Career in Journalism
Prachi Gupta’s journalism career spans more than a decade and reflects a commitment to accountability, power, and voice.
She served as a senior reporter at Jezebel, where she also co-hosted the Webby Award–nominated politics podcast Big Time Dicks. At Jezebel, Prachi Gupta sharpened her investigative instincts and deepened her cultural analysis, reporting on politics, gender, and systemic injustice with a fearless tone that resonated nationally.
Before that, she covered the 2016 presidential election for Cosmopolitan. It was during this time that Prachi Gupta conducted a now-viral interview with Ivanka Trump. The interview was widely noted for its direct, unflinching questioning—a departure from the deferential style often granted to political elites.
Her reporting took her across borders. She interviewed former First Lady Michelle Obama during her first solo trip to the Middle East and traveled to Jordan to cover the refugee crisis, bringing global human stories into American consciousness.
Over the years, Prachi Gupta has written for prestigious outlets including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Elle, and Marie Claire. Her investigative reporting on data privacy and discrimination for Marie Claire was included in Best American Magazine Writing 2021, cementing her reputation as a journalist of rigor and impact.
Prachi Gupta: The Essay That Changed Everything
In 2019, Prachi Gupta published an investigative essay titled “Stories About My Brother.” The piece examined the mental health struggles and eventual death of her brother, Yush, and the silence that surrounded it within her family.
The essay earned her a Writers Guild Award in 2020 and was named one of the best essays of 2019 by Longform and Longreads. But beyond accolades, it marked a turning point.
What began as an act of reporting became an act of reckoning.
Prachi Gupta realized that her family’s story—painful, messy, unresolved—was not unique. It was emblematic of a larger cultural problem: the crushing expectations placed on immigrant children and the stigma around mental illness in communities that prize perfection.
That realization would grow into a book.
Prachi Gupta and They Called Us Exceptional
When They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us was published in 2023, it did more than launch Prachi Gupta as a memoirist—it ignited a national conversation.
The book explores:
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The psychological toll of the “model minority” stereotype
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The pressure to overachieve in immigrant households
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The cost of silence around mental health
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The complicated love between parents and children shaped by survival
Longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award and named one of the best books of the year by Amazon and Audible, the memoir resonated deeply with readers across generations.
Prachi Gupta did not write a story of simple blame. She wrote about love intertwined with control. Gratitude entangled with resentment. Success shadowed by grief.
Her memoir insists that excellence is not immunity from suffering. That high grades cannot cure depression. That prestige cannot protect a family from emotional collapse.
And in doing so, Prachi Gupta gave countless readers permission to confront their own buried truths.
Expanding the Narrative: AOC and Political Storytelling
Before her memoir, Prachi Gupta authored AOC: Fighter, Phenom, Changemaker, an unauthorized biography of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In profiling one of the most recognizable political figures of a new generation, Prachi Gupta explored themes she would later revisit in her memoir: ambition, identity, and the cost of public scrutiny.
Whether examining a rising political star or her own family history, Prachi Gupta approaches storytelling with the same commitment: complexity over caricature.
Advocacy and Teaching
Today, based in New York City, Prachi Gupta continues to shape conversations about race, gender, and mental health. She frequently appears as a commentator on MSNBC and NPR, advocating for the de-stigmatization of mental illness within immigrant communities.
She also teaches creative nonfiction at the Center for Fiction, mentoring emerging writers in the craft of truth-telling. For her students, Prachi Gupta represents something rare—a journalist who has bridged reporting and memoir without losing intellectual rigor.
Her teaching reinforces a core belief: storytelling can be a tool for justice.
Awards and Recognition
Prachi Gupta’s work has earned widespread recognition:
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Writers Guild Award (2020) for “Stories About My Brother”
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Featured in Best American Magazine Writing 2021
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Finalist for the South Asian Journalists Association Nonfiction Writing Award
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Longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award
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Named among the best books of 2023 by Amazon and Audible