The Declassified Adoptee

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best. This week's vlog revisited an old post of mine from 2013 entitled, " 5 Things Adoptees Need to Hear from Absolutely Everyone ." I discussed this blog post and the 5 original "things." Then, I added two more to the five based on what I've learned since I first wrote that piece. If you liked this vlog, please comment, "like," and subscribe at YouTube. It really helps me out. To see daily updates and insights from me, make sure to follow me on Instagram @amandatda

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best. This week's vlog focused on a question I imagine many younger parents (adoptive, foster, and first) and adoptees to have about adoption terminology. Why do some of us use "First Mom" or "Original Mom" and not "Birth Mom?" Revisiting these terms was inspired by several posts in The Declassified Adoptee blog archives. But this post I wrote for Lost Daughters in 2012 is probably the most relevant: " NaBloPoMo Day 23: What Should we Call People Connected to Adoption? " If you liked this vlog, please comment, ...

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best. Last week's vlog focused on the question that is frequently posed to adoptees, "Would you rather have been aborted." It was inspired by several posts in The Declassified Adoptee blog archives with this post from 2013 being the most relevant: " Why Conflating Adoption and Abortion Really Isn't Helping Anything ." If you liked this vlog, please comment, "like," and subscribe at YouTube. It really helps me out.

“I haven't known if I should talk about this or not.” With these words, Abby Johnson began a 15 minute YouTube video on police brutality. Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist. She is also an adoptive mother to a black son. I decided to watch her video with an earnest desire to hear her thoughts. As adoption is my wheelhouse, I need to know what an adoptive parent with a major platform thinks about an issue. I especially need to know how they may influence other adoptive parents because this, in turn, impacts adopted children. I was willing to put aside my fundamental disagreement with the ways in which she discusses abortion in hope that she, as the white mother of a black child, might use her platform to condemn police brutality toward black Americans. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I immediately began writing a blog post about what it feels like to be an adopted person whose reality plays second fiddle to their pro-life ...