Send us a Text Message.

Adoptees & Identity 

For all our lives, our identities as adoptees have been stripped away from us. Our names changed, our blackness erased, and our birth certificates stolen. This episode we break down the ugly reality of having a fluid identity. 

Adoption is about stripping us of our decision-making autonomy, so this episode is a call for us to reclaim our identity in a way that we decide makes sense. 

What we discussed 

(00:00) What is identity, to us? 

(02:30) How our identity changed when we found out we’re adopted OR Finding out we’re adopted and our identity OR Discovering you’re adopted

(11:09) Am I black? White? Latino? (erasing blackness) 

(13:37) Am I an only child? Oldest child? Middle child?

(17:07) Choosing an identity vs. how other people identify us 

(22:51) Doing a DNA test as an adoptee 

(28:46) “my adoptive mom's dad assaulted me” OR CW: Sexual assault and gaslighting 

(35:16) Changing names as adoptees (& internalizing anti-blackness)

(39:23) Not owning a birth certificate

(42:59) “I have no clue who I am”

Links

Follow us on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok

Learn more about Lia

Credits

Special thanks to Samuel Oyedele for editing our podcast, support his work on Instagram or e-mail him at [email protected]