Supporting Parents. Fostering Change.

 

Who Am I? 

 

By Karen Chaudry, LCSW 

"Once I knew, I began to feel different. And as I began to feel different, everyone knew." -Adoptee Amy Martin from the book Pieces of Me, Voices for and by Adopted Teens.


Adoptees often grow up feeling different from their peers.  Some describe feeling like there is something missing, like a puzzle without all the pieces. During the middle school and teen years, these feelings can be particularly intense. It is during these years that all kids are beginning the important work of identity and self-concept development. It's hard for all kids, but can be particularly stressful, and painful, for adoptees who don't have all the information necessary to form their identities.

 

 

Increasingly we receive calls from parents concerned about their child's gender identity. They have questions about how to best parent a daughter who insists she is in the wrong body, or a son who prefers to wear feminine clothes. They're worried about their own confused feelings regarding how to validate their child's experience even if they themselves don't understand it or feel positively about it. The fact is that no parent expects their child to be gender nonconforming or transgendered, or knows how to navigate this unfamiliar territory.