August 8, SAINT LOUIS, Mo. - The Very Asian Foundation (VAF), a journalist-founded organization, launches an updated guide to covering adoption with the help of national scholars Sara Docan-Morgan, PhD and Kimberly D. McKee, PhD.

This updated version reflects the continued diversity of adoptee experiences and underscores the need for nuanced discussions of adoption. VAF launched its first version of a media guide last July to coincide with the popularity of the film Joy RIde (2023) and was created by adoptees and advocates Patrick Armstrong, SunAh Laybourn, Cameron Lee, and Kira Omans.

This media guide draws upon the expertise of critical adoption studies scholars, activists, and allies. As such, this guide reflects the importance of coverage that draws attention to power imbalances inherent in adoption practices.

”Very few adoptees are represented in places that tell adoption narratives,” said Korean adoptee and VAF co-founder, Michelle Li. “Asian American adoptees make up the majority of all international adoptees in the US, we are immigrants and some are at risk for deportation, and yet, we often have our stories summed up in the same, harmful way. I hope the updated guide provides nuance and help to those reporting, writing, or talking about adoption.”

Recommendations:

Coverage

• Center adoptees and birth parents, not adoptive parents, since adoptive parents’ voices are overrepresented in media.

• Use language that is precise and accurate. Examples include birth, first, or biological parents rather than “real”; and adopted person or adoptee, rather than “adopted child”—especially when referring to adopted adults. 

• Explore narratives of adoption that are not dominantly represented because adoption is more than just finding families for children. 

• Safeguard birth parents’ wish for anonymity if they are uneasy about their names and/or faces being shared.

• Empower and support adoptee journalists and colleagues, but do not expect them to represent the opinions of all adopted people. 

Sources

• Avoid industry sources that may not prioritize adoptees’ and birth parents’ rights and mental health. Recognize that adoption is not solely a celebratory method of family formation as it often involves severing kinship ties with biological families. 

• Consider how various adoption stakeholders may benefit by promoting particular narratives of adoption. Apply an intersectional lens to understanding adoption as linked to broader systemic issues (e.g., anti-Blackness). 

• Consult Adoption Studies scholars and professionals, many of whom are adopted people themselves. Support the work of those steeped in the histories of adoption and adoptee activism. They hold expertise on topics such as adoptees’ racial/ethnic identities, reproductive justice, reunion, mental health, and representation in media, among other topics.

• Diversify your sources. Feature adoption and reunion stories that may not necessarily have “happy endings” to show adoption is complex. Include adoptees and birth parents with relevant lived experiences. 

Contextualization

• Avoid portraying adoption as an alternative to abortion, given that adoption is currently being politicized in the fight for reproductive justice. 

• Understand that international adoption is often a constrained or forced choice for birth parents.

• Emphasize the value of family preservation, keeping children with their birth families.

• Acknowledge that the adoptee community is heterogenous. 

• Recognize that birth parents, domestic adoptees, and transnational adoptees have been engaged in activism and scholarship for more than three decades.

• Recognize that how adoptees discuss adoption often evolves over time and reflects shifts in how they understand their identities as adopted people (See Adoptee Consciousness Model). 

Further Reading

Joy Ride (2023) Discussion Guide and Syllabus for a deeper consideration of how popular culture shapes perceptions of adoption and adoptees’ lives

Adoptees in reunion: Moving beyond happy endings: a quick read that begins to unpack the complexities of reunion 

Adoptee Consciousness Model: describes the process of how some adoptees move from simplistic understandings of adoption toward more critical awareness 

This guide was created by Sara Docan-Morgan, PhD. and Kimberly D. McKee, PhD.

Author Bios

Dr. Sara Docan-Morgan (she/her) is Professor of Communication Studies at University of Wisconsin—La Crosse. She is the author of In Reunion: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family (Temple University Press, 2024). Dr. Docan-Morgan is a past Fulbright Scholar to South Korea.

Dr. Kimberly D. McKee (she/her) is an associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University. She is the author of Adoption Fantasies: The Fetishization of Asian Adoptees from Girlhood to Womanhood (The Ohio State University Press, 2023) and Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019), as well as the co-editor of Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School (University of Illinois Press, 2020). 

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