FamiLee Life

A Permanent Outsider...

"Adopted children are raised in white families and are afforded a lot of the privileges that come with being white in society. But at the same time, when they leave the sheltered environment of their home and town, the rest of society sees them as minorities," said Richard Lee, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota who has studied how adult international adoptees form their identities.

Lee has been studying diversity of experiences among international adoptees, and sees a new trend: For the first time, they're finding their own voices to express that diversity. "In the past it tended to be the adoptive parents who were the voice, and that's really shifting now. More adopted adults are speaking out and advocating on behalf of adopted children," he said.

I was interviewed by Sheena McFarland, a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune and a woman who was adopted as a child from India, for a story on international adoption and the growing voice of adopted adults to define their own identities and to carve out their own spaces in society.

Read the full story here.