Perpetual Child: Adult Adoptee Anthology: Dismantling the Stereotype (The AN-YA Project)
"The Perpetual Child: Adult Adoptee Anthology, Dismantling the Stereotype features a collection of stories, poetry, and essays aimed at confronting the "perpetual child stereotype" faced by adult adoptees. The pieces contained within this anthology will implore readers to look deeply into their own ideas about what it means to be adopted and to empathize with the experience of being viewed as a child into adulthood."Â
Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Laura Dennis, Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman, Lynn Grubb, Lee Herrick,  Jennifer Bao Yu "Precious Jade" Jue-Steuck,  Karen Pickell, Matthew Salesses, Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen Sheen, Nicky Sa-eun Schildkraut, Julie Stromberg, April Topfer, Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston, Angela Tucker, Catana Tully
EXCERPTS FROM PERPETUAL CHILD: ADULT ADOPTEE ANTHOLOGY:
Adopted people can--and will--dismantle this stereotype and leave it in the dust. Yet we should not have to do it alone. -Amanda H.L. Transue Woolston
Later, it's clear what's
occurred: a natural disaster. -Nicky Sa-eun Schildkraut
We can call it a "loving choice" or "a desperate decision". To my tiny baby-self--it was rejection in its purest form. - Lynn Grubb
It's important that you know that I'm not mad at you. I put that in the letter. I hope you won't be afraid to answer me because you think I'll be angry. -Karen Pickell
I couldn't tell people the personal questions they asked me were none of their damned business. I answered as truthfully as I could even though I felt thoroughly invaded and miserable at my breached boundaries. -Catana Tully
Perhaps because I never truly was, has made me the actress/writer that I am?Â
-Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen Sheen
Truly, I was the quintessential perfect child, the grateful and obedient adoptee. - Laura Dennis
I kept all of those feelings to myself, however, and instead dutifully took my amended birth certificate to the library and offered it as proof of who I was--all the while thinking that it was really proof of who I wasn't. -Julie Stromberg
I wonder what songs my birth
mother sings and if she sings
them for me, what stories
her body might tell. - Lee Herrick
But the lingering truth is that adoptees remain subject to that power structure far into adulthood. The structure persists in how their (our) voice is valued. - Matthew Salesses
Do you feel truly connected and seen, in a spiritual sense, by others? The myth of the perpetual child renders many adopted people 'invisible' in the realm of the everyday world. - Jennifer Bao Yu "Precious Jade" Jue-Steuck
Protectiveness in adoptees, even at an early age, is instinctive. -Â Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman
All of my life, people began conversations to me with statements like, "Your parents are amazing!" - Angela Tucker
The dark silence felt smothering and I could not individuate. My parents pretended that my older adoptive sister and I were their biological children. - April Topfer
