As an adult adoptee, I want to see children being put at the heart of adoption

People who've been adopted have grown up in a family that doesn't genetically mirror who they are. And sometimes it doesn't even physically mirror who they are, as in transracial adoption, which was my experience. I grew up with a white mother, but I'm not white. I always had questions around my identity, who I was and where I came from. I wasn't allowed to have those conversations because my adoption closed it off.

It's as though we've been taken, a contract has been signed, we had no say in that contract, and then we're not allowed to ask any questions of what happened pre-contract. We are raised to be quiet, feeling quite silenced about who we are, where we came from, how we were born, questions that all normal children ask in families when they're growing up. ‘You look like uncle, you look like auntie, you look like grandma, you look like grandpa, that was when I was pregnant with you’. These are the stories that you grow up listening to and they help you form a sense of self.