Plan A Magazine: NAAM

This is for day 22 of National Adoption Awareness Month, so this is my daily post to amplify the voices of adoptees, posted on day 23.

Plan A magazine is not specifically adoptee-centric. It is though an online magazine found by several Asian American women and men, “a group of Asian diaspora navigating shifting political and social climates, attempting to make sense of the conflicting roles we are thrust into and the conflicting narratives that are told about us.” That description, I think, could apply to adoptees as well. And indeed, Plan A includes Asian adoptees within the diaspora, and within its writers and podcasters.

International adoptees are all immigrants, and they are also members of a diaspora, the dispersion of a people from their original homeland. I would guess that some adoptees feel part of that diaspora, and some do not. Some are accepted as part of the diaspora by their diasporic community; some are not.

Plan A magazine welcomes them, and has a section of both essays and podcasts related to Adoption. A sample of titles: “Imperial Reproduction,” “The Manufactured Crisis: Adopted Without Citizenship,” and “Adoptee Mental Health.” The podcasts, and the rest of the magazine, address a range of issues: tech, humor, racism, sexism, gender, media. There is a Culture section on Fashion, Food, Travel, and Dating.

There may be other diaspora movements that seek to include adoptees. I know of Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora, an adoptee-founded and adoptee-led Facebook group. There may well be others. Plan A magazine is different in that it is an umbrella for all Asian diaspora members, inclusive of adoptees.

“By presenting perspectives that are not being discussed at large, we hope to provide new ways to interpret and understand current events through the lens of the Asian Diaspora. What is not being said can be as important as what is being focused on; often it can be more important. Talk to us, we talk back.” Asian adoptees, wherever you are in the world: take a look at the Submissions info. They pay! And everyone can help in keeping writers paid and the magazine going via Patreon.

We need to hear adoptee voices, during NAAM and all the time.

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