Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees

In this episode of Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees, Maya shares her experience as a Cambodian adoptee raised by LGBTQ moms in Maine before eventually settling in Pennsylvania. Maya reflects on growing up at the intersection of adoption, race, and family, and how those experiences have shaped her sense of identity over time.

The conversation also explores her recent journey into family research, a search that led to an unexpected and deeply meaningful discovery. Along the way, Maya discusses belonging, connection, and the ways adoptees continue to piece together their stories throughout adulthood. It's a thoughtful conversation about family, identity, and what it means to find parts of yourself you never knew were missing.

Through A Different Lens: Instagram

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

For this episode of Color Shift, Nathan sits down with Sarah Myer, the acclaimed Korean American comic artist, author, and illustrator behind the award-winning graphic memoir Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story. Adopted from South Korea and raised in rural Maryland by a white family, Sarah shares the deeply personal experiences that shaped both their identity and creative voice. Through conversations about racism, bullying, fandom, cosplay, art, and belonging, Sarah opens up about the emotional journey that inspired Monstrous — a powerful coming-of-age story that has earned multiple starred reviews, award nominations, and recognition as one of the standout graphic memoirs of recent years. 

Beyond Monstrous, Sarah has become a rising force in the comics world, illustrating and creating cover art for several issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures and contributing to other major projects across the comics industry. In this episode, Sarah reflects on the intersection of adoptee identity, creativity, queer identity, and pop culture — and how art became both a refuge and a way to reclaim their story. 

You can find Sarah's work here at her website.  See their upcoming conventions they are attending, purchase some art and their book Monstrous! 

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees, Luciana shares her experience growing up as an Indonesian adoptee in rural East Texas, navigating identity, belonging, and the feeling of being “othered” in a conservative environment. She reflects on family complexity, racial awakening, and the process of “coming out of the fog” as she began recognizing how adoption and race shaped her lived experiences. 

After building community with other Asian transracial adoptees and returning to Indonesia in search of answers, Luciana uncovered truths about her story that challenged everything she thought she knew about her adoption. In this deeply thoughtful conversation, she speaks openly about grief, mental health, estrangement, healing, and the importance of creating space for adoptees to tell honest and nuanced stories about their lives. 

Luciana would love everyone to know that she has graduated from grad school with a Masters in Counseling.  If you would like to connect with Luciana you can email her at  [email protected]

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Vinh  was born in Vietnam, with Cambodian roots, and adopted into an Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish family, where he was raised in Sweden. Growing up across multiple cultures, Vinh carried a deep curiosity about his origins—one that stayed with him for years and ultimately led him to begin searching for his birth family. 

Without support from any formal systems or government resources, Vinh’s search was driven by persistence, instinct, and connection. With the help of a Vietnamese friend, he was eventually reunited with his birth family—an experience that brought both answers and a new layer of emotional complexity. 

In this episode, Vinh shares openly about identity, belonging, and what it means to navigate life as a transracial adoptee across cultures. He also speaks candidly about deeply personal topics, including trauma, sexuality, and the emotional realities of reunion. His story challenges simplified narratives about adoption and highlights the resilience it takes to seek truth on your own terms. 

Vinh Professional Website

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Tara was adopted as a baby from Lake Charles, Louisiana by white Mormon parents and raised in Utah with seven siblings—three biological to her adoptive parents and four adopted from different families. In 2018, she reunited with her biological family and discovered she had one full biological brother and one half-brother. Unfortunately, her biological father had passed away before she could meet him.

This reunion marked a turning point. Tara began to experience a shift in her adoption narrative, emerging from the adoptee fog while simultaneously beginning to deconstruct the high-demand religion she had grown up in. This overlapping upheaval led to religious psychosis, and seeking mental health support was the first time she realized her religion might have been hurting her. She left Mormonism in 2019.

Today, Tara is still navigating the complexities of belonging. She is working to build relationships with her biological family, but continues to feel the pain of not quite fitting in—either with them or her adoptive family.

Projects & Communities:

• Pouty Mouth (podcast) 
• Pouty Mouth Instagram
•  Community Discord

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift, we’re joined by Renee, a Korean adoptee born in Daegu in 1976 and brought to the United States in 1977. Renee’s adoption story, as she shares, isn’t a simple one—and it’s one she’s willing to speak about fully, with honesty, care, and deep intention.

Renee opens up about the complexities of her experience and the ways it has shaped her identity, relationships, and healing journey over time. Through it all, she has found a path rooted in self-discovery and transformation. Since 2018, Renee has been in private practice offering Reiki—work she describes as a form of spiritual therapy that connects mind, body, and spirit, helping others move toward healing, purpose, and meaning.

This conversation explores what it looks like to face difficult truths while still choosing growth, grounding, and compassion.

Renee's Substack

Renee's own Podcast

Renee's Business

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

April joins the show to share her story of growing up as a Black/biracial adoptee navigating identity, belonging, and family in predominantly white spaces.

Relinquished at birth in Massachusetts, April spent her earliest months in temporary foster care before being placed in a foster-to-adopt home in Rhode Island. By the age of two, she was adopted into a white family with three biological children. Growing up, April learned to navigate the complexities of being both adopted and a person of color—experiences that would shape her understanding of identity, connection, and what it truly means to belong.

In this conversation, April reflects on the realities of transracial adoption, the questions that can follow adoptees throughout their lives, and the emotional work of making sense of one’s story. She also shares how those experiences led her to dedicate her life to reforming child welfare systems and creating spaces that center empathy, inclusion, and understanding.

Today, April continues that work through her speaking and coaching, the summer camp she runs, and her two podcasts, where she helps elevate adoptee voices and challenge long-standing narratives around adoption and foster care.

This episode is an honest and thoughtful exploration of identity, family, and the lifelong journey of understanding where—and how—we belong.

Photo Credit: Jeff Forney

April's projects:

Born in June, Raised in April Podcast - A podcast exploring adoption, identity, and race through the universal framework of the calendar.

Calendar Conversations Podcast  - A guide for adoptive parents to navigate sensitive milestones and inclusive parenting month-by-month.

Together on the Journey - A community initiative and camp designed to support and educate transracial adoptive families.

June in April (Official Website) - The central hub for April’s professional consulting, public speaking, and DEIB advocacy work.

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift, Nathan sits down with Amy, a Black transracial adoptee who was adopted at just two months old and primarily raised by a single white mother in Rhode Island. Amy reflects on what it was like growing up in a predominantly white environment and how those early experiences shaped her understanding of identity, race, and belonging.

Amy speaks candidly about her adoption story and the complicated realities that can exist within adoptive families. She shares openly about her decision to go no-contact with her adoptive mother and what it meant for her to make that choice. With honesty and clarity, Amy discusses the emotional weight of setting boundaries and the process of redefining family on her own terms.

Throughout the conversation, Amy explores the intersections of race, adoption, and self-discovery, and what it has looked like for her to claim her own voice as an adult adoptee. Her willingness to talk about the difficult parts—while still holding space for growth and reflection—makes this a deeply honest and powerful conversation.

This episode speaks to the complexities many adoptees carry but don’t always feel safe expressing out loud. Amy’s story is one of truth-telling, agency, and the ongoing journey of understanding who you are beyond the narratives others may have written for you.

Where you can find Amy: 

Tik tok: @divinely.amyy
Instagram: @amyjacksonhouse
Facebook: Amy Jackson House

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Patrick (“Pat”) was adopted from Vietnam at six months old and raised in Central Pennsylvania, just outside of Harrisburg, where he still lives today. At sixteen, he returned to Vietnam on a motherland tour with his adoption agency — a trip that would profoundly shape his understanding of his own story. During that visit, he met his birth mother for the first time. His birth father had already passed away.

In this episode of Color Shift, Pat reflects on what it was like to return to his birth country as a teenager, to stand face-to-face with the woman who gave him life, and to begin integrating pieces of his identity that once felt distant or abstract.

He also shares about finding adoptee community later in life through a local social media group — and what happened when he took a chance and showed up to an event without knowing anyone in the room.

This is a conversation about reunion, risk, and the unexpected ways belonging can find us when we decide to step into the unknown.

Harrisburg AAPI Website: HAAPI

HAAPI Instagram: @harrisburgaapi

Pat's personal Instagram: @pattythang

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode, Nathan sits down with Hasina, a transracial adoptee born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1977. With little known about her birth story, Hasina spent her earliest years in an orphanage before being adopted at age three by a white Canadian family and raised on a farm outside of London, Ontario.

Hasina shares what it was like growing up in isolation, navigating identity without mirrors, and carrying unanswered questions about her beginnings. She also reflects on a later turning point—leaving home and moving to Toronto, where she entered a family made up of adoptees from around the world and experienced diversity in a new, embodied way.

This conversation explores belonging, displacement, and the quiet shifts that happen when adoptees find reflection, proximity, and chosen family.

Find Hasina's book here: Longing to Belong

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected]