Transracial adoptee voices of love and trauma | Mikayla Zobeck | TEDxHopeCollege

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Published 2021-05-04
Mikayla Zobeck, from East Lansing, MI is a transracial adoptee who struggled to understand her trauma responses to her adoption until she reunited with her birth family in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam after 18 years of being disconnected after her adoption. Her incredible journey to meeting her birth mother again shapes her narrative and understanding. Zobeck talks about adoptee mental health, reshaping the narrative of adoption, and amplifying adoptee voices in order to half a more nuanced and vibrant understanding about adoption. Student This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
All Comments (18)
  • @edzobeck4395
    We've had the pleasure of walking beside this young woman for the past 21 years. We are very, very proud of you Mikayla!
  • @KatTheTruth
    This made me cry so hard. There is so much trauma with adoption. I have had my eyes opened to the realities of it all. The “savior” idea is what gets me - you weren’t saved from anything. You lost so much. Of course you have loving adoptive parents, in your case, but you should be able to have all the emotions and feelings. There is no single narrative, as you said. I love that you explain this and let others know how hard this is to deal with. So happy you could meet your family, and I applaud you for speaking out on adoptee trauma
  • @Amndayell
    I'm so proud of you. You're so incredibly brave. Searching for your birth family, it's honestly been one of the most heartbreaking experiences that I've ever experienced. I also discovered that I had siblings. A half-sibling, but mine nonetheless.
  • @spicylemonchick
    I’m going to cry listening to how hard her parents worked. I am only at them sending her photos so they knew she was safe.. boutta sobbbbb
  • @MsKaiaDee
    I wish my bio mother was still alive. This story was beautiful
  • @amparovale4842
    Thank you for this video. I want to bring back my time if I could when I was in same boat as so lost and not understandung why I'm being told about my real identity and why it's so hard to talk about my adoption and how does my mother look like asking my adoptive parents. Glad I never give up my search with in 49 years, I was reunited to my Birth Mom last Jan 11,24. It was the most beautiful feelings I ever had that I finally found the missing of my real identity. Thanks to The Leah and Blair Slog who help me through sharing short clip on FB searching my Bio Mom. And thanks God that we are being guided and had all the informations that we need to locate her that day. Yes it is painful in every adoptee to go through confusion, lost, separated, unwanted and most of all NO LOVE 😔
  • @mikaylazobeck6016
    Hi everyone! Two year update—I found my eldest sister! She is actually one year older than me and not 10 years like my tedx suggested!
  • @thenobleone-3384
    I attended High school and went to school with a lot of Vietnamese students. So I know Chinese and Vietnamese people growing up in Houston
  • @adopteeonamission
    As a white adoptee raised by white parents, I felt a lot of the same feelings. I looked and acted nothing like my adopted family. Great speech!
  • @lolly9804
    My dad didn't even have a birth certificate and we aren't sure exactly where he's born besides the region. The only reason anyone knows who his parents are, is because he was sold to his uncle. And the man who he thought was his uncle was his bio dad. Reason for the sale, the dad didn't like the skin colour of any of his children. So he got rid of them all and put his then wife in a mental institution.
  • @itssricaa96
    The way transracial is up there made me feel like you’re apart of the LGBT community ..