Finding Yourself as a Teenager

Being a teenager is not an easy task.

Adding in the burden of being an adopted teenager amplifies that stress by a million.

Every little thing that a teenager has to deal with can sometimes feel like a crisis, and you don't always know how to react: Your hair isn't "right" or your eyes aren't blue enough or you don't know why your nose slopes a certain way...

It's like one huge identity crisis!

Being a teenager is supposed to be about finding yourself, but sometimes it's hard to just get your footing stable enough when you don't even know where to start.

Pieces of Me: Who do I Want to Be? is the perfect book for adopted teens. I like it because, although I'm almost twenty now, I still relate to many of the things that I've read in the book. It's one of those books that, while reading, has made me say, "Wow, I wish I had this book when I was 15!" many times.

I still know that pang of guilt that I feel when I do something wrong - "Will this be the time that they finally leave me?" - or the confusion that sometimes finds its way into my eyebrows when I stare into the mirror for too long, trying to decide exactly whose nose I have. Because, even with an open adoption, things can be complicated.

This book is a reminder that, as teen adoptees, we are not alone. There are other people in this world who cope with the same confusion, face the same obstacles, hear the same comments, and learn the same lessons. 

Pieces of Me helped remind me of that. Sometimes it's just a nice confidence booster to remind yourself that: You're here, you're not alone, and you'll be fine. I think that's my favorite thing about this book.