Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston's Blog

Welcome to a space on the web that I have considered to be home for more than one third of my life thus far. I have reshaped this space and its purpose around the adoptee voice repeatedly for the past thirteen years. My readers probably realized something long before I was able to. That is, the capacity to produce long-form content, like blog entries, is something that has not fit my ever-evolving lifestyle in years. However, I have been able to provide (nearly weekly) content on Instagram. Alth...

I started to write out my thoughts in an Instagram post, thanking those who had sent me books from my Amazon Wishlist. Although I have not looked at my new books yet, I reflected upon all the ways in which me looking at these books is necessary. I started to share that in an Instagram post, and it became too long.
I make it a priority to review children's adoption books because there are so few out there. Sure, there are plenty of books that involve adoption and adoption-like scenarios as a part ...

Warning! There are spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of The Queen's Gambit ahead. These episodes also contain sensitive content including: death, adoption, substance use, orphanage life, racism, sexism, mental illness, & suicide.

There is a need for deeper discussion that includes the adopted identity of the main character of this hit Nextflix series. After watching the first two episodes (thus far) as an adult adoptee and clinician, I developed a series of questions for individual use or to stimulat...

I have been looking for a compact mirror to keep in my bag. I was tickled to find this one in my (adoptive) mother’s belongings. I’m not sure where she got it. It has her name engraved on the front.
It reminds of me one of the foundational concepts I impart to some families when we first start our work together. We are our children’s mirrors. What we reflect back to a child about who they are will become what they believe to be true about themselves.

If we are frequently annoyed by a child and are...

Content Warning: birth, birth trauma, separation, infertility, brief mentions of sexual assault.

It was the early spring of 1984 when a 13 year old girl stepped off an airplane. Seven months pregnant, she had arrived to what was now her new home. Her sister lived here, in Tennessee. And she had flown well over 1,000 miles to her sister the moment her mother discovered she was pregnant. It is hard to imagine the thoughts that must have gone through her sister's mind, 14 years her senior, as she gr...

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing a video version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best.
This week's vlog revisited an old post of mine from 2013 entit...

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best.

This week's vlog revisited an old post of mine from 2013 ent...

Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an abortion worker as they push through angry protesters to clock in for another day of work at a clinic? From accounts that I've read, they're dedicated to their jobs. They believe in the health care services that they provide to their patients. But the screaming and cursing; the threats that they receive. These factors may also play a role.
People who go through “great pain, discomfort, effort, or embarrassment” to accomplish something will b...

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best.
This week's vlog revisited an old post of mine from 2013 ent...

In an effort to make my work more accessible on more platforms to more ages and media preferences, I can be found on YouTube and at my new podcast. My podcast focuses on providing an orated version of new blog posts. And my YouTube vlogs focuses on updating topics I may have already written about and telling the stories about the time in history when I originally wrote on a topic. I hope to post a vlog every Tuesday. I will try my best.

This week's vlog focused on a question I imagine many younge...