Janelle, Speak-Out Youth
Speak-Out Youth Newsletter #3

If you're adopted or in care, it can be difficult to make and keep friends. So many things are always going on in your life. There might be attachment anxieties, loss and grief, and issues with separating from what you were once comfortable with. Change is really hard because you're trying to figure out "why" all the time.

Maybe you stop joining in on sports and activities at school. You might start to feel like an outcast and wonder, "What's the point of going to school?" because you don't have any friends. You may start skipping class or falling in with the wrong crowd. If you have special needs, that may also interfere with your social life. It can be difficult to get a job and hold on to it because you have been in a life of chaos and have suffered abuse in the past. The majority of people don't understand what you are going through.

At this point in my own life, I've made many changes. I do have three friends whom I go to the movies, dancing, and dinner with. Our favourite things are to go shopping and to visit comic book stores.

Hear more stories from youth from government care and youth who were adopted at