Represent Magazine

• Something Good Out of Something Bad

  by Janay Collins

  I don’t remember my first hospitalization. I was either too young to understand it or too high off the five milligrams of morphine. But for as long as I can remember, I’ve gone to the hospital for extreme pain about 10 times a year.

• Book Review: Spilling the Greasy Beans on Demon Copperhead

  by Jessica Miller

  Barbara Kingsolver dedicates her novel Demon Copperhead to survivors of the opioid crisis and foster care. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the book is dedicated to someone like me: I am an Appalachian who was put in foster care due, in part, to my father’s opioid addiction. 

• Finding and Trusting the Right Therapist

  by E.O.

  Names have been changed. My father sexually abused me as a child and, a few days shy of my 13th birthday, I entered foster care. When detectives were first assigned to my case, I had to explain the what, when, where, who, and how of the assaults over and over.

• ​​​New NYC Program Provides College Funds to Teens in Foster Care

  by Faith Ornstein

  I am a high school senior in foster care. I have started my college applications and I know I won’t be able to pay every dollar for tuition, room and board, and other essentials. So when my editor at Represent told me about Mayor Adam’s announcement about a college financial assistance program for NYC-based youth in foster care, I wanted to learn more about it.  

• My Burdens as an Adoptee 

  by J.M.

  I was born in Kentucky and only had about three days with my birth mother before I was put into foster care. While nine months pregnant with me, she had been apprehended by the police and forcibly hospitalized because she was homeless and suffering a psychotic episode.

• Adjusting to My Adoptive Family

  by George Romero

  When I was first adopted out of foster care at age 6, everyone in my new family was sweet to me. It seemed like there was a lot of love. In addition to my two adoptive parents, I had six new siblings.