Teenage Westwood Native Launches Website About Adoption For Teens

Westwood native Olivia Malcolmson, who is a junior at The Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, has launched RealTalkAdoption.com. The website is based in Malcolmson’s lived experience as an adoptee and the experiences of her peers who are adoptees. This was a project which she completed through her school’s Norton Fellowship, with financial assistance from a grant from Westwood’s IAM Strong Foundation.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. Malcolmson states that RealTalkAdoption “is an online resource for adopted teens to promote healthy conversations within their families. The premise is that healthy conversations may lead to healthy relationships, which may ultimately lead to a healthier wellbeing.”

Malcomson was quoted on Loomis Chaffee’s website as saying “I've always known I was adopted, and my parents were always open to talking about it.”

Funding from the Westwood-based IAM Strong Foundation as well as through the Norton Fellowship enabled her to hire a web developer for the Wordpress site. RealTalkAdoption’s About Us page states “We hope to encourage tweens and teenagers to open up a healthy dialogue about adoption within their families. Sometimes, it can be difficult to talk about adoption. However, effective communication within families strengthens relationships by allowing individuals to freely express themselves to one another. Expressing your feelings is important. Talking about your concerns and insecurities may help in working through them. Actively suppressing emotions deeply affects your overall health. Talking is a great way to convey your feelings, and when talking about adoption, it may be good to start with your family. On this site, you will find a wide range of topics covered, as well as suggestions on how to initiate and maintain a healthy discussion.”

When Westwood Patch with IAM Strong’s Antonia Nedder in July, she mentioned this project by name as a successful result of IAM Strong’s grants.

RealTalkAdoption can be found at RealTalkAdoption.com. The site also has an Instagram, Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube channel, and Tumblr.

Photo Credit: The Loomis Chaffee School

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• The Westwood housing survey closes on November 5.