Narrative Ownership: Authoring Your Own Story

Sor Juana was a writer—poetry, prose, argument—who claimed the power to shape narrative rather than be shaped by it. She resisted being cast as victim or heretic, instead authoring her own intellectual legacy. Narrative ownership means refusing to let adoption professionals, adoptive parents, birth relatives, or society author your story. You become the writer. This doesn't deny others' roles in your history; rather, it claims your interpretive authority. You decide what your adoption means: Was it rescue? Loss? Chance? Justice? Complexity? You determine what relationship, if any, you pursue with biological family. You compose the narrative arc of your identity development. This concept invites adopted people to move from passive audience to active author—to write in journals, create art, tell your story publicly, revise it as you grow, and insist that your version holds equal weight with any external narrative about who you are or what adoption means.