How Being Adopted Sparked My Entrepreneurial Spirit

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Entrepreneurship has been art of my heart and soul since I was a kid.  It recently crossed my mind that maybe adoption prepared me for entrepreneurship in some way.  Maybe it prepared me for the adversity?  Maybe it gave me a hunger for doing things differently?  Maybe it made me more able to face rejection?

I thought about it a bit and shared my thoughts on America Adopts!  Check it out here.  Share with anyone you think might relate and please give me your thoughts!  Can being an adopted kid really influence your career choice?

And remember to support That Adopted Girl in creating self-worth empowerment events for girls in the foster care system by sharing on social media and making donations (100% of which go towards the organization) at thatadoptedgirl.com/donate.

All the best,

J

New Years Gifts for Kids in Foster Care 2017

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THANK YOU to all of the That Adopted Girl (thatadoptedgirl.com) donors and contributors who made this give possible! Together we brought New Year gifts to the Group home this morning!

We gave 30 Gift bags stuffed with self-care goodies (fun stuff like face masks, manicure kits and fuzzy socks).  Each bag was hand decorated with positive quotes by our group of volunteers.  Each bag was accompanied by a copy of Rising Strong by Brené Brown

We chose Rising Strong because it is a powerful book for anyone rising from shame, and because That Adopted Girl founder Juliana Whitney’s birth mom said that the book helped her work with the guilt she had about giving me up for adoption, so we hope it can help the girls turn their wounds into wisdom as well. 💕🙏🏻

That Adopted Girl Events Update 2016

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HERE IS AN UPDATE ON THE SELF WORTH EVENTS POWERED BY YOUR DONATIONS IN 2016!

WE WANTED YOU TO KNOW WHAT WE WERE UP TO WITH THIS TINY BUT POWERFUL NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION!  BECAUSE OF YOU, THAT ADOPTED GIRL WAS ABLE TO PROVIDE FUN EXPERIENCES AND GIFTS FOR GIRLS IN THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM IN 2016!

JANUARY – SWEET

Self-Worth Encourage Empower Thrive

20 girls

Started the morning with a self worth exercise (“shadow box”) where the girls made a collage of everything the show to the world on the outside of the box and everything they hide from the world on the inside of the box and we talked about why they hide what they hide, and what they could potentially gain and give by sharing their truth.

Next had mac make-up artists lead a tutorial and he gave amazing mac makeup gift bags.

We then had lunch catered by a local sandwich shop and headed to JM Hair Galleries for hair styling and positive life advice.

After the salon the girls headed to the Jeff Civillico family friendly show at the Flamingo on the Las Vegas Strip.  It was a blast!

Finished the night off with family style dinner at Lindo Michoachan.

FEBRUARY – SELF LOVE VALENTINE’S DAY EVENT

25 girls

Italian family style dinner, dancing, roses, boxed chocolates, cupcakes and a presentation and conversation surrounding the importance of loving one self and knowing one’s worth.

 

MARCH – EASTER BASKETS

Hand crafted 26 Easter baskets for girls in the foster care system!

 

JULY – BIRTHDAY WINE FUNDRAISER

Being an adopted kid, Founder Juliana Whitney can get bit emotional on her birthday.  Instead of focusing too much on herself she wanted to use her day of adoption to help kids in the foster care system by turning her birthday celebration into a fundraiser.  Wine tasting fundraiser at Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits.

 

 

NOVEMBER HOLIDAY GIFT BAGS

30 gift bags

Youth helping youth.  Gathered 30 high school students to build 30 holiday gift bags filled with candy, fuzzy socks, face masks, manicure kits, hair ties, and more.

Make a donation at thatadoptedgirl.com/donate

or through paypal to: thatadoptedgirl.com

You can also add That Adopted Girl, Inc to your smile.amazon.com account (it’s the same as your amazon account, you just add a smile in the front)!  Don’t know about amazon smile?  You use it just the same as amazon but overtime you shop a portion of what you spend goes to the charity of your choosing!  Choose That Adopted Girl, Inc!

Sponsor a Girl in Foster Care This Valentine’s Day 2016

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Sponsor a Valentine's Day Dinner for a Girl In the Foster Care System for only $23(1)This is the time to POWER share this so we can get the last 25 seats filled for the self love Valentine’s Day event for the girls in the foster care system!! You can become a sponsor and share this post to find more sponsors like you 💕💕💕Hello beautiful people! You can be the sponsor of a girl in the foster care system, reserving a spot for her at the Self Love V-Day dinner event by donating $23 at http://www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com 💕 The girls will enjoy a lovely dinner accompanied by teachings about the importance of self love, what it means, how to build it and how to maintain it. Self love is something that many young girls struggle with and foster care makes that struggle even more difficult. By sponsoring a girl you will help her create a happy childhood memory and learn how lovable she truly is! 💕 #vday #bemine #valentinesday #loveyou #selflove #worthy #charity #forthecause #truelove #changelives #makeadifference #empower #inspire #girls #pink #dinnerdate #xoxo #beautiful #lovelife #loveislife #loveyourself #loved

 

http://www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

Doing V-Day Differently for Girls In The Foster Care System

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That Adopted Girl Inc. is taking Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to teach girls in the foster care system about SELF love.  The girls will enjoy a multi-course dinner and learn about allowing other people love them, but not depending upon the love of others  in order to feel complete. Every young girl could benefit from this lesson, and girls in the foster care system, even more so.  You can sponsor 1 girl’s spot in this event for only $23 dollars by donating at here.  There are 50 spots available!  Let’s get every spot filled and empower these girls with a sense of self love ❤

 

Juliana Whitney

Founder & President

That Adopted Girl Inc.

http://www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

Facebook

Twitter

 

What is Worthy?

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The guy wearing this wristband had a moment where someone commented on his sexuality in a derogatory manner, saying “that’s homo.” He looked at me and said “did you hear what that guy said?” I saw a glimpse of serious pain on his face so I took this WORTHY wristband off of my wrist, gave it to him and told him all about the WORTHY mission…the message in my heart being, “you are worthy.”

Let me tell you about WORTHY….
***This is a bit long but if you start reading it, please read it to the end. It’s worth it.

WORTHY: It’s a tribe, a philosophy and a movement. Everyone is welcome.

You may or may not have noticed that I focus on promoting self worth and ‪#‎TheWorthyTribe‬, especially through That Adopted Girl

WHY out of all the words in the world did I choose worthy to represent the company, to be a motto in my life and to create a tribe around?

First let me tell you that a person with a sense of self worth is more likely to be joyful, successful and fulfilled. They are more likely to maintain their boundaries, walk away from toxic situations, go after what they want, treat themselves well and treat others well.

Self worth is a sense of one’s inherent value as a human being. 

*This isn’t all about foster and adopted kids so hang with me.*
Adopted and foster kids struggle immensely with self worth for numerous reasons.It might be sadness and confusion about why their biological parents (the people who are supposed to have an undying love for them) were either unwilling or unable to care for them. It might be physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect or relinquishment. The Worthy message was created partly for them. So that they may be told they are worthy, so that they may experience being treated as a worthy person, so that they may find their sense of self worth as they hear the message repeated and so they may feel like they belong by being part of the tribe.

WORTHY goes so much further. Human beings in general struggle with self worth. You, me, the family down the street. It may be a deep struggle and it may be a slight struggle that pops up from time to time. It could be triggered by rejection, failure, disappointment. You might start feeling unworthy when you go through a break up, when you get in trouble at work, when your loved ones don’t believe in your dream, when you don’t get an invite, when an audience doesn’t respond to your performance the way you thought they would, when an investor doesn’t think your concept is worth investing in, when someone makes a derogatory comment about your race, sex, sexuality, physicality, intelligence… On top of that, we are inundated with advertising, media messaging and societal norms that are designed to point out things that make someone worthy, and of course point out that you don’t have those things. But you could have those things, and be worthy, if only you X and Y and Z.

The point is that there are a lot of things in life that challenge our ability to recognize our own worth. Because of that, on some level we can understand how low and heavy a lack of self worth can feel, how much it can hurt and how much better life is with your sense of self-worth in tact.

#TheWorthyTribe is for you. For everyone who on some level understands what it’s like to question ones worth. Everyone who deeply struggles with finding their worth. Everyone who only questions their worth from time to time. Everyone who can maintain their sense of self worth through thick and thin, come rain or shine. Everyone who wants to promote self worth in others. Everyone who wants to live in the positive rather than the negative, in love rather than hate, in WORTHINESS rather than degradation.

EVERYONE

If we all worked on developing a strong sense of worth in ourselves and others, imagine how different the world would be. Seriously, think about how many debates, fights and political issues are actually about who is worth more and who is worth less.

The Worthy Tribe – a tribe of people internationally who believe in and promote the worth of themselves and the worth of others. None more, none less.

Everyone is welcome.

One of my favorite parts of this tribe is that, by being part of the tribe, the people who feel invisible, who feel like they are on the outside looking in, who feel like they are forgotten or like they have been thrown away by society (like foster kids)…..they can feel like they belong again

You are worthy.

#TheWorthyTribe

To learn more and support, visit www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

 

6 Year Old Donates to Charity To Help Other Kids

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A little girl named Jade, 6 years old, painted these pictures in her art therapy session and donated them to the That Adopted Girl National Adoption Month awareness art gallery show. She really wanted to help the cause and we were MORE than happy to add her pieces to the show heart emoticon. Jade unfortunately lost a parent to illness a couple of years ago so when she heard what foster kids experience she connected to it on some level. She said that she could be in foster care if she had lost both parents, which she really hopes never happens. Both of Jade’s paintings sold today!!! Imagine, 6 years old with a huge heart wanting to help raise awareness for other kids, and now also having sold her first art pieces!

Thank you SO much Jade for your contribution!

YOU can join Jade by making a contribution to the awareness campaigns, empower hours and other life changing programs at www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com.

(* Name has been changed to protect identity)

National Adoption Month Awareness Project 2015

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The That Adopted Girl ‘ Forgotten Futures’ gallery opening last night held at EDEN Art Studio and Gallery in The Arts Factory was awesome! We are immensely proud of this awareness campaign during National Adoption Month. The campaign and the opening night manifested almost exactly as we envisioned! The vibe was just right with music by Vertex, wine from Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits , gourmet popcorn from Popped and incredible people from across the Las Vegas Valley.

The pieces in Forgotten Futures were created from the hearts, minds and experiences of foster youth, former foster youth and local Las Vegas artists. They are inspiring and powerful, and they speak volumes about the kids in the foster care system and of adopted kids across the U.S.

Guests were looking at the paintings, reading the stories that went with each painting and raising their social consciousness. More than once we heard “I didn’t know that kind of thing happened” and “WOW.”

A BIG thank you to everyone who came and showed support, made generous donations and purchased some of the art pieces. We had so much fun and are excited for the next 2 weeks of the show! Take some time this week to experience Forgotten Futures by That Adopted Girl.

– The team at That Adopted Girl
Learn more and contribute at www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

PS
You can visit the gallery anytime between now and December 4th at EDEN Gallery at 107 E. Charleston Blvd.
Also on closing night December 4th the whole team will be at the gallery 6-10!

For more information contact coordinator@thatadoptedgirl.com

To learn more about That Adopted Girl and to make a donation to the cause, visit http://www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

If you would like to visit the gallery show, it is up until December 4th (First Friday) at the EDEN gallery at 107 E. Charleston Blvd!

 

The Webb Schools: Juliana Whitney ’07 is a ’40 Under 40 Rising Star’

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Source: The Webb Schools: Juliana Whitney ’07 is a ’40 Under 40 Rising Star’

 

Love the Alma Mater.  Check out the new website!  http://www.ThatAdoptedGirl.com

Best National Adoption Month Awareness Campaign In Las Vegas

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Best National Adoption Month Awareness Campaign In Las Vegas (Art submission still being accepted)

Non-profit teams with downtown Las Vegas gallery to use art for social change

The non-profit organization That Adopted Girl has partnered with Eden Art Studio & Gallery in Downtown Las Vegas for what is being deemed, “the best National Adoption Month awareness campaign in Las Vegas.”

From November 7th to December 4th (First Friday) The Eden Gallery will host Forgotten Futures – an art collection bluntly illustrating issues with the foster care system and adoption. Art pieces depicting issues with the foster care system will be created by local Las Vegas artists. Other pieces are being created by teens in the foster care system, depicting their real life experiences of the system from the inside.

Las Vegas artists are welcome to contact coordinator@thatadoptedgirl.com for questions about submissions.

“It is important to not sugar coat things. When we look at things for what they are, we can move toward change, or at least social awareness. The art in the Forgotten Futures awareness campaign illustrates adoption and foster care issues in an upfront and easily digestible way. Our goal is to get people to pay attention.” – Juliana Whitney, Founder & President of That Adopted Girl Inc.

ABOUT

That Adopted Girl is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded by Juliana Whitney, an adopted girl, in 2014 to improve the lives of America’s abandoned children and to raise awareness about foster care and adoption in the United States.

EDEN [Art Studio & Gallery] is Las Vegas’ venue for compelling contemporary art. The gallery is committed to presenting intelligent and culturally relevant exhibitions featuring work from some of today’s most dynamic artists with growing local and international reputations. Established in 2014, located in Las Vegas’ downtown Arts District, and under the guidance of Eden Pastor and Justin Lepper, EDEN is one of the best places to spot Las Vegas’ up-and-comers as well as established artists as it presents a vital force in the Las Vegas art scene with an emphasis on painting, urban art, and illustrative works.

For further information contact

Devin Alescia coordinator@thatadoptedgirl.com