Korean-American Author and Adoption Historian, JANINE MYUNG JA
재닌 명자 | 입양 전문가

Author of the Rare Adoption for Adults Collective.

About the Author

International multi-award-winning recipient and gold-medalist author Janine Myung Ja has written numerous books in the genres of memoir, anthology, history, politics, and self-help. Janine has been interviewed in newspapers, television, and radio from Seattle, Washington in the United States to Seoul, South Korea, including BBC Radio, Huffington Post, Northwest Afternoon, Northwest Asian Weekly, Dong-A Ilbo, and Chosun.

Janine is the pioneering curator of an anthology titled “Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists,” spotlighting the experiences of adult adoptees from Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. She then researched and wrote an investigational book on the history of adoption, unveiling the tactics used to obtain children for adoption. She shares personal experiences in two memoirs, one focusing on her childhood experience and the other on her search for her birth family with her twin, titled “The Search for Mother Missing: A Peek Inside International Adoption.”

Giving a Voice to Korean Adoptees

Janine has been examining adoption since the death of her adoptive mother in 1997. Her work also includes an anthology of diverse yet unified Korean adoptee voices and an empowering book that recognizes the inherent human rights all people should have–including adopted people who are deprived of their roots caused by the permanent separation involved because of adoption.

Thirty years of Caregiving

Korean Adoptees Worldwide Featured Author, Janine Myung Ja

Korean Adoptees Worldwide Network Twins, Found in a Box: Adapting to Adoption

Between 1984 to 2021, Janine provided full-time care for her adoptive father, a former aerospace engineer, after a traumatic brain injury from a hang-gliding accident impacted his speech, sight, balance, and fine and gross motor control skills. Vance’s simple suggestions on coping with life’s surprises can be found in an encouraging book condensed from her experiences after more than thirty years of caregiving experience. contact@janinevance.com for interviews on her personal story.

Curator of Adoption Trafficking Awareness Symposium

Author and American-Korean Historian Janine Myung Ja is a proponent of the human-rights-based investigational agency Against Child Trafficking (ACT), Europe. As a director of ACT in the USA, Janine launched the first Adoption Trafficking Awareness Symposium, bringing attention to the intersection between child trafficking and international adoption. As a writing consultant, her professional mission is to protect local and global families from exploitation with information that gives a bird’s-eye view, a deep-dive into the history of the practice and also considers the adopted child into their elder years, families separated by adoption, and parent of loss. Janine accepts written interviews at info@adoptionhistory.org.