A tireless advocate for
adoptee’s rights, Zara has
worked faithfully for the
cause while researching
her own birth history and
raising her own children.
She has written books
on the subject, attended
groups, lobbied the state
legislature and more;
so how has this affected
her music and day to day
life?
“Oh God it has affected everything
in my life; that’s why I
wrote, Somebody’s Daughter and
that’s where I really delve into
that,” stated Phillips. “I have another
book called, Mother Me which
I wrote about 10 years ago that
was about what it’s like for an adopted
person to become a mother
or a father and about the pregnancy
and giving birth and keeping
a baby. I always had a lot of
depression when I was younger
and didn’t really understand why
and I could never really talk about
the adoption and I think that’s why
I acted out. Adoptees can really
carry these feelings of I’m a mistake,
I wasn’t meant to be here,
something terrible happened and
nobody is telling me; there’s so
much secrecy and feeling like a
mistake was a huge thing for me.
My mother was young, I knew she
wasn’t married, there was shame,
so much shame around it especially
in the ‘60’s and I carried a lot
of that and then when I moved to
America, I started going to adoption
conferences.
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 72
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