What makes youth in and from care so awesome? Stay tuned for the launch of the 2025 #YouthInCareAreAwesome campaign!
Check out the previous contributions from the #YouthInCareAreAwesome Campaign! Look below for incredible skill and talent, inspiring messages, youth rooting for each other, and stories about personal growth, rising to challenges, and finding success.
Contact Taylor at [email protected] if you have any questions about the campaign.
Contact Taylor at [email protected] if you have any questions about the campaign.
BC Child & Youth in Care Week by TJ I
TRIGGER WARNING: This piece talks about substance use.
Hey all!
My name is TJ, and I am a former youth in care who was under the Ministry of Children and Family Development from the age of 9 until age 16. When most people think about kids in care, the first thought that comes to their head is usually, ‘troubled.’ Without buttering anything up I will agree with this statement; we are troubled. However, this is not our fault.
Being taken away from our families and everything we know is scary. I can remember being brought to my first home and having just a jumble of mixed emotions. I was terrified, I was confused, and most importantly, I was sad. As a child in care, we must overcome so many more obstacles in life than most kids do and should have to. It shapes us into strong people, yet the emotional effect it leaves on us is what makes us troubled. I know from my own experience, the trauma from my childhood led me down a darker path as I navigated my way through high school. If you are anything like me, we bottled up our emotions, pushed them further and further down, so they don’t have to be dealt with. This ultimately guides us down an unhealthy road.
For me, I started coping by smoking marijuana on a regular basis, and from there it branched out into trying harder drugs and surrounding myself with the wrong people. I spent most of my high school years down this path. I did not know my worth, I did not know the potential I had, and lastly, I felt I did not deserve to be happy and healthy. Part of me felt like I was destined to go down the same road as many of my biological family has.
Things started to change for me as time went on. I was placed in my last foster home at age 14. This is where my life changed for the better. It took me a while to warm up to my new home, as it should. As more and more of a relationship was built with my new foster parent, she started to shift my negative views of myself. She always believed in me when I was at my worst, she always knew my potential and reminded me of it often. Although this did not completely change some of the ways I thought of myself, hearing it on a regular basis slowly started to shift my train of thought which is just what I needed. I had never had anyone notice me for my worth the way that she did and make me so aware of it.
At age 15, I asked my foster parent to adopt me. She said yes. As a child in care there is always a piece of life that is missing: security. We feel alone, we see what other kids have and we know where we’re not as fortunate. After I asked to be adopted, things continued to change for the better. I began to start realizing my worth, I began to realize my potential, and I started to love who I am as a person. I still struggled, mainly with my marijuana usage, but my emotional health was getting stronger and stronger by the day.
Today, I am 21 years old and currently in college studying to start a career in interior design. My former foster parent who is now my mom, continues to remind me of how intelligent I am, and continues to support me on any journey I decide to embark on. Even if you did not get the privilege or do not want the security of being adopted like I was, the biggest message I want to pass on here is that you are strong, you are worthy, you are loved, and you can achieve anything you put your mind to, including success. The reason I think us children or youth in care, or former youth in care should be celebrated is because yes, we are troubled, but we must work harder at success than most. That deserves celebration in my opinion.
I would like to say thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I will leave you with a quote that has helped me through some of my toughest times.
“This too, shall pass.” – Abraham Lincoln
Hey all!
My name is TJ, and I am a former youth in care who was under the Ministry of Children and Family Development from the age of 9 until age 16. When most people think about kids in care, the first thought that comes to their head is usually, ‘troubled.’ Without buttering anything up I will agree with this statement; we are troubled. However, this is not our fault.
Being taken away from our families and everything we know is scary. I can remember being brought to my first home and having just a jumble of mixed emotions. I was terrified, I was confused, and most importantly, I was sad. As a child in care, we must overcome so many more obstacles in life than most kids do and should have to. It shapes us into strong people, yet the emotional effect it leaves on us is what makes us troubled. I know from my own experience, the trauma from my childhood led me down a darker path as I navigated my way through high school. If you are anything like me, we bottled up our emotions, pushed them further and further down, so they don’t have to be dealt with. This ultimately guides us down an unhealthy road.
For me, I started coping by smoking marijuana on a regular basis, and from there it branched out into trying harder drugs and surrounding myself with the wrong people. I spent most of my high school years down this path. I did not know my worth, I did not know the potential I had, and lastly, I felt I did not deserve to be happy and healthy. Part of me felt like I was destined to go down the same road as many of my biological family has.
Things started to change for me as time went on. I was placed in my last foster home at age 14. This is where my life changed for the better. It took me a while to warm up to my new home, as it should. As more and more of a relationship was built with my new foster parent, she started to shift my negative views of myself. She always believed in me when I was at my worst, she always knew my potential and reminded me of it often. Although this did not completely change some of the ways I thought of myself, hearing it on a regular basis slowly started to shift my train of thought which is just what I needed. I had never had anyone notice me for my worth the way that she did and make me so aware of it.
At age 15, I asked my foster parent to adopt me. She said yes. As a child in care there is always a piece of life that is missing: security. We feel alone, we see what other kids have and we know where we’re not as fortunate. After I asked to be adopted, things continued to change for the better. I began to start realizing my worth, I began to realize my potential, and I started to love who I am as a person. I still struggled, mainly with my marijuana usage, but my emotional health was getting stronger and stronger by the day.
Today, I am 21 years old and currently in college studying to start a career in interior design. My former foster parent who is now my mom, continues to remind me of how intelligent I am, and continues to support me on any journey I decide to embark on. Even if you did not get the privilege or do not want the security of being adopted like I was, the biggest message I want to pass on here is that you are strong, you are worthy, you are loved, and you can achieve anything you put your mind to, including success. The reason I think us children or youth in care, or former youth in care should be celebrated is because yes, we are troubled, but we must work harder at success than most. That deserves celebration in my opinion.
I would like to say thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I will leave you with a quote that has helped me through some of my toughest times.
“This too, shall pass.” – Abraham Lincoln
A Changed Mindset by Dassa O
We all have a mindset based on what we hold as true, and depending on the mindset, you could be holding yourself back from doing something incredible. I know how hard it is to keep a mindset that calls you higher, a mindset that sets you up for greatness.
I was born into a society that told me from a very young age that I was going to fail, that I was not going to amount to much, and that I would most likely end up on the path that my family's history has created. Listening to those things would have been so easy. The path was already made, and it would have been easy just to allow myself to accept that mindset.
It was almost like it was already decided, like the labels that were put on me as a child and this corrupt society had made a decision that was never theirs’ to make in the first place. I didn’t know at the time, but I was almost robbed of the mindset of greatness. And the opportunity to do something incredible.
The damage was already there, but I had my family and community come around me to teach me what greatness looks like. They put the desire to be better and do better into my heart and I will never be able to thank them enough for that.
Through that I hold myself higher. I wake up with the mindset of ‘I embrace what was my yesterday, and what will be my tomorrow.’ I get to wake up and get to the places I want to be, decision by decision. I get to use my yesterday as a platform instead of a finish line. I don’t have to start on the same path that yesterday created, I get to start with today.
And today I’ve decided to wake up with the mindset of greatness.
I was born into a society that told me from a very young age that I was going to fail, that I was not going to amount to much, and that I would most likely end up on the path that my family's history has created. Listening to those things would have been so easy. The path was already made, and it would have been easy just to allow myself to accept that mindset.
It was almost like it was already decided, like the labels that were put on me as a child and this corrupt society had made a decision that was never theirs’ to make in the first place. I didn’t know at the time, but I was almost robbed of the mindset of greatness. And the opportunity to do something incredible.
The damage was already there, but I had my family and community come around me to teach me what greatness looks like. They put the desire to be better and do better into my heart and I will never be able to thank them enough for that.
Through that I hold myself higher. I wake up with the mindset of ‘I embrace what was my yesterday, and what will be my tomorrow.’ I get to wake up and get to the places I want to be, decision by decision. I get to use my yesterday as a platform instead of a finish line. I don’t have to start on the same path that yesterday created, I get to start with today.
And today I’ve decided to wake up with the mindset of greatness.
Youth in care are awesome! by Gabrielle R
You always shine bright like a diamond with your personality. Everyone loves you the way that you are. And you might not see it, but you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
You are what I want to be everyday. I know there are bad days, but you know how to change that. You know how to make a rainy day turn into a nice sunny day. There is so much that you can do, it just takes time to see it. When someone has a problem, you know how to solve it. It takes a strong person, a champion, to always believe in what they want and to stand up for others.
It doesn't matter how your life started, it's how you decide to change it for the better that you show others that you can do anything your mind is set to. And never think that you were the problem to begin with. In my eyes, parents are the problem and the child is the solution. I want you to always believe in yourself. I want you to know that you are loved by everyone in your life. Always have positivity around you, people who bring you up and who motivate you, because in life you will succeed.
You are what I want to be everyday. I know there are bad days, but you know how to change that. You know how to make a rainy day turn into a nice sunny day. There is so much that you can do, it just takes time to see it. When someone has a problem, you know how to solve it. It takes a strong person, a champion, to always believe in what they want and to stand up for others.
It doesn't matter how your life started, it's how you decide to change it for the better that you show others that you can do anything your mind is set to. And never think that you were the problem to begin with. In my eyes, parents are the problem and the child is the solution. I want you to always believe in yourself. I want you to know that you are loved by everyone in your life. Always have positivity around you, people who bring you up and who motivate you, because in life you will succeed.
More from the contributors!
“I think what makes youth in care awesome, is that even though we have experienced trauma and uncertainty in our lives, we find a way to move forward and work through it. One way that I keep myself grounded is by going out and expressing myself through my photography. It allows me to escape and create in a sort of therapeutic way. I’m proud to be a youth from care, and to all of my peers from care, just remember that we are all incredible, unique individuals.”- Braydon Chapelas, check out more of Braydon's amazing photography!
“My submission is inspired by the work youth in care continue to do to make the system better. We are awesome because we use our lived experiences to make changes despite not being listened to.” - Fatima H
“The trip [to Vietnam] was very special and meant a lot to me because it was the first trip I went on without any family. Being on my own in a foreign country was really scary, but I stayed for two and a half weeks and I had a good time!” - Theresa D
“My submission is inspired by the work youth in care continue to do to make the system better. We are awesome because we use our lived experiences to make changes despite not being listened to.” - Fatima H
“The trip [to Vietnam] was very special and meant a lot to me because it was the first trip I went on without any family. Being on my own in a foreign country was really scary, but I stayed for two and a half weeks and I had a good time!” - Theresa D
#yOuthInCareAreAwesome by Taylor Shuttleworth
I love this opportunity to share what I am proud about. It’s not often I think about my own accomplishments. There is so much I am proud of when I reflect on my journey. One thing I’m really proud of is my ability to lead my life with love. Love is at the forefront of everything I do. Even as a child who grew up around many adversities –Love was something I could always turn to.
