Born Between the Lines: How Two QE Students Brought Adoption Issues to the Microphone
Most podcasts start with an idea and someone willing to see it through. Born Between the Lines: Lucy's Adoption Story started when Lucy came to staff at Queen Ethelburga's with a story she wanted to tell. She had always been open about being adopted, and she felt the subject was talked about far too little and understood even less. She wanted to change that, and she wanted to do it on her own terms, in her own voice.
"Adoption is part of my identity, like my family, friends and hobbies." Lucy
What followed was a five-part series made almost entirely by students. Lucy and her best friend Anna, who took on the role of Director, researched, planned, recorded and presented every episode themselves. The only part of the process they handed over was the edit. Everything else, from the first idea to the final thank-you at the end of the finale, belongs to them.
A story worth telling
Lucy can't remember a time when she didn't know she was adopted. Her parents explained it to her so young that there was never a moment of discovery, only a story that grew up alongside her.
Growing up, though, she noticed how little other people understood. She was told she was the lucky one, which nobody would think to say to a friend who wasn't adopted. At primary school a boy asked whether she used to work in an orphanage, and nobody corrected him. Later she heard adoption used as a joke by people who had no idea they were joking about her.
None of this is told with bitterness. It simply made Lucy certain that the people around adopted young people often don't have the knowledge to support them, and that one way to change that is to start talking. She wanted adopted listeners to feel more confident about their own stories, and she wanted friends, families, schools and people thinking about adopting to come away understanding a little more.
"Instead of making assumptions or treating it as something unusual, we should listen, learn and appreciate the different experiences people have." Anonymous contributor
Lucy presents and organised every interview herself, reaching out to adoption professionals, support services and families, and persuading them to come and speak to her about something deeply personal. That meant putting herself out there again and again, making calls and sending emails that most adults would find daunting, and taking responsibility for keeping the whole project moving.
Anna behind the scenes
Anna is Lucy's best friend, and director of the project. She is on the microphone too. In the opening episode she co-hosts with Lucy, gently steering the conversation through its most personal moments, and it's clear throughout that the series rests on a friendship built on trust. In the finale Lucy thanks Anna as her best friend and says she will always cherish the moments they've shared, both in person and on the podcast.
Made in our studio
The series was recorded in the dedicated podcast studio at Queen Ethelburga's, a space where students come to learn, express themselves, and have fun. It's a place for any student with something to say, whether that's a passion, a question or, as in Lucy's case, a story they have carried their whole life. Born Between the Lines shows how much students can achieve with the right space, good equipment and the freedom to lead their own work. It also shows the confidence that comes from doing it.
How the series works
Each episode combines Lucy's personal reflections with conversations with people who know adoption from the inside, whether through lived experience or professional practice. Across the series Lucy and Anna bring in adoption professionals, an adopted adult who now manages a regional support service, and a mother and daughter whose family was formed through adoption.
The finale is built from anonymous contributions Lucy gathered from across the adoption community.
Underneath all of it runs a letter.
Lucy ends every episode by reading part of a letter addressed to her biological parents, and in the final episode she reads the whole thing, start to finish. It's the thread that holds the series together, and it builds slowly, from uncertainty towards something much more settled.
"Family is always different. My family are the centre, but you are still a part of mine." Lucy
The episodes
Lucy and Anna open the series by looking at what adoption actually means, beyond the rather cold legal definition. They take apart some common myths, including the ideas that you must be young, wealthy or married to adopt. Lucy then starts to share her own story, from how it was first explained to her to the comments she has faced at school, and sets out one of the series' central ideas: that family is built through relationships, love and shared experience, not biology alone.
Key theme: identity and family
Lucy speaks with Charlotte and Steph from One Adoption West Yorkshire. Charlotte works with prospective adopters from their first enquiry through to being matched with a child, and Steph supports children, young people and adoptive parents once an adoption order is in place.
"Our job is to find families for our children, not children for our families." Charlotte, One Adoption West Yorkshire
They explain how the process works, why understanding trauma and life-story work matters so much, and what support is available long after a child moves in. Their message is clear: the aim is to find families for children, not children for families.
Key theme: a child-centred process
Holly and her mum, Jane, join Lucy for the warmest conversation in the series. They describe adoption as simply a normal part of their family story, and Jane remembers how Holly, then a baby, crawled straight past everyone else to the older brother who had been adamant he didn't want a new sibling. By the end of the visit he was asking when she was moving in. Holly also talks about contacting her birth mother after turning 18, and why doing so didn't change the family she grew up in.
Key theme: belonging
Lucy is joined by Tanya, Practice Manager for the Adopteens service, who is a social worker and an adopted adult herself. They look at the stereotypes adopted young people still hear, from being called unwanted to being told they should be grateful, and at how often adoption is used as a throwaway joke.
"Adoption is lifelong. You don't suddenly stop being adopted." Tanya, Adopteen
Tanya explains why support shouldn't stop at 18, and why schools have such an important part to play in helping adopted students feel understood.
Key theme: adoption is lifelong
The finale brings together anonymous voices from adopted people, adoptive parents, friends and professionals, each answering questions about childhood, understanding and the message they would leave for future generations.
"It's not about bloodlines, it's about nurturing." Anonymous contributor
Lucy also shares a significant step of her own. She wrote to her biological parents, and both replied within days. She describes it as the start of a bridge. The series closes with the complete letter she has been writing throughout.
Key theme: the future
What Lucy and Anna learned
Over five episodes you can hear both of them growing into their roles. The first episode is a conversation between two friends working out how to talk about something personal. By the finale Lucy is presenting a collective story, drawing together voices from across the adoption community and shaping them into something coherent and moving.
Some of the most striking moments come when Lucy's story overlaps with her guests'. As Tanya lists the comments adopted teenagers hear most often, Lucy recognises almost every one, and points out how telling it is that people from completely different backgrounds describe practically the same experiences. It's the kind of observation that only comes from someone with lived experience in the room, which is exactly Tanya's point when she argues that accurate portrayals of adoption have to be led by adopted people themselves.
The project changed things beyond the studio as well. Lucy says she has grown since she started the podcast, and the letter that began as a closing segment became a real one, posted and answered. Where it leads is still open. It might become a relationship, or bring more answers, or simply give her a fuller understanding of her own story, and Lucy seems comfortable leaving that question unanswered for now.
Born Between the Lines doesn't try to offer one definitive account of adoption. Its strength is that it makes room for many. Two students walked into the studio with an idea and walked out with a series that is honest, thoughtful, and entirely their own, one that asks listeners to replace assumptions with curiosity and to understand that adoption isn't a single event in the past but part of who a person is. As Lucy writes in her letter, it's part of her identity, like her family, her friends and her hobbies.
Series: Born Between the Lines: Lucy's Adoption Story
Host: Lucy Director and co-host: Anna
Recorded at: The Queen Ethelburga's podcast studio, York
Episodes: Five
Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other podcast platforms https://queenethelburgas.podbean.com/
With huge thanks to Charlotte, Steph, Tanya, Holly and Jane, and to everyone who contributed anonymously.
