About Us

Zoe Hansen-DiBello and Ellie Robinson, co-founders of Adoptee Identity and Unfolding app, a wellbeing app for adoptees and their village.

Co-founders and fellow adoptees, Zoë Hansen-DiBello and Ellie Robinson

Built by adoptees, because we needed this. 

We know what it means to live with the complexity of being adopted. For adoptees, doctor’s visits, birthdays, holidays, and everything in between, come with layers of loss and gratitude, joy and anger, vulnerability and resilience. 

Unfolding is something simple to return to daily, reminding us that identity development as an adoptee lasts a lifetime, and to heal and love ourselves fully, we must normalize curiosity and nuance around feelings of belonging. When we created this product, we sought to develop a practice for building a common language around the themes that arise for adoptees, in life's small and big moments and milestones. Unfolding is here to support adoptees in developing a more authentic relationship with ourselves — and to invite the people who care for us into that work, too.

The Statistics

Infographic showing statistics related to adoption and mental health risks. The statistics state: 6 in 10 people have a personal experience with adoption, 50% are estimated to be adopted from the foster care system, 2x as likely to develop a substance use disorder, and 4x greater risk for attempting suicide than non-adopted peers.

*Source: National Institutes of Health & Donaldson Adoption Institute