Presented at the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) 2025 Symposium Healing During Uncertainty: Asian American Mental Health in May 2025

Abstract

There have been over 200,000 overseas adopted Koreans since the 1950s. In 1998, twelve of these adoptees who had returned formed G.O.A.’L. [Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link], the first adoptee-led non-profit and NGO in Korea. G.O.A.’L. offers services ranging from community engagement, mental health support, language scholarships, and assistance for adoptees pursuing birth family search. The initial branding artistically represented the broken feeling of belonging felt by adoptees in Korea through an illegible use of Hangul, the Korean alphabet and writing system. However, as more and more adoptees returned and integrated into Korean society, the organization outgrew this initial representation. While living in Seoul, I developed a new branding identity for G.O.A.’L. that launched in 2020. The new branding incorporates traditional symbolism and specific branding rules that reflect the complexity of adoptee identity. Many in our community are adopted transnationally and transracially, facing unique lifelong challenges both in Korea and where we grew up. This rebranding visualizes the dualities in Korean adoptees, and helps the organization better represent itself professionally within Korean society.