When was the last time you saw a donor conceived character in a book, TV show, or film?
Think about it. You’ve probably seen characters who are adopted or in foster care. Characters with step-parents. Characters with same-sex parents. Characters from single-parent households. The cultural landscape increasingly reflects diverse family origin stories—except one.
Donor conceived people are nearly invisible in mainstream media. And when they do appear, they’re almost always in a story about scandal. Why is that?
The Problem: Invisibility and Sensationalism
There are two interconnected problems with how donor conception is represented in media.
Invisibility. Most media doesn’t feature donor conceived characters at all. This creates a representation gap. Donor conceived people — especially young people during the exact years when they begin forming their sense of identity — rarely see donor conceived characters stories they consume. They might search for mirrors and find almost nothing. This sends an implicit message: people like them don’t exist in our cultural stories. This part of their identity isn’t worthy of representation.
Access to donor conceived characters and narratives can be quietly powerful, not just for those navigating big questions, but for those who aren’t. A donor conceived person who picks up a book and finds a character who is deciding about searching for their donor, or who has a large donor sibling cohort, or who simply exists as a donor conceived person without that being the whole point of their story, gets something important: that they’re not alone in an experience. When we encounter a character whose experience mirrors ours, it lands. It validates something that so rarely gets named. But there are so few of those moments.
Sensationalism. Appearing in a story isn’t the same as being heard in one. The rare times donor conception does appear in mainstream media, it’s almost always dramatic. Shocking. A plot twist. And while donor conceived people might be present in these narratives, the perspective is rarely theirs. The story often centers parents or donors or is told by outside observers. Donor conceived people are there, but as subjects, not as authorities on their own experience.
This is its own form of erasure. When donor conceived people try to talk about their actual feelings — the curiosity, the grief, the confusion, the anticipation, the anger — these narratives drown them out. A donor conceived person trying to express nuance gets lost in a culture that only listens when the story is dramatic. And when real harms do appear — the parent who concealed conception, the withheld medical history, the violation of trust — sensationalism transforms legitimate grievances into entertainment. Pain that deserves to be centered on donor conceived people’s own terms gets repackaged as shocking, surprising, salacious.
The Broader Impact
When society encounters only one kind of story, people develop a skewed understanding. They believe donor conception is inherently fraught, mysterious, or scandalous. They develop opinions about what donor conceived people should feel, want, or need, without actually listening to what donor conceived people are saying. They hear stories about donor conceived people, but rarely stories from donor conceived people.
Authentic representation builds empathy and understanding. When people encounter the full spectrum of donor conceived experiences through media and culture, their beliefs shift. They recognize donor conception as one of many ways families form. They understand donor-conceived people as complete humans with varied, complex experiences. They develop a more nuanced and empathetic understanding.
What Authentic Representation of Donor Conception Could Look Like
Authentic representation of donor-conceived people could mean:
- The full spectrum of emotions and experiences: from curiosity about genetic origins to complete indifference, from contentedness to grief and anger, from connection to distancing
- All forms of donor conception (sperm, egg, or embryo donors), all donor identity arrangements (anonymous, identity-release, or known), all disclosure timelines (early knowledge, late disclosure, or discovery through DNA testing), and all family structures (solo parent, co-parenting, queer, multi-parent, trans)
- Intersectional representation that acknowledges how donor conceived identity intersects with other identities
In short: representation that reflects reality, told with dignity and complexity.
Parts of Me: Addressing the Gap
Parts of Me exists to address this gap directly. We expand authentic representation of donor-conceived people across arts, media, and culture through three integrated approaches:
We curate existing representation. We identify resources—books, films, TV shows, podcasts, and more—that feature the full breadth of donor conceived representation. We’re making them discoverable and accessible, so donor conceived people and their families can find the mirrors that already exist.
We fund and amplify donor-conceived creators. We support donor conceived artists, writers, musicians, and other creators—the people whose lived experience gives them unique authority to tell these stories. When donor conceived creators get funding and visibility, they produce work that reflects the actual complexity and diversity of the donor conceived experience.
We work with media professionals to improve representation. We provide guidance, resources, and consultation to journalists, writers, screenwriters, and storytellers who want to include donor conceived representation in their work. Many of these professionals are committed to diverse representation. They just need tools and expertise.
That’s the world we’re building.
Explore Our Work
- Browse our DCP Stories Collection to discover existing authentic donor conceived representation
- Meet Donor-Conceived Creators whose works are shifting narratives
- Access our Media Guidance if you’re creating or reporting on donor conception
- Learn about Creator Fellowships (launching Year 2)
