Being mixed has made it hard for me to label myself
My parents were both mixed people who had me so I’m not predominantly anything and I didn’t grow up with any traditions so I feel really alienated from my peers. I’m mixed with Indonesian, Dutch, Irish, and Mexican. My mom was Mexican and Irish and my dad is Indonesian and Dutch (specifically Indo) and very dark. My parents raised me to just be American so we have no connection to any traditions from both sides.
It has made it challenging going through life as my siblings and me don’t necessarily look like any of what we are mixed with. Two of my sisters look East Asian and my brother looks white. I however am dark like my dad and have his features, but I don’t have his eyes so people just assume I’m Mexican from my skin tone and say I’m lying when I tell them I’m also Asian.
My biggest issue is a lot of people outside of my family assume I’m adopted. They see my siblings and how they look and assume they have one full white parent and see me and wonder where I came from. When I tell them what I am they treat me like I’m trying to pretend to be Asian to seem cooler. It’s been really hard for my identity because I grow up in the state of always having to prove what I am and because of that I don’t even know what to label myself.