Meet Jennifer!
Hello!Founder of InventingNormal and The Part We Skip
I'm Jennifer, also known online as InventingNormal. I'm a wife, mother of seven, former foster parent, adoptive parent, legal guardian and passionate advocate for children and families.
My husband and I have been married for nearly 20 years, and we live in Oklahoma. Our seven children range in age from 10 to 30. My experiences with parenting, foster care, adoption and guardianship have given me a deeply personal perspective on the complexities of the American child welfare system.
While my family is an important part of what inspires my advocacy, I intentionally keep my children and grandchildren out of my online content. Their stories, identities and digital footprints belong to them.
Professionally, I bring an extensive background in communications, public relations, social media management and website design, including eight years of experience as a Director of Communications. Throughout my career, I've specialized in making complex information accessible, developing communication strategies and creating content that informs, engages and encourages meaningful conversations.
Today, I combine that professional experience with my personal connection to child welfare to challenge assumptions, encourage critical thinking and promote evidence-based discussions.
Jennifer | InventingNormal
I am the founder of The Part We Skip, a TikTok platform dedicated to exploring the conversations we often overlook when discussing adoption, foster care and child welfare in the United States.
Through historical research, educational content and thought-provoking discussions, The Part We Skip examines how our child welfare systems developed, whose interests they were designed to serve and whose perspectives have historically been overlooked.
A central focus of my advocacy is amplifying the lived experiences of adult adoptees, exploring alternatives to adoption and encouraging informed conversations about family preservation, kinship care and legal guardianship.
InventingNormal serves as an extension of that mission, providing educational resources, historical research and evidence-based investigations into the policies, practices and assumptions surrounding child welfare.
My goal isn't to tell people what to think. It's to give them the information, historical context and perspectives necessary to reach their own conclusions.
I believe meaningful change begins when we're willing to question familiar narratives, examine uncomfortable truths and listen to the people most directly affected by the systems we're discussing.
Because sometimes, the most important part of the conversation is the part we skip.