Young Writers Society

Greeting fellow YWSers thank you for answering my desperate call.
I'm currently writing a short story about an Orphan, whose parents have died 3-4 years ago. I wondered what kind of physical and phycological effects this could have on a 14 year old.
Secondly, I also need information on big brothers (the organization not the blood lines). I would like to know what kind of activities and they'd do and how intimate they're relationship would be. The big brother is 20 or so, maybe a bit younger.

Thanks in advance, Joe Smoe.

Often even if not intentional, Orphans have abandonment issues, they have no parents, the only people around tend to be mentally damaged, or influenced by kids who were, so a pretty pessimistic state of mind is common. Often children adopted feel lesser, more so if the family who adopted have birth children as well. Many children tend to become aggressive. Most tend to develop a level of maturity well beyond their age group, becoming very self dependent and paranoid of other people.

Physical traits depend on the place, in places like UK, US, and France, they will have a pretty normal build for a 14 year old, places suffering from corruption or social instability like Russia, China, or India, its a mix of healthy and outright starvation so tiny builds, places that are falling apart (I rather not name any for the sake of kindness) tend to rarely even handle the orphans, more often then not they are left out in the streets and ignored. I think a few places like Japan, Iceland, and Spain have special gym programs (ones you can't just hide away from) so often orphans are in pretty good shape in more stable nations.

Very rarely does the big brother/big sister system work as much as they brag, they do their best to sort out the people who come in but abuse is not rare, and many people who attempt simply don't understand the kids they are taking under their wing. The times it works out they tend to be about as close as a good friend might be, the number of children who actually saw their supporter as a older sibling/parent figure is questionable at best, and likely happens with a ratio of 3: 10 (three for every ten).

Often children adopted feel lesser, more so if the family who adopted have birth children as well

This is actually largely untrue. Yes, an adopted child will have their own insecurities, and it's very, very normal for them to go through a "grief period" a couple years after their adoption. This grief period happens when the child feels safe enough and accepted by the family enough that they feel like they can release all of the pent-up grief they have for their biological family. This is a massive point in the entire family's life because the child has officially hit a massive emotional block. It's hard on the family, too, because they're watching this child grieve for a different family entirely.

However, this grief period is completely normal, regardless of the adopted child's age, and it will pass so long as their family gives them the proper support.

An orphan will, however, probably have abandonment issues to some degree. They do not 'usually' end up as aggressive kids, as previously stated. Usually, if there's aggression involved at all, it's (more than likely) due to something like FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome, which is a result of the mother drinking while pregnant. I'd suggest doing research on it, but the gist of it is that the child would seem to be lacking in basic judgement skills and will be prone to caving into impulses and emotions), or abuse by their previous parents.

Also, the psychological damage that this orphan will have will depend largely on where his/her/their parents are/how they died/if they abandoned him/her/them. I'll need more information on that to be able to give you a full response

Also, I'm not too knowledgeable about the big brother/sister programs, so I'll withhold comments.