I recently did the 23andme genetic testing kit because my Caucasian dad passed away when I was about 5, and my Peruvian mom unfortunately never asked him about his ancestry. At 24, I really wanted to know what half of me was made up of.

I’ve always identified as Peruvian because I speak Spanish, know the culture, love the food and well, I *feel* I look more Peruvian anyways lol

But my curiosity was still there! Am I half German? Scottish? English? I wanted to know!

So I get my results back and my heart’s BEATING OUT OF MY CHEST! I was excited! And these were my results:

Turns out I was a little less than half Peruvian, which actually makes sense since my grandma is half Polish. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it before 😅

After I told my friends and family and shared my results, I got some interesting responses. Several being “SEE!? You’re a white girl!”

Now I know I’m also white. No shame in that whatsoever. But I still feel closer to my Peruvian/Latin side, and still identify as such. I think things would have been different had I grown up with my dad’s side of the family (they were estranged from my dad) and known that side of them. But that didn’t happen unfortunately. So comments like those kind are confusing because I’m being told what I should feel like, when I feel somewhat differently.

My question to you all is this: if you’ve done genetic testing like 23andme or ancestry, have the results affected the way you identify?

After talking to my mom I said I would start saying I’m “mixed” (when asked). Reason being because even though I’m proud of my Peruvian heritage, I also don’t want to deny over half of who I am.

Thanks everyone for reading! Here’s a throwback photo of my parents and I. Sorry the quality isn’t that great and my dad isn’t wearing a shirt 😅

Looking forward to your responses!