I Tried to Adopt a Traumatized Sims 4 Baby From Instagram

Out of all the babies and children posted to various Instagram accounts I’ve tried to adopt this week, I think I like Audra from Bee Adoptions best.

According to the background that’s attached to pictures of her on Instagram, Audra, an adorable 6-year-old, has an allergy to dairy and also has asthma. She also has a background full of ironic tragedy. You see, Audra was raised in a loving family by god-fearing people until relatively recently, when her entire family was hit by a semi truck on the way back from a church function.

Audra and the other kids I tried to adopt this week are not real human children, of course, but Sims characters, one of which I tried to adopt for my playthrough of The Sims 4, but ultimately failed.

Sims like these are lovingly created and then put up for adoption by Simmers on Instagram, which they more commonly refer to Simstagram. Most Simmers use Instagram for roleplay, given that it’s a social media platform focused mainly on still images. They pretend their Sims run the Instagrams themselves, posting as if they were influencers. Storylines run the gamut from pregnant runaway teens to more generic family drama, and just like real influencers, these Sims grow up, get married, and eventually have kids or adopt them. Sims adoption agencies like Bee Adoptions were recommended to Waypoint by Instagram while viewing family influencer-style Simstagrams. 

Many of these adoption applications ask for your Sims age, profession, and the kind of home they’d be raising the Sim in. One application I filled out asked if any of the Sims in that household had a criminal history. But more often, they are another space for Simmers to use the game to tell stories—essentially, you’re being asked to plead your case, and prove to the agency that you’re the best person to raise this Sim child.

Oceanne, who runs the Sims adoption agency Loving Hand Adoptions, told Waypoint that she’s seen adoption reflected on TV and other media for a long time, and thinks it’s important to spread awareness of children that are waiting to be adopted. She told Waypoint that she would adopt a child in real life, if she was able.

“I have always seen adoption reflected on television and other media as one of the best means to expand a family,” she said. “Because the parents of those children in the system failed them and they need to know that someone else can love them.”

Grace, who helps run Forest Fern Adoptions, a Sim adoption agency, also wants to adopt.

“Growing up I’ve always been intrigued with adoption and foster care and I truly believe that it is such a beautiful thing,” she said. “It's something that I hope I can actually do someday.”

Like Audra, many of the children that Oceanne has created for adoption have been through traumatic events. Emy, whose description mentions that she will need therapy to deal with her negative emotions. Apparently, Emy was being severely neglected by her parents, who eventually lost custody. Delilah and Skye, available from Forest Fern Adoptions, were both abused by their parents. While these are both sad but mundane stories of child abandonment and trauma, sometimes the stories are more extreme. Delaynee, available from Green Tea Adoptions, is the only survivor of a triple homicide that took the lives of her parents and only sister.

Although these stories are extreme, according to the Simmers that raise these accounts, they are meant to be reflections of what they know about how adoption works in the real world.

“Every time I create a child I try to create diversity and give representation to real problems that children usually have when they are given up for adoption,” Oceanne told Waypoint. “For example, I wanted to create a 14-year-old boy who exhibited depression (which is very common for children in the system, especially after a traumatic event), so when creating his story I decided that the boy's parents were killed by a shooter.”

Oceanne has created Sims whose mother was murdered by their father, Sims whose parents are deported, and Sims whose parents have been arrested. To her, these are all ways to talk about what children who are in the system experience.

“Mostly these stories are tragic, all in order to show the variety of situations that children can experience before entering the system even if these things are uncommon,” she said.

For other Simmers, the tragic stories add a sense of realism to the Sims they create.

“Some time ago, I gave up on creating stories for Sims, but when I was writing them, I just looked at the sim and ideas just popped up in my head,” Assayah, a Polish 19-year-old who runs Olive Tree Adoptions, another Sims adoption agency, told Waypoint. “I wanted to make them look more like humans, which is why most of them had sad stories.”

In The SIms 4, you can adopt Sims in-game, by going to an in-game computer, selecting the option to adopt a child, and then browsing the available children until you find one you like. It’s not at all as detailed a process as the one that takes place on Instagram with Sim adoption agencies. First, you have to answer a detailed application, specifying in some cases whether you’d like to foster or adopt a child. Once accepted, the Sim will either be available for you to download through the Gallery, an in-game resource people use to share the Sims they’ve made among other things, or as a file to download through your email. The expectation from there on is that you’ll add that Sim to your family and document their growth on your Simstagram roleplaying account. 

First and foremost, The Sims 4 is a game about storytelling, and Sims adoption agencies are another way to fill out the stories that Simmers create in game. When Sims are adopted from these agencies, often they’ll tag the Simstagram of the Sims that adopt them, so you can follow along on their journey. Some accounts even have rules about how you can change the Sims once they’re adopted, or whether or not you can give them additional trauma or involve them in depressing storylines. These simmers are also very specific about which Sim families can adopt their Sim children.

“When I publish [Sims] for adoption I have already thought of an appropriate figure of who would be the perfect people to adopt them,” Oceanne said, giving the example of a Sim she created who was abandoned by her mother who would then need to be adopted into a very loving home. Simmers create adoption applications, usually for you to answer in character as the Sim who would adopt the child.

“I am also very attentive to what they say on the adoption form,” Oceanne said. “A person with longer, meaningful answers makes me feel more comfortable when giving one of my children.”

I am still waiting to hear back on Audra, but the idea of my Simself becoming a mom is pretty exciting. Although she lives in a rambunctious household with all of her coworkers from Motherboard right now, there’s enough room in the neighborhood that she can move across the street to a cozy family home. Plus, that way her friends can help co-parent. In some ways, Sim adoption agencies aren’t all that different from real ones. As I wait anxiously, Simmers are scrutinizing my application, looking for the signs that I would be able to handle parenting a traumatized child, and all I can do is wait and hope.