Megan Runge has dark curly hair and the kind of smile that invites you in.
Perfect for a curious college student with a summer job scooping gelato at the beach in Florida.
It was that same openness and curiosity that drew her to 23andMe. An adoptee, Megan didn’t know anything about her biological parents or her family history.
“I wanted to know about ME,” she said about her decision to get tested.
Using 23andMe
Megan has the kind of features that offers a hint of mystery, and for years she’d get questions about her background; questions she couldn’t answer.
Then she tested with 23andMe.
“I counted down the days until the results came in and when they did I almost cried,” said Megan. “After 19 years of not knowing anything, and then just from spitting in a tube, I have a pile of information all about me.”
Learning More
All of it was new to her. She spent hours poring over her results fascinated by both the important and seemingly trivial details.
“I learned a lot of information … which was very valuable because I really don’t know anything about my biological background,” she said.
But for Megan it was looking at her genetic ancestry that most surprised her.
“When I was younger everyone just assumed I was Hispanic,” Megan said smiling. “I assumed I had some sort of mixed ancestry, but I never knew.”
Mixed Ancestry
Now she knows that she is part Irish, part Scandinavian and part African. And she has some Native American ancestry as well.
“I thought it was so cool,” she said.
When she first got her results she was fascinated.
“I remember when I first got it I looked at it every day, multiple times a day,” Megan said. “I still look at it from time-to-time just to, I don’t know, just to see it.”
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.