Tanya Crossman is the author of Misunderstood. She is most active on her website www.tanyacrossman.com. She is passionate about building bridges of understanding between Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and those who care for them. She has mentored hundreds of teenage and young adult TCKs over the past 18+ years. Tanya is an internationally recognised expert and speaker on Third Culture Kids and issues facing cross-cultural families. She has travelled to accept invitations to speak to groups of TCKs, parents, teachers and other carers around the world.

Tanya grew up in Sydney and Canberra, Australia, and lived in Connecticut, USA for two years of high school. She moved to China independently at age 21, where a study year turned into 11 years abroad (including 6 months in Cambodia). Tanya has been through repatriation three times – as a teenager and as an adult, then again in an unplanned way during the pandemic. After returning to live in China, Tanya was forced to leave her home in Beijing after being caught on the wrong side of the closed border. She is currently living with family in Australia, waiting for the opportunity to be reunited with her husband in their new home in the Pacific Northwest USA.

Tanya received a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies (Chinese) from the Australian National University, and a diploma in Mandarin Chinese from Beijing Language and Culture University. She worked several bilingual jobs in China while volunteering to mentor and support TCKs before choosing to do this work full time in 2010. She has coordinated over 35 camps and conferences for teenage TCKs in China and Cambodia. In 2018 she received a Master of Divinity degree from the Australian College of Theology, including a TCK-focused research project which was awarded a High Distinction.

Tanya has been featured on, and interviewed by, a number of expatriate-related websites, including: A Life Overseas, A Place in the World, Beijing Kids, China Source, Cross Culture Therapy, Displaced Nation, Djibouti Jones, DrieCulturen, Education Rickshaw, Expat Bookshop, Expatriate Specialist, Foreign Service Youth Foundation, Go Ye There, Global Times, まぜこぜ Mazekoze, Ombidombi, Small Town Laowai, The Change School’s TCK Summit, Travel Lite, and Velvet Ashes. Recently she has been regularly featured on blogs and podcasts to talk about the white paper she co-authored for TCK Training – learn more about that at TCK Training Research.

Learn more about Tanya on her main website.

View Tanya’s profile on Amazon Author Central
View Tanya’s author profile on Goodreads