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= Melina Datugan = Melina Datugan (born October 2, 1989) is an American YouTuber and media personality. She is known for her YouTube channel, "Mel and Shane," which has garnered over 18 million views. Her channel first rose to fame after uploading a video about her experience with international adoption. Currently, she has over 299,000 subscribers and creates weekly vlogs of her daily life with her husband, Shane, and her two sons, Luca and Julian.

In 2019, Melina was nominated for the Shorty Award Best in Parenting/Family.

Early Life
Melina was born in Mexico City, Mexico and grew up in California, USA. In 2010, she married her childhood sweetheart, Shane Datugan. On January 10, 2012, Melina found out she was pregnant and gave birth to her first biological son, Luca Gabriel Datugan on August 31, 2012.

Japan
Melina Datugan's husband, Shane Datugan, has served in the U.S. Navy since 2008. During his time in the Navy, Shane was deployed several times and in 2015, he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Subsequently, Melina, Shane, and Luca moved to Japan and was sponsored by the Military Homefront Navy Housing. On October 23, 2016, Shane finished his service at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Okinawa and his family decided to move back to San Diego, USA.

Infertility and Adoption
Following Melina's first pregnancy, she struggled with secondary infertility and sought out treatment options such as fertility drugs and intrauterine insemination (IUI) but was unsuccessful. As a result, Melina and Shane decided to adopt a child from South Korea. On April 3, 2018, they were officially approved and a final international adoption order was issued by the U.S. Department of State. Following this approval, Melina, Shane, and Luca travelled to Seoul to meet their son, DongYoon. They later changed his official first name to Julian and kept his Korean name as his middle name. Julian DongYoon Datugan was born on July 8, 2016.

YouTube Career
Melina Datugan started her first YouTube channel called “lifeofmeli” on January 22, 2014. Most of her early work focused on reviewing beauty products and showcasing makeup tutorials. Her channel remained relatively small until she uploaded her adoption vlog called “Dear Julian (Korean Adoption)” which now has garnered over 2.3 million views. Following this video, her channel grew exponentially. She officially changed her channel name to “Mel and Shane” and started to vlog much more frequently. Since then, many of Melina's videos revolve around her journey with adoption such as Julian's transition from foster care and she provides helpful parenting advice on a variety of topics such as how to deal with cultural and language barriers.

Infertility Journey
Melina and Shane Datugan have always been open about their struggle with secondary infertility. Since the birth of their first son, Luca, Melina sought out several fertility specialists. On March 1, 2019, Melina and Shane announced their hopes of having a third child and revealed that Melina would be starting intrauterine insemination (IUI) treatments again. In the past, she has undergone two IUI treatments without success.

Religion
Melina and Shane Datugan are both devout catholics. They frequently mention in their vlogs that they believe God had called for them to adopt their second child, Julian. Many of their YouTube videos incorporate religious sayings and montages of their bedtime prayers.

Collaborations
Melina recently uploaded collaboration videos with fellow adoptive families on YouTube such as "Grace for the Millers" and "Phil and Alex." Grace and Stephen Miller have seven children; three of their children are biological, two of their children were adopted from Ethiopia in 2011, and their last two children were adopted from China in 2017. Phil and Alex, like Melina, struggled with infertility for many years and decided to proceed with domestic adoption for both of their daughters.