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A couple who document the life of their family on YouTube is facing criticism online after telling their subscribers they had chosen to place their adopted son in another home due to his special needs.
Myka and James Stauffer adopted 4-year-old Huxley in 2018 and he featured on YouTube videos on their channel that saw the couple gain sponsorship deals from companies like Glossier and Good American. The birth of their fourth biological child was featured in People magazine last year.
Explaining to followers that they are not able to give Huxley the medical attention he needs, the couple said he has now been placed in a ‘new forever home’ with a woman that has ‘medical professional training’.
‘With international adoption sometimes there are things that are unknowns and things that aren’t transparent on files,’ James Stauffer said in the YouTube video. ‘Once Huxley came home there was a lot more special needs that we weren’t aware of and weren’t told.’
According to an article Myka wrote in Parade in September last year, the adoption agency did inform the couple Huxley had ‘brain damage’ but the couple decided to proceed when, in her words, ‘God softened our hearts’. There is also a screenshot circulating on social media that shows Myka posting in a Facebook group called ‘China Adoption Questions’, asking what special needs they would consider ‘minor or relatively easy to manage that most people wouldn’t consider easy’. However, this post is yet to be verified.
Posting an update on Huxley in September, Myka revealed Huxley was receiving treatment following an autism diagnosis. It was soon after this time that Huxley stopped appearing in videos and followers began to grow concerned.
Finally revealing their choice to put Huxley in a different home, the couple said ‘after multiple assessments and evaluations, numerous medical professionals felt that he needed a different fit for his medical needs. He needed more.’
‘I can’t say enough how hard Myka has tried throughout this entire journey and the amount of effort she’s put into helping Huxley as much as she can,’ James continued.
‘We’ve been trying to get his needs met and help him out as much as possible and we truly love him,’ added Myka.
The couple are visibly emotional throughout the seven-minute video, however followers have since called into question their intention in adopting a child from overseas and then choosing to place him elsewhere because of his special needs.
‘Extremely depressed reading about the influencer who raised funds to adopt a son, made this her “brand”, discovered he has special needs, secretly rehomed him,’ journalist Sophie Ross wrote on Twitter.
‘Sickened by this story - an #autistic boy was adopted from China by #mykastauffer then “rehomed” (like a rescue dog that is behaving badly) after earning them thousands on YouTube documenting his life. Transnational adoption is not just for Christmas,’ another added.
By Myka’s own admission, revenue from sponsored videos paid for the adoption, with the couple also asking subscribers to donate $5 to support their son's needs in return for writing their donors names in a baby book. Myka’s channel has over 700,000 subscribers with the video of the couple travelling to adopt Huxley her most popular video with over 5.6million views.
While the couple said that they avoided documenting Huxley’s medical problems ‘out of respect for his privacy’, Myka did share regular updates on his and her family’s life at least twice a week.
YouTube channels of this nature have become increasingly popular in recent years, with YouTube’s highest earner being eight-year-old Ryan Kaji whose parents run a channel on his family life - called Ryan’s Word - earning over $26million (£21million) in 2019 alone, according to Forbes' annual list.
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