An influencer is getting sharp criticism for rehoming her adopted son from China after releasing a video to her YouTube channel explaining that medical reasons were one of the reasons why the parents made their decision.
YouTuber Myka Stauffer adopted her son Huxley nearly three years ago and has been documenting raising him along with her other biological children in videos she shares with her 715,000 subscribers.
Myka, along with her husband James, sat down to explain that they could not give the autistic child the care that he needed any longer, both breaking down at the beginning of the video. They spoke about how it was the hardest public video they had to make.
“With international adoption, sometimes there’s unknowns…once Huxley came home, there were more special needs we weren’t aware of,” James said. Huxley had gone through more intense therapies to get help over the past year, James described.
Myka and James voiced they didn’t want to go into what had happened with Huxley in their home in order to protect his privacy. Huxley’s new family is perfect for him, Myka had said instead.
“He is thriving, he is happy, he is doing really well, and his new mommy has medical professional training, and it is a very good fit,” Myka said towards the end of the video.
James asked for grace and respect of privacy for their family. However, freelance writer and copywriter Sophie Russ saw the video as an insufficient answer to the situation, suggesting that the couple gave Huxley up after he made them a profit. To learn about the monetary implications of using trademarked or copywriter content, check this blog post about how to make money copywriting.
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, blocked ppl asking about him (after her followers helped fund the adoption) & put out a video making herself the victim https://t.co/ekgeTWBpm5
— Sophie Ross (@SophRossss) May 27, 2020
One user had shared a video showing the parent’s controversial parenting methods for Huxley that they allegedly did not use on their other children.
hey heres a pic of 2 year old huxley with his hands duct taped by his “parents” myka and jim stauffer @mykastauffer as punishment for sucking his thumb as a coping mechanism…when their older children also sucked their thumbs and were never punished pic.twitter.com/lwEYsBoQJZ
— hailey (@shmailey_) May 27, 2020
Some of the videos posted after the couple adopted Huxley seem to be monetized, as reported by Insider. A reddit thread that already has over 1,200 comments has many users either sympathetic of the parents situation or calling out the influencer for exploiting Huxley.
“It was all for show and to know what we know now and then see her old posts about that poor sweet boy that she just discarded is nauseating,” one user wrote.
“This story, the Stauffer’s story, is so damaging for the autism community. It makes me sick that people are praising her for this choice,” another user wrote.
Feature Images Courtesy of @mykastauffer
