The fall of the Stauffer family and its popular YouTube channel
The perfect family is not always what it seems, and An Update on Our Family documents the crumbling facade of one such family: the Stauffers. The Stauffers attempted to sell its perfection through a YouTube channel that presented their idyllic family life. The channel became increasingly popular with pregnancy announcements, and ultimately, the adoption of a boy from China with special needs.
But as with all perfect families, the facade fell apart, a deterioration that began when the adoption did not go the way the Stauffers intended and did not fit into the glossy presentation of their family.
This three-part HBO docuseries reveals the monetization behind these types of channels, what happens when fans become overly invested in a family, and particularly, what happened when the Stauffer family made a tough decision about their adopted child, and the backlash that occurred. It includes interviews with other family channel parents, journalists, adoption experts, and a YouTube expert, but not the Stauffers themselves.
Anyone who has watched a family channel, read a mommy blog, or is interested in the dark side of this type of content should check out An Update on Our Family.
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