The doc dives into the backlog of Stauffer YouTube videos. Going back into their channel’s archive, was there a moment or pattern that struck you the
The doc dives into the backlog of Stauffer YouTube videos. Going back into their channel’s archive, was there a moment or pattern that struck you the most in your understanding of what may have happened?
The pattern that was becoming clear was a desire to be really constant and regular. “We need to produce content, whatever it is, every single day.” I started recognizing that not just as a Stauffer issue—this idea that you created an appetite and now you need to feed it. And if you’ve stopped for one moment, your fans are going to be very upset.
I have a son, and I couldn’t possibly imagine filming with him every day. What am I going to even come up with? You have to be inventive and you have to be constant, and if you don’t feed the beast, it’s just going to come up for more. What I noticed about this machine that you’re feeding into is if it includes your family, you’ve got to scramble when things inside your home are not going right.
It felt like people were outraged not just that Huxley was readopted, but also that the Stauffers would stop making content at the height of intrigue in their story, given that subscribers were brought into every earlier chapter.
You hit upon the central contradiction of the series, which is: when you are genuinely in trouble and you’re an influencer, what do you do? It’s an actual tightrope you have to walk. And in the Stauffers’ case, they walked it incorrectly, you could say. But also, is it okay that anyone is set up to walk on that tightrope? That’s a larger question for society.
One of our participants said that people are drawn to stories about families. These people are not professional content producers. The Osbournes or the Kardashians, there’s a team of producers involved. Maybe some of those producers occasionally say, hey guys, let’s not film this. [With] networks involved, there’s checks and balances along the way. YouTubers, it’s them and their camera, live-streaming immediately, and there’s just so much room for disaster because of that.
Some will wonder if the Stauffers could ever make a comeback. Does even asking that question mean missing the point of your docuseries?
I do believe it’s the wrong question to ask. The Stauffers making a comeback, that was a question everyone was always asking regardless of our series. If you watch our series and are just going to be fixated on that…I would hope that people want to have more concern for the Stauffers, and all people within this, in the best possible way. I hope things are going well or okay for all the different people involved. The Stauffer children were on my mind the whole time, and they continue to be. I feel like nobody gave them any compassion. They lost a child that had come into their family that was supposed to be their brother.
Those kids faced a trauma unto themselves. I know that the focus can be on Myka and James a lot, but I really hope that the series doesn’t land in a place—it’s sort of like the Baby Reindeer controversy, where everybody immediately wanted to know what’s going on with [the real-life Martha]. I thought, oh, that’s too bad. But again, how can we not be fascinated?
Was there an interview that made you think most differently about this story’s impact?
The conversations around adoption were so profound. One of our producers, who’s a very good friend of mine, is also an adoptee. At the end of some really intense interviews with adoptees like Hannah, we would have a moment where we acknowledge that this has never really been discussed. In a strange way, the Stauffer story provided a platform for Hannah to get really very deep about her own experience as an adoptee. I feel really proud that there was an significant conversation to be had for people in the adoption community. Our story producers, our editors, really skillfully crafted a narrative that I hope does a lot to illuminate the adoption experience.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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