Good American Family

By Leila Schneider

Hulu has released a popular new series titled “Good American Family” starring Grey’s Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo, her husband who’s played by Mark Duplass, and their new adoptive daughter who’s played by Imogen Faith Reed. The series currently has three episodes out, but another two are coming out within the next week.

The series is based on a true story about a little girl with a rare form of Dwarfism named Natalia Grace. Natalia is adopted by a loving couple, the Barnetts, who have three biological sons. They were originally planning to adopt a different little girl, but that adoption fell through. An adoption agency later called Kristine, the mother played by Ellen Pompeo, and notified her about Natalia Grace and her need for a home, and the couple couldn’t say no. They took Natalia in and began their life with a new daughter. 

Throughout the family’s time with Natalia, she began acting strangely and violently, greatly concerning Kristine. Kristine believed she could be lying about being a little girl, as her behavior and physical characteristics didn’t reflect that of a normal 7-year-old girl. The family ended up abandoning Natalia in an apartment, with the belief that she was dangerous and actually older than she claimed, and the parents ended up being charged with counts of child neglect. The rest of the story between these two events haven’t yet been revealed in the episodes that are out. 

In the real life story, the parents’ charges ended up being dropped and they never ended up serving jail time. Additionally, recent DNA testing has been done on the real-life Natalia to reveal her true age. Testing has proven that she was actually a child during the time she was with the Barnett family.