Grace’s Story: a girl turned into an adult because of the movie «Orphan»
21 february 2025 в 10:37
The Orphan was released in 2009.
Grace was born in Ukraine to a 24-year-old mother who abandoned her because of her dwarfism. After staying in orphanages and unstable families, she was adopted by a couple from New Hampshire, Diane and Gary Cicone, in 2008, according to court documents and PEOPLE magazine. However, they later gave her up, and in 2010 she was adopted by the Barnetts, a couple from Indiana with three sons.
Grace was six years old when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett. However, the Barnetts began to suspect her age when they claimed to have found pubic hair, menstruation, and many adult teeth. In 2012, they filed a petition in Marion County court to legally change Grace’s birth year from 2003 to 1989. This process, known as «age regression», - effectively turned their eight-year-old daughter into a 22-year-old adult overnight.
The movie The Orphan was released before Grace was adopted by the Barnetts, so it could not have been based on her story. However, Grace mentions in Natalia Speaks that she believes the Barnetts' accusations against her were directly inspired by the movie The Orphan.
«Everything Kristine and Michael said I did, it’s all lies. It was all copied from the movie 'The Orphan'», - Grace says in the documentary series. «Ukrainian girl, Russian girl, check. Orphan, check. All these crazy things. Standing at the end of the bed with a knife, check».
It is said that the movie The Orphan was inspired by the story of Barbora Skrlova, a Czech woman in her 30s who pretended to be a 13-year-old in Norway. Skrlova, who had hypopituitarism — a rare condition affecting hormone production in the pituitary gland, was adopted by Klara Mauerova, a woman later accused of violence against her biological sons while Skrlova was under her care. In an attempt to avoid Czech authorities and avoid testifying in Mauerova’s child abuse case, Skrlova, then 33, fled to Norway, where she pretended to be a 13-year-old boy named Adam.
She was later caught by authorities in 2008, and her case gained attention in the Czech Republic in mid-2007
Grace was born in Ukraine to a 24-year-old mother who abandoned her because of her dwarfism. After staying in orphanages and unstable families, she was adopted by a couple from New Hampshire, Diane and Gary Cicone, in 2008, according to court documents and PEOPLE magazine. However, they later gave her up, and in 2010 she was adopted by the Barnetts, a couple from Indiana with three sons.
Grace was six years old when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett. However, the Barnetts began to suspect her age when they claimed to have found pubic hair, menstruation, and many adult teeth. In 2012, they filed a petition in Marion County court to legally change Grace’s birth year from 2003 to 1989. This process, known as «age regression», - effectively turned their eight-year-old daughter into a 22-year-old adult overnight.
The movie The Orphan was released before Grace was adopted by the Barnetts, so it could not have been based on her story. However, Grace mentions in Natalia Speaks that she believes the Barnetts' accusations against her were directly inspired by the movie The Orphan.
«Everything Kristine and Michael said I did, it’s all lies. It was all copied from the movie 'The Orphan'», - Grace says in the documentary series. «Ukrainian girl, Russian girl, check. Orphan, check. All these crazy things. Standing at the end of the bed with a knife, check».
It is said that the movie The Orphan was inspired by the story of Barbora Skrlova, a Czech woman in her 30s who pretended to be a 13-year-old in Norway. Skrlova, who had hypopituitarism — a rare condition affecting hormone production in the pituitary gland, was adopted by Klara Mauerova, a woman later accused of violence against her biological sons while Skrlova was under her care. In an attempt to avoid Czech authorities and avoid testifying in Mauerova’s child abuse case, Skrlova, then 33, fled to Norway, where she pretended to be a 13-year-old boy named Adam.
She was later caught by authorities in 2008, and her case gained attention in the Czech Republic in mid-2007
© Puhova Marina
