Kriti Mehrotra
While there’s no denying that being a social media influencer is arguably one of the most lucrative professions these days, it does come with some incredibly unique and unsettling challenges. After all, being online in such a manner means giving people from across the globe access to all your experiences as well as essentially opening yourself up to scrutiny for every little thing. This scrutiny is precisely what became too much for family vloggers Myka and James Stauffer after they chose to dissolve an adoption, driving the matriarch away in every sense of the term.
How Did Myka and James Stauffer Earn Their Money?
It was reportedly around the late 2000s when Ohio native Myka kickstarted her career as a registered nurse upon graduating from the University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences. By this point, she was actually determined to succeed in life in the hopes of breaking the stigma of those having non-traditional families, so her hard work really helped her establish herself. The truth is her mother had her when she was merely 16, the father she knew was not her biological dad, and she herself became a single mother by 2011, so all her efforts were to provide.
Therefore, by the time 2012 rolled around, Myka had even jumped on the YouTube bandwagon and was frequently posting vlogs as well as weight-loss videos on her own individual channel. This was seemingly around the same time she first came across James Stauffer on OKCupid, just for them to have a whirlwind romance thanks to all their values and epectations aligning to a tee. Thus, the couple soon decided to relocate to Indianapolis, Indiana, start a big family, launch The Stauffer Life channel, and ultimately tie the knot in a beautiful, cozy ceremony in July 2014.
Little did the Stauffers know their passion for documenting their life would soon turn out to be quite remunerative, resulting in Myka quitting her job as a nurse with James’ unwavering support. The fact his career as an engineer paid “at least three times” what she was making was also a significant reason behind this change, right along with their continuing to expand their brood. She subsequently took up the side hustle of selling clothes on eBay but quickly chose to focus on just YouTube full-time since their pregnancy content was becoming their most-viewed.
Myka and James welcomed their daughter Jaka in December 2013, followed by Radley in August 2015 and Onyz in July 2019, all the while genuinely considering Kova (September 2011) to be their firstborn. In 2017, they also adopted an adorable 2½-year-old boy with special needs from China, who they named Huxley, only to rehome him in 2020 as they reportedly could not provide him with the care he needed. All this time, the Stauffers were still documenting nearly every aspect of their experiences on The Stauffer Life, all the while also having Myka’s channel, James’ page Stauffer Garage, their cooking show on Meals With Myka & James, and the Stauffer Pony Palace toy channel.
It was in the early summer of 2020 that Myka and James took a step back from their online community after receiving some extreme backlash for dissolving their adoption of Huxley and rehoming him. According to the aforementioned HBO original, there were even police complaints filed against them for alleged abuse as well as exploitation since many believed they had taken advantage of the young boy before abandoning him. The authorities did conduct an investigation based on the same, only to quickly conclude there was no criminal wrongdoing by any party and that the young boy had indeed been rehomed for his own long-term well-being.
Nevertheless, the death threats the family received had gotten too much for them, driving Myka to post a long apology on her Instagram on June 24, 2020, before logging off for good. The couple also deleted all their YouTube Channels (with over a million subscribers combined), except for James’ car-detailing page, Stauffer Garage, considering it had nothing to do with their personal lives. Therefore, today, this account (with more than 1.3 million subscribers), as well as the patriarch’s Columbus, Ohio-based car detailing enterprise in itself, serves as the Stauffers’ sole source of income.
Myka and James Stauffer’s Net Worth
Considering the fact Myka and James had a significant following prior to the 2020 controversy, it goes without saying that they have managed to accumulate significant wealth over the years. Apart from them having an asset in terms of their home in Columbus, Ohio, which they moved into following their decision to settle down there for good in the mid-2010s, they also earned a lot in the past via sponsorships. Whether it be Barbie, Chilli’s, Danimals, Dreft Laundry Detergent, Kate Hudson’s active lifestyle brand Fabletics, Suave, or TJ Maxx, the family had sponsorship deals with them all.
These sponsorships were all terminated in 2020, yet the Stauffers had undeniably already benefited a lot from them since they likely made around $500 per social media post or a large lumpsum per YouTube video given their noteworthy following. As if that’s not enough, they have also long been receiving a sum from YouTube as well as Instagram based on their number of followers, their likes per upload, and engagement, which in itself is substantial when combined. Therefore, upon taking into account YouTube’s usual payment of $3-$5 per 1,000 views, Instagrtam’s usual payment of $1 per 1,000 views, their expenses as a family of six, and their possible investments, we believe their net worth to be in the range of $3 million.
Read More: Myka and James Stauffer: Where are the YouTube Vloggers Now?
