Natalia Grace

Some Lesser Known Facts About Natalia Grace

• She suffers from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare genetic disorder that causes dwarfism.

• She was placed for adoption soon after being born, after the doctors informed her mother about her dwarfism.

  

• In an interview, her biological mother, Anna Volodymyrivna Gava, said that she was advised to give Natalia up for adoption by the doctors due to her dwarfism. She said,
  

  I didn’t initially want to leave her, but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. ‘You are young,’ they said, ‘You are 24 years old. Don’t ruin your life, you will have other children.”

  

• She further revealed that the doctors had prescribed an operation for Natalia, which would have cost her $100,000, which she couldn’t afford at the time.

• Natalia Grace came to the U.S. from Ukraine when she was 6 years old.

• Her age was approximated to be 8 years in 2010 by a doctor at the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, Indiana.

• In 2011, Michael and Kristine Barnett abandoned her to live alone in an apartment.

  

• In 2012, her age was estimated to be 11 years by the doctors at the Indianapolis hospital, Indiana, through a skeletal survey.

• In 2012, her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, got a court order issued from the Marion Superior 8 court, Indiana, to legally change Natalia’s birth year from 2003 to September 1989, believing that she was an older woman scamming them.

  

• She was placed in a mental health hospital in 2012 and was discharged from the hospital in 2013.

• In 2013, the Barnett family moved her to an apartment in Westfield, Indiana, and later left her in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, and moved to Canada.

• She started living with Antwon and Cynthia Mans in 2013, who noticed that Natalia was living alone and having difficulty with everyday tasks.

  

• In 2016, the Mans family attempted to officially adopt Natalia, but the court dismissed the adoption in January 2018 and asked the Mans family to reverse Natalia’s age change order before attempting to adopt her again.

• During an interview, the Mans family claimed that the Barnett family was inspired by the plot of the film, ‘Orphan’ (2009), to change her age.

• In 2019, she appeared in an episode of the American talk show, ‘Dr. Phil.’

  

• She met her boyfriend, Neil, who is a resident of the United Kingdom, through social media when she was living with the Mans family.

• The Mans family was against their relationship and restricted Natalia’s internet access.

• In 2023, she left the Mans family with the help of her boyfriend, Neil, to live with Nicole and Vince DePaul, a couple who suffer from dwarfism and had previously tried to adopt her when she was a child in 2009.

  

• In an interview, she claimed that she left the Mans family as they wanted to control her independence and her romantic life.

• Natalia met Neil in person while living with the DePaul family.

• Her birth was legally restored to 2003 after the health testing company, TruDiagnostic, conducted a DNA test and estimated that Grace was about twenty-two years old in August 2023.

• She has been a subject of various American television series, including ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace’ (2023-24) and ‘Good American Family’ (2025).

  

• She has been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), an emotionally withdrawn behaviour towards caregivers.