The Exploitation Of Abbie Maass

I’ve talked before about the exploration of children online, and how parents are using their children to earn money through social media and YouTube. These families share their journey to enlighten and educate society. But at the cost of their children’s dignity and privacy.

And that’s exactly what’s happening with Abbie Maass. Abbie Maass is a young teenager with non-verbal autism and IDD. She is featured on the well-known YouTube channel “Fathering Autism”, operated by her father, Asa Maass. The Maass family use Abbie’s condition for money and her mother uses the audience to promote her MLM business.

So let’s look more into this family.

The Exploitation Of Abbie Maass

Main Characters
Controversies and Criticisms
Protect Children Online

Main Characters

The Maass family consists of Asa, Priscilla, Isaiah, and Abbie. Summer Magliochetti also plays a significant role in the story.

Asa Maass

Asa Maass, a 42-year-old dad, makes the videos for YouTube and social media. He shares his life as an autism parent with the world. People say he uses his daughter Abbie’s condition to make money. His work involves making TikToks and posts that reach lots of people. Some people argue this focus might not always help Abbie or others like her in the autism community. Asa & Priscilla are at the centre of much talk about what’s right in showing such personal stories online for everyone to see.

Priscilla Maass

She’s a 43-year-old mum who keeps busy with her own social media channels. In 2019, she chose to have surgery to lose weight. The money for this came from what she earns online. Besides sharing parts of her life on the internet, Priscilla also runs a beauty guide business through LimeLife, which is an MLM.

Priscilla uses TikTok too – it’s one way she makes connections with others who care about autism. Through her videos and posts, lots of parents and autistic self-advocates see what she shares.

Isaiah Maass

Isaiah Maass is 22 years old. He used to make videos with his family for “Fathering Autism” before he went off to college. Isaiah has been part of his family’s journey on social media.

Abbie Maass

Abbie Maass is 19 years old and faces big challenges every day. Abbie can’t speak and has a hard time learning due to her intellectual disabilities.

Abbie’s story shows us how kids with autism are often treated by both those close to them and strangers on the internet. Her parents make videos that feature her heavily, which brings up questions about privacy and rights. People worry if it’s right for her parents to share so much of her life for money or attention from others. These concerns point out how we must be careful when showing bits of someone’s personal struggles in public spaces like TikTok, especially when they can’t say if they’re okay with it or not.

Summer Magliochetti

Summer Magliochetti lived with the Maass family for many years. She made a strong bond with Abbie, becoming great friends during her stay. Their friendship seemed to bring out positive vibes, as seen in comments and reactions online.

People appreciated Summer’s relationship with Abbie, seeing it as something genuine amidst controversies surrounding the Maass household.

Controversies and Criticisms

Exploitation of Abbie for financial gain

The Maass family tell the world about Abbie on their YouTube channel. They have even shared videos such as how she uses the toilet or incontinence issues. They have detailed some issues with faecal smearing and nudity. Some viewers believe that she is being stripped of her privacy and dignity by having her personal life shared online.

Given that much of her life is displayed publicly, some viewers thought they interact with her as they pleased during personal meet and greats. Following the release of these videos, Child Protective Services intervened at least twice.

Controversial treatment methods

Asa faced accusations of harming Abbie by using a treatment called Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). This method tries to change behaviour but it’s a controversial therapy. Some say it can upset and harm those who receive it, especially without expert guidance.

Even though Asa and Priscilla could pay for skilled teachers, they chose to ask their Facebook fans for help instead. They didn’t use qualified pros who knew how to teach kids like Abbie.

Making things harder, Asa decided to take Abbie out of school. This move raised eyebrows because schools often give special support that helps children learn better and feel happier. By choosing this path, Asa may have missed giving Abbie chances to grow in ways only schools offer. Without these learning experiences, critics worry that she won’t make the progress she could with proper schooling and professional care.

Priscilla’s weight loss surgery

After facing criticisms for controversial treatment methods, Priscilla underwent weight loss surgery in 2019. The vlog earnings funded the surgery and the surgery did not help her lose weight as she made no effort to eat well or exercise.

Extravagant spending

The Maass family spent lavishly in 2021, purchasing a new truck and RV trailer. There were also reports of Isaiah getting a new vehicle, alongside multiple home remodels. Notably, the family bought their first home in 2019.

Lack of progress with Abbie

Abbie Maass has faced significant challenges in her development, with concerns about potential regressions. An administrative judge’s ruling in 2014 stated that Abbie had only shown “de minimis” progress, and the school district was required to reimburse the Maass family for external therapy costs.

The lack of progress in Abbie’s development has raised alarming red flags, contributing to the controversies surrounding her exploitation. These distressing circumstances call for careful consideration and decisive action within both local authorities and online platforms like TikTok, where such exploitative content can gain traction.

Priscilla’s MLM

Priscilla is in an MLM, a multi-level marketing business which sells makeup and cosmetics. She’s been able to leverage the audience built by exploiting her children online to become one of most successful uplines in this company.

Asa’s Affair

In 2020, it came out that Asa had an affair which resulted in a child in 2003, who he had no contact with and was not consistent in financial support, often paying or underpaying child support.

It’s alleged they hide their income to minimise child support payments.

Asa often spoke about the importance of being a good father and being there for his children before this story broke.

Protect Children Online

You won’t be surprised to hear that I believe the Maass family are exploiting of Abbie Maass. Abbie’s disabilities have been used for potential financial gains. It should never be the responsibility of a disabled child to raise awareness of their condition. It should never be done at the expense of someone’s privacy.

You know what is important? Promoting dignity and respect for those with disabilities. The Maass family do not do that. There needs to be more laws and protection that could lead to significant improvements for individuals like Abbie who may be vulnerable to exploitation.

Been watching the Maass family when they first started….you can see how much they have changed over the years ….when they’ve won the shorty awards they completed changed from being humble to extreme narcissists….. if one pays closely attention to how they talk they practically give themselves away if what their goal is in life. Priscilla hates dealing with Abby, she is lazy, but loves to be active outside her home, she will find ways to stay “busy” very her mother kept busy and was raised by her nanny which caused Priscilla not to lift up a finger only to eat, not fat shaming and not congratulating either, but you can see by their vlogs what asa chooses to put out. Asa does EVERYTHING, but it is starting to affect his mental health due to lack of sleep and support from Priscilla. Asa took over Priscilla’s parents of making sure that Priscilla has “all the things” (there’s a blog of that too, where asa tells her parents “I can now finally take care of your daughter the way you guys wanted me to” this comes after buying an expensive broke down “victorian ” house that Priscilla wanted, as they sold the narrative that it was for Abby’s”forever home”. Isaiah the other child is too scared to speak up, he does not want to be an RBT therapist, he’s talent is being a photographer, but his parents used and brain washed him to go to college and they bragged, mainly Priscilla how much she paid his college (65 thousand) for his education through the MLM pyramid scheme. He too was exploited when he was younger. Summer is okay , but is naive at times until someone exposed her also and we hardly see her unless asa needs content. This whole family was okay until the shorty awards. Also people called in on them by a YouTuber channel, vlogger. They reported them to Florida’s APD (Florida’s version of CPS but for disabled people who have been exploited) they have been to court and are being reviewed by the courts, (documents open to the public) Florida passed a law that family vloggers cannot exploit their children, but asa passed off as “autism awareness” and therefore other family autism vloggers jumped on the wagon, Lauren brazee, but she changed her channel to mental health, weight loss and grocery haul) Kaitlin and kaidale. But she took a hiatus for a while and changed it up for a better way thats not exploiting, fooly living, was like that in the very beginning and the kids got a little older, but she’s changed her tune as well. Rock and stim did the same. All because of the dad podcast challenge, he was exposing all these autism family vloggers, and everyone got scared, EXCEPT for the Maassa’s, they said many times they were not going to stop. ADP has a hand in this , if one recognizes it , that’s why all of a sudden you see Priscilla saying that Abby will never be independent, she now says Abby is IDD, except for asa he is still selling it under autism. This family is obviously exploiting their mentally challenged child who still needs to be prompted for everything and cannot take a shower alone nor can cross a street by herself without someone prompting her. But asa says she is “progressing” so one has to ask, if she cannot do simple things such as fixing her own bowl of cereal, brushing her teeth, hair shower, etc, can she really give consent to be used for financial gain?? And that is why viewers around the world, called CPS, to save Abby since she is non verbal and mentally challenged.

4 comments

Claire @ Eleventh Avenue says:

September 10, 2024 at 6:49 pm

Wow! Thank you for bringing this family to my attention. I have strong feelings about family vloggers/tiktokers. Some are valuable in helping raise awareness but there are more respectable ways of raising awareness. The worst culprits are the ones that exploit their children while the mother/parental figure stays out of the frame. There’s a famous TikTok mother-daughter duo that received a lot of hate since she seems to be exploiting her daughter from day 1. I have an infant son and while he appears in some of my content, he is not the star.

Krissy says:

September 17, 2024 at 12:00 am

truth

fire flight says:

September 17, 2024 at 11:26 pm

Been watching the Maass family when they first started….you can see how much they have changed over the years ….when they’ve won the shorty awards they completed changed from being humble to extreme narcissists….. if one pays closely attention to how they talk they practically give themselves away if what their goal is in life. Priscilla hates dealing with Abby, she is lazy, but loves to be active outside her home, she will find ways to stay “busy” very her mother kept busy and was raised by her nanny which caused Priscilla not to lift up a finger only to eat, not fat shaming and not congratulating either, but you can see by their vlogs what asa chooses to put out. Asa does EVERYTHING, but it is starting to affect his mental health due to lack of sleep and support from Priscilla. Asa took over Priscilla’s parents of making sure that Priscilla has “all the things” (there’s a blog of that too, where asa tells her parents “I can now finally take care of your daughter the way you guys wanted me to” this comes after buying an expensive broke down “victorian ” house that Priscilla wanted, as they sold the narrative that it was for Abby’s”forever home”. Isaiah the other child is too scared to speak up, he does not want to be an RBT therapist, he’s talent is being a photographer, but his parents used and brain washed him to go to college and they bragged, mainly Priscilla how much she paid his college (65 thousand) for his education through the MLM pyramid scheme. He too was exploited when he was younger. Summer is okay , but is naive at times until someone exposed her also and we hardly see her unless asa needs content. This whole family was okay until the shorty awards. Also people called in on them by a YouTuber channel, vlogger. They reported them to Florida’s APD (Florida’s version of CPS but for disabled people who have been exploited) they have been to court and are being reviewed by the courts, (documents open to the public) Florida passed a law that family vloggers cannot exploit their children, but asa passed off as “autism awareness” and therefore other family autism vloggers jumped on the wagon, Lauren brazee, but she changed her channel to mental health, weight loss and grocery haul) Kaitlin and kaidale. But she took a hiatus for a while and changed it up for a better way thats not exploiting, fooly living, was like that in the very beginning and the kids got a little older, but she’s changed her tune as well. Rock and stim did the same. All because of the dad podcast challenge, he was exposing all these autism family vloggers, and everyone got scared, EXCEPT for the Maassa’s, they said many times they were not going to stop. ADP has a hand in this , if one recognizes it , that’s why all of a sudden you see Priscilla saying that Abby will never be independent, she now says Abby is IDD, except for asa he is still selling it under autism. This family is obviously exploiting their mentally challenged child who still needs to be prompted for everything and cannot take a shower alone nor can cross a street by herself without someone prompting her. But asa says she is “progressing” so one has to ask, if she cannot do simple things such as fixing her own bowl of cereal, brushing her teeth, hair shower, etc, can she really give consent to be used for financial gain?? And that is why viewers around the world, called CPS, to save Abby since she is non verbal and mentally challenged.

1. Corinne says:
  
  September 18, 2024 at 9:12 am
  
  Thank you so much for adding your perspective of this as a long time viewer. It’s really interesting to hear, and really sad. It’s sad they can’t raise awareness without putting her on the camera, if that’s the guise they are doing this under!