Photos of an adopted teenage boy posing as a newborn have gone viral, propelling the story of an orphan's wish to have baby pictures of himself to the top of the news cycle, as well bringing to attention the issue of adopting older children.
Latrell Higgins, 13, reportedly asked his adoptive mother to take baby photos of him because there were never any photos taken of him in his infancy, The Daily Mail reported.
His mother, Kelli Higgins, works as a professional photographer and was able to stage a photo shoot of Lartell posing like a newborn in softly lit photos.
The "newborn" photos were uploaded to Facebook on Jan. 29 and gained traction Wednesday after the images made their way to the front page of Reddit, a widely popular social news and entertainment website.
"Here's my sweet not so little newborn! His name is Latrell and weighs 112 lbs," Higgins posted on Facebook.
The image has received more than 11,000 likes on Higgins' public page for her photography business.
Kelli adopted Latrell and his younger sister two years ago, The Daily Mail reported.
The not-so-newborn photo project reportedly came about while the Higgins family was sitting around the dinner table and Kelli mentioned she was preparing for a photo session involving a newborn.
Latrell said he did have any pictures of himself when he was born and Kelli's 12-year-old daughter Alycia suggested recreating a newborn photo shoot just for Latrell, The Daily Mail reported.
"I thought it was funny and that it would be a good idea," Kelli said. "I was very sad too because I didn't have any photos of him either."
Kelli said people who have been considering adopting have "come to me telling me that they were thinking about adopting a baby, but after seeing those photos it's changed their minds and they want to adopt an older child."
The most recently available statistics on adoptions in the U.S. indicate that in 2011 there were 104,000 foster children waiting to be adopted and that the average age of an adopted child is seven. Kids who are not adopted early often risk "aging out" of the system.
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