This Boy Was Ridiculed as a Baby for Looking Like a Grandpa. Now He’s Redefining Beauty

When baby Ben Hartley’s photo went viral, the internet was ruthless. Mocked for his wrinkled skin and droopy features, strangers dubbed him the “grandpa baby” and “Benjamin Button’s cousin.” The image spread like wildfire, even landing on late-night comedy shows. No one cared who he really was—they just laughed. But behind that viral meme was a real child with a rare condition and parents crushed by the cruelty. What no one saw coming was…

When little Benjamin Hartley was born in 2011, the delivery room filled with joy—and then, within hours, a wave of confusion.

The nurses didn’t say it aloud, but the looks were unmistakable. Wrinkled forehead. Sagging eyelids. A tight little mouth that gave him the appearance of someone deep in thought—someone much older.

His mother, Danielle, had just gone through 27 hours of labor and was too exhausted to register the whispers. But by the next morning, someone—maybe a relative, maybe a nurse, maybe even an innocent family friend—had posted a photo of Ben online with the caption:
“Why does this baby look like he’s been paying taxes since 1973?”

It went viral overnight.