Duggar fans and critics alike have one big question.
Are Jessa Duggar’s kids okay?
They’re not asking this in the grand scheme of things, out of the concern for any child growing up in a cult.
Are all six children sick? Or does something else explain this photo?
Family photos for 8 are harder than they sound
Just a few days ago, Jessa and Ben Seewald shared a family photo featuring all six of their children.
Remarkably, most of the children were facing the camera at the same time.
(That is no easy feat! Many of them were even smiling!)
“Perfect-weather evenings = family walks on the Razorback Greenway,” Jessa wrote in the Instagram caption.
She continued: “Scooters for the kids, fresh air for us, and a two-year-old who definitely did not approve of the group pic.”
In November of 2015, Jessa and Ben welcomed Spurgeon, who is definitely old enough to have opinions about having that name.
In 2017, they welcomed Henry. Jessa gave birth to Ivy in May 2019, giving her the best name of the batch.
She and Ben went on to welcome Fern (a fantastic name, albeit unusual among cis folks) in July 2021.
In 2022, the Seewalds welcomed George.
Finally (for now), in the summer of 2025, Jessa and Ben welcomed Edward.
‘Their eyes are so dark and sunk’
On social media, and particularly on Reddit, a number of longtime Duggar-watchers expressed concern.
“Their eyes are so dark and sunk,” a redditor remarked.
“And I’ve never been one to care about messy hair for kids,” the OP acknowledged, “but something is OFF about it.”
The Reddit denizen declared: “They just don’t look healthy, any of them.”
We can definitely see that the Seewald children appear to have sunken eyes. What could be the cause?
Plenty of people chimed in to agree, and speculated as to the cause.
There are six children in a two-parent household.
Even under the best of circumstances — which is obviously not the case, given that Jessa and Ben became parents very young and hold extreme beliefs that put them on the fringes of American Christianity — that would not be ideal.
Numerous people brought up the idea of emotional neglect.
This seems like a dubious explanation. Could there be a simpler reason for why the children look like this?
Maybe they come by it honestly
Numerous commenters have suggested that genetics could be an explanation. And it makes a lot of sense.
Jessa has somewhat sunken eyes. Veteran Duggar-watchers pointed out that she looked like this as a child.
In fact, Jessa’s maternal grandfather, Garrett Ruark, had a similar sunken eyes look.
Like those of us who ended up with nostrils or eyebrows from our grandparents, Jessa got that trait from Michelle’s dad. And now she has passed it on to her own children.
We suspect that genetics and hereditary traits are a little too close to certain forbidden scientific topics, like evolution, for Jessa or Ben to want to delve too deeply into a discussion on the topic.