On March 31, 2015, a family of seven from Forsyth, Georgia, walked onto TLC with a mission, not a fame grab. Trent and Amber Johnston wanted viewers to understand achondroplasia dwarfism. Eleven years later, their kids have grown up on camera, moved out, married, and made them grandparents twice over. With Season 18 premiering Tuesday, November 17, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, here is the whole journey in one timeline.
2015: Seven People, One Mission, and a House in Forsyth
When 7 Little Johnstons premiered, the kids ranged in age from 16 to 10. Jonah and Elizabeth are Trent and Amber’s biological children; Anna, adopted from Russia, Alex, adopted from South Korea, and Emma, adopted from China, completed a family TLC described as the world’s largest known family living with achondroplasia. The early seasons ran on an idea the parents repeated often: dwarfism does not define capability.
2021–2022: The Kids Start Leaving the Nest
The show’s tone shifted in the early 2020s, when the kids started making adult choices on camera. Jonah moved out, then went through the roughest chapter of his young life: his Season 11 Delta 8 scare, documented in the episode “Coming Clean,” ended with his parents tracking him down and bringing him home temporarily. Season 11 premiered March 15, 2022, and wrapped May 3, 2022; Season 12 followed on August 16, 2022. Around the same stretch, Liz moved out on her own and started planning a future with Brice Bolden, her partner since 2019.
2023: Leighton Changes Everything
November 3, 2023, is the date every Johnston timeline bends around. That day, Liz and Brice welcomed their daughter Leighton Drew Bolden — 5 pounds, 10 ounces, 19 inches of what Liz called “pure sweetness” — and Trent and Amber became grandparents for the first time. Leighton, who is of average height, became the show’s smallest star overnight, and her arrival quietly reordered the family: Liz was no longer just a daughter on the show, but a mother with a household of her own.
2025: A Wedding, a Farewell, and 30 Years of Trent and Amber
In April, Trent and Amber marked 30 years of marriage with a throwback photo that left fans stunned at how young they looked as newlyweds. Weeks after the family lost Trent’s mother, “Nana,” Liz and Brice married on November 8, 2025, in an outdoor ceremony in the field of the Johnston family home, with toddler Leighton as flower girl. The same year brought the show’s hardest break: Anna, distant from her parents since the summer of 2025, departed the series after Season 16 and did not appear in Season 17, according to reports.
2026: Two Seasons, One Baby, and a 50th Birthday Bucket List
Season 17, which aired from March to May 2026, followed Liz and Brice’s wedding journey — and barely six months later, the family is back. On September 8, 2026, Liz and Brice welcomed their second child, son Coleman Brice Bolden Jr., making them, in TLC’s words, “officially a family of four.” Season 18 follows that second pregnancy on screen, alongside Trent’s mission to try 50 new things at 50, Amber’s candid perimenopause storyline, and Emma turning 21 and telling the trailer cameras she is single and wants a boyfriend.
YOU MAY LIKEEverything We Know About 7 Little Johnstons Season 18 — Wedding Bells, New Homes, and One Big Question MarkSo here is the debate: Team Original Seven, who say the early Forsyth years will never be topped, or Team New Generation, who say Liz and Brice’s family of four is the show’s true peak? And which single moment — the 2015 premiere, Jonah’s Season 11 scare, Leighton’s birth, or the 2025 wedding — changed 7 Little Johnstons forever?
