01x01 - #momager

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat electronic music playing]

I'm inviting my whole
entire squad over today.

[all yelling]

[woman] She's a multi-millionaire
YouTube star, and she's only 15.

- Three, two, one!
- Three, two, one!

There was the Mickey Mouse Club,
and now there is The Squad.

There's groups of kids that work together

to build these massive,
viral chains of videos.

[Piper] We have the whole squad.

- What's up? I'm Sawyer.
- Yo. What's up? I'm Hayden.

- I'm Gavin.
- I'm Piper. [giggles]

- I'm Sophie.
- I'm Corinne.

We all filmed videos together
that were, like, challenges.

They're going to have to chug
an entire glass of water

in just seven seconds.

The "last to stop eating" challenge. Yeah!

Kids really seem to, like,
like it and enjoy it.

[man 1] Four million views.
I wanna put this into perspective.

CNN in one week has 2.2 million views.

She is a superstar online.

Piper Rockelle is
an incredibly popular child influencer.

[Piper] Some of you have been watching me
since I was eight years old.

- [Sawyer] Yeah.
- [laughs]

Piper garnered billions of views
and millions of dollars.

Whoo!

[woman 2] Tiffany Smith,
Piper's mother, is the momager.

[Tiffany] Get closer to the bars.
There we go.

[man 2] She took these kids
to massive viral fame.

It seemed fun.

It seemed so innocent.

But... it wasn't innocent at all.

[dramatic string music playing]

[reporter] This young lady's amassed more
than ten million followers on YouTube,

sh**ting silly videos with her friends.

Now some of those now former friends
and their parents are suing,

alleging they were exploited.

I wouldn't be surprised
if I worked 12 hours,

and then we would go to bed
and do it all over again.

[kids yelling] Oh!

Tiffany would often put me in situations
where I felt unsafe.

[Sawyer] Closer, closer, closer, closer.

We were definitely directed to do stuff

that isn't really right for an adult
to be telling little kids to do.

Basically, I have a job, and I am a kid.

It didn't really actually occur to me
that there could be dangers.

[Tiffany] Flirt with the camera.

This is where predators go
to see content of children.

[Tiffany] Calm down.

They make it seem
like it's this fun, happy house,

when it's really a house of horror.

[sobbing] I can't!
I can't! I can't! I can't!

[woman 3] Tiffany yelled
and screamed at everybody.

It was a very cult-like atmosphere.

Tiffany was a complete monster.

[Tiffany] You are
a disrespectful little b*tch.

Tiffany took our innocence
and just destroyed it.

[intriguing electronic music playing]

[bubbling]

[rising whir]

[ethereal whirring]

[music fades]

I have my cousin Claire with me today
that has a birthday cake.

Hi! Uh, Frank told me to bring this in.

- I don't know what it's for, but--
- [man] Where is... Did you eat some of it?

- [Claire] No.
- [women laugh]

It does make me laugh
when Frank comes on the screen.

Frank was hilarious.

[Frank] And then, guys,
what would you rather like,

an 11-year-old girl or a cute little pug?

A cute little 11-year-old girl with a pug.

- [women chuckle]
- Okay.

Dude, that was my first ever video
that I was with everybody.

So I was, like, so excited.

You know, this was never...
It was good and fun.

And we just had fun filming them.

[girl] Piper was somebody
that I looked up to.

She was our cousin.

And I wanted to do, like,
YouTube videos and stuff like that.

The thing that I just miss
the most is Piper.

It's just really sad
that she's not in my life at the moment.

[woman 1] Mm...

[woman 2] I see your smiles
when you're with her.

And you two act so silly.
I miss seeing that.

Yeah.

[gentle music playing]

[woman 1] Tiffany is my older sister,
and Piper is my niece.

We grew up in Canton, Georgia.

When Piper was born,
Tiffany was 26 years old.

Piper's dad left Tiffany
when she was pregnant.

[plonking]

Tiffany lived at home with my parents.
She started her business, pet grooming.

[plonk]

And she raised Piper by herself,
without Piper's dad.

When she was super young,
Piper was just an outgoing kid.

Just dancing around, singing, smiling.

Um... you could just tell
she had something special in her.

[rhythmic electronic music playing]

Piper was probably three years old
when she started pageants.

[faint applause echoes]

She won her first one at three,
and it was for Fourth of July.

- Her room is full of trophies.
- Yeah.

She was great. Like, perfect.

I think Tiffany's drive
for Piper's success

was to show Piper's dad
that she was worth something

and that he's missing out on her life.

Piper was definitely doing the bikinis,
the spray tan, the hair.

She practiced and learned
all the dance moves.

Piper loved the attention,
people clapping for her,

the trophies.

Tiffany definitely wanted Piper
to be the best.

Tiffany was not happy with second place.

When Tiffany began to see Piper
become successful in pageants,

she wanted to go ahead and see
what she can do on social media.

[music ends]

[woman] And this is the YSBnow podcast.

And we have
a very special guest here today.

[Piper] Piper Rockelle.

[woman] When did you start saying,

"Oh, it would be fun to kind of start
posting my life on social media"?

[Piper] When I kinda got done
with pageants,

there was this app, Musical.ly.

I started on there, and then that's when
stuff kind of, like, started to happen,

and people started to, like,
become my friends, I guess.

♪ They'll say you could do anything
They'll say that I was clever ♪

Musicsal.ly was created around 2014,
and it was a lip sync app.

Oh, it's a potato. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

[Taylor] You could create
these short, funny videos

where you were
essentially lip-syncing to a sound.

This was so popular with children.

You're supposed to be 13 to use it,

but kids as young as six, seven, eight
were really addicted to it.

And I would say,
it's their parents posting content.

Musical.ly eventually became TikTok,

one of the most successful apps
of all time.

Ouch, Charlie!

Ow! [whimpers]

[Taylor] In 2007,
you had "Charlie Bit My Finger,"

an early YouTube video
that really took off.

That's when you started
to see the ascendance

of these early social platforms.

You started to see more people
hop on there, talk about their lives,

and kind of start uploading intentionally
for small audiences.

Hi, Mommy!

[mom] Okay, what do you want today?
What toy do you want today? What is...

[Taylor] By 2011, YouTube had
millions and millions of users.

- [Ryan] This one!
- [mom] That one?

- [Ryan] Uh-huh.
- [mom] Oh.

[Taylor] And some of the earliest
viral stars were actually children.

[Piper] I would always watch those little
unboxing videos of, like, toys and stuff.

And I was like, "Mom, I wanna do this."

Hey, guys, it's Piper Rockelle.

Today we are going
to be making fluffy slime.

You would have to get Elmer's Glue,
school glue. If you give...

[Patience] You can just look
at Piper's fluffy slime video,

which is completely different
from the pageant world,

and you can see how comfortable she is
in front of the camera.

- She's just a natural.
- [melodic music continues]

Tiffany was constantly filming something.

It was part of the... the routine
of what they were doing.

[man] The way that Tiffany was able

to utilize these new media platforms
was brilliant.

- [music fades]
- Social media is everything.

You can build a brand on there,
you can make friends on there,

and you can really connect
with anybody globally.

[tape whizzing]

Tiffany saw an opportunity
for her daughter,

and she wanted
to give her daughter an opportunity.

[Taylor] At the same time
that you had Internet fame taking off,

you also had television
and traditional fame changing,

where, suddenly, real-life people
were being cast on these reality shows.

And Piper has, what I would consider,
her big break.

She gets cast on Dance Twins,
which is a popular reality show.

Hi, I'm Tiffany.
And this is my beautiful daughter, Piper.

She's the fun mom. Like, every kid
wants to hang out with her.

[Taylor] You also see Tiffany
for the first time

and really get a peek
behind her parenting style.

You can see that Tiffany is pushing Piper.

This is, like, a really good time
for you to get first place.

- Okay.
- I would like that.

- [Tiffany] You know?
- Yeah.

From a young age,
Piper wanted to please her mother,

making sure that she's constantly striving
to be the best,

that she was the top performer
in the South.

[gentle music playing]

- But Piper was not in school.
- [mouse clicking]

When Piper was eight or so,
Ashley said to Tiffany,

"You really need to get her
in some kind of school."

You know, "It's... it's her right
to be able to learn."

And that was a big fight.

Her main focus was
on Piper advancing socially.

She could excel in performing

and hold a conversation with an adult,

go out and do these auditions.

I didn't understand it,
but, you know, I supported them

in whatever they wanted to do.

[music fades]

It was the year 2017,

and my daughter, Corinne,
and I got an invitation from a friend

to go and audition to be a backup dancer
for a girl named Piper Rockelle.

[soft electronic music playing]

[girl] My friend told me
that Piper was crowned on Musical.ly.

It was so hard
to get crowned on Musical.ly.

So I was like, "Oh my gosh."
Like, "Okay, cool."

[music continues]

[Steevy] Corinne was very interested

in acting, singing, dancing,
all that stuff.

[faint cheering]

We were trying to do
some more dancing gigs,

so we took off school,
and we went to audition.

When we walked in,
there was a camera crew,

and it was for a show called Dance Twins.

[faint cheering, whistling]

[Corinne] Piper was really sweet.

We clicked.

We were talking to each other
the whole time during the audition.

[Steevy] After filming that day,
we realized that we both lived in Georgia,



So, of course, the girls are like,
"We wanna get together."

"We wanna do more things together."

Me and Tiffany kind of bonded over,
you know, "Our kids wanna do this,

so we're gonna help them."

Tiffany told me that she was
really interested in doing YouTube

because she'd seen
all these new families come along

and were really, you know,
taking off kind of doing social media.

[man 1 bleating]

[bleats]

- [bleats]
- That means "I love you" in goat.

[man 2] Hey, can you clean up your, uh...
your toy room here, please?

- [in singsong] Clean up.
- [mouse clicks]

[man 3] Let me see it.
Okay, there's Everleigh.

- [woman] Is that yours, sweetie?
- [man 3] Oh my word! Okay, Ava. Your turn.

[Steevy] Tiffany said to me,

"We could totally do that.
Like, this could be really good."

I had never filmed a video before,
so I was like, "Seems cool."

Tiffany seemed like she was very in touch...

- [camera snaps]
- ...with social media.

[Tiffany in southern accent]
Corinne! Yeehaw, girl! Piper!

- Yeehaw, girl!
- [Tiffany] Yeehaw!

- [Steevy] Tiffany put it up on YouTube.
- [Tiffany] Woo-hoo!

[Steevy] And she texted me.
She was like, "Do you see this?"

"It's at 20,000 views."

And I was like, "Wow. That's cool."

You-- Cool? [chuckles] I don't know.

And she was like,
"Now it's at 40. Now it's at 70."

[Corinne] That video got, like,
over a million views.

I had never gotten this type of,
like, attention on social media before.

[plinking]

I was excited.

[upbeat, melodic music playing]

[Steevy] After that, we just continued.
And the videos did really well.

[Taylor] After Dance Twins,

Piper really starts
to explode on social media.

People start following her.

They start getting more interested
in her life.

And so in 2017, she moves to LA.

[Piper] Stop. [chuckles]

So we're going to LA right now.

- Okay, just--
- [Tiffany] We're heading to the airport.

- Well, yeah. We're heading to the airport.
- [cat meows]

- [meows]
- What are you trying to do, Thirteen?

- [Piper laughs]
- You wanna go out into oncoming traffic?

[meows]

Tiffany and Piper grabbed their things
and a couple of their cats

and went to LA to pursue something bigger.

[in singsong] Los Angeles,
I'm coming for you.

[Taylor] The entire "kidfluencer" space
is centered around Los Angeles.

It is where
all of the talent managers are,

all the big agencies.

Tiffany wanted success for her daughter.

And so she's launched
Piper's YouTube channel,

developing a brand,
becoming a personality online.

Hey, guys. It's me and Hunter, my brother.

[Patience] Hunter and Tiffany and Piper
met at a conference in LA

when Hunter came down from Wyoming.

[Ashley] Hunter became a character
on Piper's channel.

He was posed as her brother.

Very interesting to us,
as the family members,

because we're thinking, "What?"

What's up, guys? It's your boy,
Raegan Beast, here with...

[high-pitched] ...Hunter! [voice breaks]

I met Hunter after doing some videos

and going over to Piper's place
to just do collabs and such.

He was doing a lot of camera work.
And he was their editor.

- Slurpees!
- [music plays on radio]

[Raegan] Me being trans, I haven't had
a lot of guy friends that aren't trans.

Hunter was like an older brother.
He made me feel safe. He was there for me.

- Ah!
- Ah!

- Oh, holy ****!
- [Hunter chuckles]

[Raegan] There were jokes
made by Hunter to me about,

"Yeah, I get with Tiffany sometimes."

I think you're pretty!

[Raegan] It wasn't until
after knowing Hunter,

he was like,
"Yeah, I'm Piper's brother on YouTube."

"On YouTube, we're... we're siblings,
but not biologically."

[Hunter] Big brother always wins!

He was Piper's brother off-camera as well.

Like, he really was this, like,
guy that was there for Piper

in this childish way,
not in a stepfather way.

But then, I think,
secretly doing stuff with Tiffany.

[disquieting music playing]

I was like, "Does Piper know that you have
this relationship with her mom?"

Hunter was Tiffany's
very much younger boyfriend.

- [music fades]
- Hey, guys! So we're back home.

I look like the Grinch right now.
So does Pipes. So does Tiff.

[Patience] He was 19 or 20.

- And he moved in.
- [cat meows]

[Ashley] And they were all
just creating content.

A lot of you guys requested
my night routine

'cause I already did a morning routine,
so you're gonna know all my routines.

[Patience] Piper's personality was built
to do social media.

She could act in such a way
and... and make it seem so real.

- [water running]
- [bright music playing]

[Brandon] Piper was cuter than a button.
Everyone loved her.

She had a way to draw people in
that just felt so authentic.

[inaudible]

[Brandon] Tiffany built
a very viable brand

on normalcy from a kid's point of view.

The more and more relevant
Piper's brand became,

Tiffany found an opportunity
to make it bigger.

- [music fades]
- Whatcha doin'?

[man] Making a sandwich.

So, um, what kind of sleepover is this?

Just a typical sleepover.

- [quirky, rhythmic music playing]
- You won't even hear us.

[Taylor] Piper very quickly lands a spot
on the show Mani, produced by Brat.

Brat is essentially the Disney Channel
for the Internet.

They've had really popular shows.
Mani was a breakout hit on YouTube.

Where do you think you're going?

All nannies participate
in the makeup hour.

Well, this manny not. Mani don't do that.

[Sophie] Mani was about this nanny
who was a man.

And Piper played a character
named Skye on the show.

And she was the preppy, rich kid.

Welcome to Skye's
four-step guide to popularity.

Step one, rid yourself from all bad vibes.

[Sophie] I played the gothic, emo girl.

Anything that goth girl did,
Piper would do the opposite.

[bright music playing]

I had no idea who Piper was, like, at all.

I didn't know
she had a social media presence.

[woman] Sophie didn't even have
an Instagram account when she joined Mani.

They all insisted she needed one
if she was on this Brat show

'cause everyone on the Brat platform
was pretty big on social media.

[plonk]

Sophie got her first job on the show Mani
as a background actor.

They liked her character so much
that it took off.

I wore black to disappear.

[Sophie] We met Piper and Tiffany on set.

And then after that,
I, like, talked to Piper a lot.

From there, Tiffany and Piper asked me
to be in a YouTube video.

And it was the Freaky Friday video.

Piper Rockelle's character, Skye,
switches characters with Goth Girl.

That was my first experience
of getting to know them.

[gasps, giggles]

[Heather] Tiffany would always
invite Sophie for, like, a sleepover,

and then they would do a video.

[Piper] What time is it?

[in singsong] It is 11:10. Woo-woo!

So it's getting a little late.

[Heather] At that point,
I didn't know anything about YouTube.

I just thought
they were kids filming videos.

Piper and Sophie hit it off instantly.

[bright music continues]

[Sophie] We really connected.

We started to grow closer on set.

That's where we connected
and found, like, a lot of similarities.

I felt like no one understood me.

And I feel like she was the only one

who actually, like, put effort
in actually trying to get to know me.

Anything that I was feeling,
we would just talk about.

[Piper] We became best friends.

I've never really had
a best friend before.

-We literally are like sisters right now.
- [mouse clicks]

[music continues]

[music fades]

[man] Ready?
This is, like, the last shot of the day.

[Sophie] We both did Mani for a while.

And then there was the camp season.

And that's when
Tiffany was essentially mad

that another character had gotten
more lines than Piper.

[disquieting music playing]

Tiffany came to set.

She pulled Piper off the set.

And she was screaming all about the place.

"You're not gonna cut my daughter
from the show."

"She created this show.
She was the beginning of this."

She was like, "Sophie,
you need to come with us."

And I was like,
"I'm not gonna come with you."

"That's not what I'm gonna do
'cause I'm being professional on a set

'cause I don't believe
in burning bridges."

It started to get stressful.

Tiffany was upset.
She just was barely talking to me.

She dragged her off set.

The producers ran after her.

They, I think,
stopped them at a gas station.

She did not come back at all.

I stayed filming.
And it took a toll on our friendship.

So Piper and I
essentially stopped being friends.

I realized Tiffany was unstable

and that you had to be careful
in what you were doing around her.

I never, like, expressed that to anyone.
I just kind of kept that to myself.

[music fades]

[birds chirping]

When Tiffany and Piper lived in LA,

they would come back to Georgia
and visit us for holidays and birthdays,

or just, you know,
spend some time with my mom and dad.

[upbeat music playing]

This is around the time that Piper started
having a relationship with Claire.

Piper is my cousin by marriage.

And she is Patience's niece.

And my mom is married
to Patience. [chuckles]

I was always obsessed with having
something to do with the camera,

whether it be behind the camera
or in front of the camera.

So it was crazy to think
that I had some sort of relation to Piper.

I looked up to her so much.

I watched her before I really,
really knew she was my cousin.

So I was like... [gasps] "Oh my gosh!"
Like, I didn't believe it at first.

I'm like, "Is there another person
named Piper?"

The first time I met her, I was like,
"Oh my gosh!" Like, I was so happy.

I was, like, literally blown away by that.

The connection between,
uh, Piper and Claire and Reese,

we saw it as such an avenue
for Tiffany and, uh, Patience to connect

because they didn't have a relationship.

[Patience] Growing up,
Tiffany and I were very close.

She's four years older than I am.
I always looked up to her.

And we spent
a lot of time with each other.

And, you know, we got along really well.

But all of us were affected
by the divorce.

That's when I began
to definitely see a change in Tiffany.

She definitely became more aggressive,
physically and verbally.

And I chose not to speak to Tiffany.

I pushed her, in a way,

to try to have a much healthier
relationship with her family.

[all] Make a wish,
and blow out the candles.

[Patience] I was excited to possibly have
a connection with my sister again.

Two moms, two sisters,
you know, raising girls together.

[music fades]

[Sawyer] Hey, guys. What's up?

Today we're gonna go spend $30

and get ourselves the best costume.

I made my first video with Piper in 2018.

I did not know who she was.

I thought, "This is another kid

that does what I wanna do
and makes YouTube videos."

"This is great."

I'm Piper Rockelle,
and I am in a pirate outfit.

Vote for me, guys!

I'm Sawyer. This is my outfit.
Uh, if you want...

The very first video did all right,

but Tiffany invited us back
to make more videos.

So today, we are going to be getting
super long acrylic nails.

[Brandon] And as Piper's channel
continued to skyrocket and climb,

Tiffany and Piper start adding
new people to the clique.

- We have Sawyer!
- Hey!

- We have Hayden!
- Yo!

And we have Gavin!

[indistinct chatter]

Tiffany wanted a group of kids,
modeling it after Friends.

Friends was highly successful.
She knew it.

She's like, "We can get this group
and keep growing it."

She thought it would be a hit.

- All right, bye!
- You have to hold the camera lower.

[Steevy] Corinne had always wanted
to do acting, so we moved to Hollywood.

Very quickly when we got there,
Tiffany asked if we could do a video.

[Sophie] A few months after
the whole Mani incident,

Tiffany had reached out
to, like, my mom apologizing,

saying that Piper really missed me,

and she was very sad
about the entire situation.

After that, we started filming
a lot more together.

[kids chuckling]

[Steevy] They all got together one day
to film.

And people were like,
"Oh my gosh. It's a squad!"

And Tiffany just took that, ran, loved it.

She's like, "That's what
we're gonna call it, 'The Squad.'"

- It's Piper. Go! Piper!
- [girl squeals]

[Piper] I never went to public school,

so I never really had,
like, a big friend group.

I was like, "I need help with my channel."
Do you wanna do YouTube with me?"

And they started. And we kind of
all just had this amazing bond.

[Taylor] And so The Squad was formed.

A group of other child content creators
that are built around Piper.

It was like
her supporting cast of characters.

But make no mistake,
she is always at the center.

She is the star.

[quirky music playing]

- [Sophie] Oh my gosh.
- I'm in love.

Tiffany wasn't the first person
to think of a squad.

-Time to mess up our bodies some more.
- Oh!

-Let's see what it's gonna be.
- Here it goes.

[Sawyer] There was Jake Paul's Team 10.

[David Dobrik] Alex!

[Sawyer] David Dobrik's group.
There was the Sidemen.

Lots of other older people
doing that out there on the Internet.

[Brandon] This is that exact same formula,
just with kids.

Piper!

Well, I guess that's it for today, folks!
Hope you've enjoyed!

[energetic music playing]

[Hunter] So let's get
this challenge started!

[Gavin] Spin the wheel!

Why are you wearing my outfit?

[Brandon] As these kids start
to hit these massive numbers

and going viral, viral, viral,
building all of these followers,

they became this massive success.

And everyone's watching.

How do you think they're gonna react?

Myeh, myeh, myeh, myeh.

[gasps] Oh my God.

- [boy] Oh crap.
- [Sawyer] Piper!

[Corinne] Being liked in the public eye,
it will give you confidence,

it'll give you an ego boost,
it'll make you feel good.

And I think that's why
people want it so bad.

It makes you feel special.

[music continues]

[Sophie] At one point, we were actually
the top 11-year-olds in the world

on, like, Famous Birthdays
and all these different websites.

- We are going on tour!
- Tour!

[Sophie] There was thousands of kids.
Like, it was insane.

[kids chanting] Piper! Piper! Piper!

[Sophie] There was a line
wrapped around the block.

And it made me more motivated.

Like, "Wow! I want to keep going.
I want this to do well."

"I want it to be amazing." All or nothing.

[Sawyer blowing]

Getting to see the subscribers
and numbers go up was absolutely amazing.

This was still
one of the happiest moments of my life,

getting to see that number hit a million.

It was something
that I had always dreamed about.

Today I'm gonna be showing you
what's going on at my house.

Hey, guys. I'm Piper Rockelle.
And I'm so excited to be here.

I cannot believe
that I hit a million on YouTube.

You hit a million subscribers
in a year and a half. Insane.

I know.

[woman] She is an entrepreneur,
a singer, a YouTube star.

Piper Rockelle is here
to talk about her new song...

[both] ..."Treat Myself."

♪ I'm gonna treat myself
Treat myself, treat myself ♪

♪ I'm gonna treat myself
Treat myself tonight ♪

[Sophie] "Treat Myself"
was Piper's first music video

about girls who had, like, a spa day.

And they see, like,
these cute guys outside.

And then they wanna get
their phone numbers.

[likes plonking]

[Taylor] Once The Squad is established,
Piper's YouTube fame skyrockets.

And she starts earning tons of money.

YouTube has a revenue share program
with content creators

that's radically different
than all other platforms.

If you haven't already,
make sure you like, subscribe,

and turn on those post notifications.

It's called "monetizing" their content.

One is the direct money paid by YouTube.

[Taylor] You upload content,
YouTube puts some ads in there,

and then you get a portion
of that ad revenue.

[Karen] You also monetize by doing things
like brand deals and partnerships

and getting products and brands
to pay you to promote them.

Look how cute they are. They're so cute.

Walmart, it's going pretty smooth.
Thank you so much, Walmart.

[Brandon] You can drive brand deals
through exposure.

Brands want to drop money

so that they can get


That is what these influencers can do.

Thank you so much, Mattel.

I am so excited to see
what this Gleemer looks like.

[Taylor] The market cap
of the content creator industry

is, I think, supposed to pass
half a trillion by 2027.

That honestly feels low.

[Frank] Where'd you get
that disgusting hoodie?

- This disgusting hoodie?
- [Frank] That...

[Taylor] There's merch sales.
There's touring tickets.

All of these different revenue streams
are almost feeding each other

to create this multi-platform,
multi-million-dollar business.

There's kids that are making

six figures a month in this space.

Six figures a month.

[music continues]

[Ashley] One Christmas,
there was an Apple computer,

brand-new Canon camera.

There was, like, a Louis Vuitton bag.

That's when I realized,
"This is bigger than I even know."

[music builds, halts]

I didn't really know
about the monetization of YouTube.

I wasn't clear in that.

I was a single mom
living in Hollywood with a kid.

And Tiffany knew that.
She knew the struggles.

She told me that, "You know
you can really make money at this."

And I was like, "Oh, really? Like..."
She's like, "Oh yeah."

"She makes a lot of money.
Enough to handle all your bills."

And I was like,
"Oh, are the girls' videos making money?"

She's like, "Oh yeah."

And at that point,
YouTube was just fun for Corinne,

so we didn't really think
about that aspect of it.

My best friend
is so much better than yours.

[Steevy] So then that's when
I kinda just started thinking,

"If you're making all this money
and you're telling me about the money now,

where's our money?"

You know, we weren't getting any money.

And she was like,
"Oh, she's getting exposure."

"People know her."

- [gasps] Oh my God!
- Oh my God!

You knew that they were
making money off of your kid,

but you also believe
that your kid is growing,

and that they will...

your... your kid will benefit
by being able to get views himself

and to get brand deals
and to be a content creator himself.

- Nope.
- Mistletoe.

- [jingling]
- Oh, a bow.

[Steevy] Tiffany's proposition
was basically,

"I'm going to help you make this money."

So, okay, now I'll see something
for what we're doing.

Guys, can I have some water?

- After this.
- I need water. I need water.

So we're doing the pyramid.

[shrieks] Corinne!

- Oh my God! Are you okay?
- Corinne!

- I need to go get her some water.
- Corinne, wake up!

[intriguing music playing]

[Brandon] There's a lot of money
to be made in this space.

And in order to do that,
you have to hit the algorithms.

You have to get people to engage with you.

The algorithm is built
so that it can watch all of this footage

and say, "Okay, person X,

you wanna see this content,
so let's put it at the top of your page."

And so it takes
a lot of experience in this space

to understand
how can I get enough comments,

enough likes, enough shares to go viral?

So you guys might be wondering
who edits these videos.

It's obviously the editor,
and, like, where does he edit the videos?

[Steevy] Hunter is basically the one
who helps the YouTube algorithm,

suggests content times.

He said he learned the sauce.

How you got more views,

how you got better ads,

how you got the hashtags
in the right places

to draw people to your videos.

Just basically optimizing your videos,

making sure the most people
saw them as possible.

My first experiences, like,
making social media and posting videos

was when I was, like, eight or nine.

I didn't understand the analytics of it
and how that helped the video or anything.

Today, I'ma go catch me some gold diggers.

When we joined The Squad,
we had to hand over the channel to Hunter.

We gave him the login and everything.

And I was really excited for him
to make the videos do even better.

And, you know, it was a little bit hard
to hand over something

that I had worked so hard to create,

but it seemed like
a really good opportunity

and the right thing to do at the time.

Hey. Hey, hey.

Do you wanna go...
get lunch with me or something?

You can drive. Here, let's go.

[serene music playing]

[Heather] We were randomly looking
at open houses in the Hollywood Hills.

It's everyone's dream
to live in the Hollywood Hills

when you move to California.

It was a beautiful house. And it was huge.

Tiffany and Hunter
and Piper lived in an apartment.

And we had an apartment.

The house ended up being

only a couple thousand more
than all of us were paying.

So we were like, "If we combine,
we could get a place to sh**t content."

Tiffany was really excited.
My mom was pretty excited.

And Hunter was excited.

I did not wanna move in.

I always felt uneasy with Tiffany,

just because I knew
that she wasn't stable.

That was something
that was, like, always in my mind.

[Heather] I honestly just
really loved the house.

And there was, like, a yard
for the kids to run around in.

And it felt safe.

And, uh, I had a new friend.

Somebody who understood
the same situation I was in.

You're a single mom trying to make it.

[Sophie] Piper came to me
about everything.

She felt like she could just talk
about the things she was struggling with.

And she really got close with my mom too.

Piper had pulled my mom aside

and asked her to come move in with her

because she was like,
"I need a stable parent."

"I don't have that."

She didn't really have a mother.

She just had this person in her life
who made her do content

and wasn't really there
in her best interest.

I think that's kind of
what made us say yes.

[Heather] Piper became
like a second child.

They became our family.

[music fades]

[Piper] Okay, so who wore it better?

[Sawyer] All right, judges,
are you guys ready to vote?

- [judges]Yes!
- [Sawyer] All right.

[Sophie] Yes!

Sawyer and Saxon's turn!

[Sawyer] Making videos seems fun at first.

It's not fun all the time.

You don't always want to get up
and put on a smile

and sit there for hours
in front of a camera talking.

I have my orange and my olive oil.

[Sophie] We were sh**ting
for everyone's channel

because Tiffany gave everyone a channel.

Okay, whatever. So my name's Ramona.

We were filming
like ten to fifteen videos a day.

Everyone had to be there at 11:00 a.m.,

and we would sh**t
till 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.-ish.

So that's a long work day.

[Hunter] And... action, Sophie!

All right, guys,
so we really have to pee, so this is...

I would go to bed
for like two to three hours,

get up around like 6:00, 7:00-ish,
and do school...

We need to go!

[Sophie] ...close my tablet,

and then I would have to
get ready to film.

And then do it all over again.
And this was every day of the week.

We did not get a break at all.

[Hunter] Give me a call. I got it.

Listen, Piper, to make up for it,

just let me know if you want me
to be your personal assistant.

- [Hunter] Okay, action.
- Okay.

[Corinne] Tiffany is the type of person
who wanted to be in control

of what Piper was doing
and how the video went.

There was frustration with her and her mom
where she would say something wrong,

and her mom would yell at her.

[gloomy music playing]

Like, "Piper, you know better!"
Like, "Do this better!"

Then she'd be like, "Okay."
Like, "I'm trying," and stuff like that.

[Hunter] Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys!

It doesn't even look real.
Sawyer, here, let's do this better.

- Sawyer, turn around.
- Okay.

Eventually it became,
you're just being told what to do,

like you're a puppet.

- [Hunter growls] Come on!
- Enough stalling. Let's get this done.

- [Hunter] Sawyer, standing how Piper is.
- Okay.

- How Piper is.
- [Hunter] That direction.

- Facing that direction.
- [Hunter] Good. Yes.

[Sawyer] It's work.

Maybe one out of 50 videos you film
you actually enjoyed and were yourself in.

But it was a lot of faking it
to try and make a good video.

[uneasy, pensive music playing]

[Steevy] With Corinne actually doing
real acting, real dancing, real jobs,

we knew you're supposed
to have a teacher on set.

We had to do school. Six hours of school.

[Steevy] We knew you're supposed to have
hours you're supposed to work.

You're supposed to have food. [chuckles]

You're supposed to have all those things.

Traditional child entertainers
are subject to a bunch of rules

that, frankly,
took decades to be put in place.

You had this reckoning
in the early half of the 1900s

around famous child stars
of yesteryear that were not paid,

they were exploited.

And so you saw these laws form

that were meant
to protect these child stars.

Unfortunately, when it comes
to new forms of work and new media,

there are no labor protections.

[Hunter] Ladies, we're supposed
to be filming Sophie's YouTube video.

- [Piper] We are, yeah, right now.
- [Hunter] Why is she...

Sophie.

Sophie! Sophie!

[man] Because Tiffany and Hunter
were doing YouTube videos,

they believed
that they were outside of the arena

where those laws applied.

[Hunter] Sophie, wake up right now!

We are supposed to be filming your video.
Why are you sleeping?

'Cause we're gonna be doing a video...

- [Hunter] Pull yourself together!
- ...that's intense.

[uneasy music continues]

[Sophie] We went to Bombay Beach.

If you don't know what Bombay Beach is,
it's an abandoned town.

And we catch cats there.
It's just a lot of fun.

[quirky music playing]

Originally, Tiffany and Piper
had two cats.

Then we started rescuing
more and more cats.

And we rescued so many
that we had 36 cats...

- [cats meowing]
- ...throughout the house.

Growing up, we had 20, 30 cats at a time.

They weren't in... indoors.
They were outside.

It was cold out,
we'd let them come in the basement.

[kittens meowing]

[Patience] It's very similar
to how Tiffany lives her life still.

[cats meowing]

And you'd have to feed all the cats.

Which I don't know
if you've ever fed 30 cats.

- It's... quite an experience.
- [cats meowing]

Sometimes the trash can out by the street
would be so heavy with litter,

they wouldn't take the trash can.

[Piper] Oh, he likes the camera!

[Heather] Because we accumulated
about 60 cats...

[meowing]

...it became Tiffany's obsession
to clean for two hours with bleach water

and with a janitor-style
industrial bucket every night.

- [meows]
- [Hunter] Look it. Diego wants out, look.

[Sophie] We'd finish a video
around 1:00 a.m.

I was cleaning till around like 3:00 a.m.

[pulsing music playing]

[Heather] Sophie and Piper fell asleep
at the top of the stairs

bleaching the walls.

I was like, "Sh. I won't tell anyone.
Just go to bed."

And then Piper told on me,
and I got yelled at.

[Corinne] At that time,
it was definitely bad... and weird

and un-fun to do videos.

[music fades]

What are the odds, Coco,
you would lick that off the floor?

Do you want me to do it?

I mean, I guess I dare you.

[Piper giggling]

[Tiffany] Oh my gosh! She did it!
Piper, are you gonna do it?

[Brandon] Once The Squad
started really making money,

it became about the numbers.

How many people can we get to watch?

We're doing bathing suits

like we did last time.

How come I always end up
in a bathing suit when I'm here?

[Brandon] They're gonna do
what they have to do

in order to make that happen.

[distorted scream echoes]

That's when you have kids
that are forced into situations

that they might otherwise
be uncomfortable with.

[Hunter] I need every single one of you.

To have to be really, really mean
to Symonne.

We were actually told
to be mean to Symonne,

to ignore her,
to not wish her a happy birthday.

- Hi!
- [Hunter] Symonne!

Hi. You're vlogging today?

[Hunter] Yeah, we're...
It's a squad... Uh, you're late.

Before, it was just kind of for fun,
and now it seemed a little cutthroat.

- [Hunter] Oh, was that a bad take?
- Yeah.

There was, like,
something on the screen. It just--

[Hunter] Oh, something was on the lens?

- Yeah, something kind of ugly.
- [Hunter] Oh.

[Angela] They did things that made us
uncomfortable and that were hurtful.

Tiffany absolutely wanted
to do more questionable content

to get more views and likes.

- [Frank] I know why you don't do pageants.
- Why?

You got kicked out
because you're not very pretty. [snickers]

It progressively got worse and worse.

[Frank] She's a loser.

- No, I'm not a loser, Frank.
- [Hunter] Hey.

Frank, the pug,
is Tiffany holding the dog,

saying these things in a weird voice.

He would bully you. He would degrade you.

He would say things that Tiffany
probably couldn't get away with saying

in her normal voice.

[Tiffany as Frank]
You guys look like crap. [blows raspberry]

[Corinne] Frank hated Sophie,
like would pick on her all the time.

It's time to film. What are you doing?

I'm just taking a nap.

[Tiffany as Frank] As you can see,
Sophie's lazy.

And she's messy.
And she leaves her shoes everywhere.

And she sleeps...

[Sophie] It became
a very stressful environment.

I didn't know how to,
like, say "stop" at all. [scoffs]

[music fades]

Today I am, uh...

[Frank] A**hole!

- Okay, I am a little bit of an ***hole.
- [Corinne] Tiffany was just being mean.

And she was having outbursts.

And just weirder situations
that started happening.

[Tiffany as Frank] Let's bring in
our first player, my favorite, Gavin!

- Gavin's not here.
- [Frank] What?

- He's sick. He can't come.
- [Frank] What?!

[Sophie] Tiffany really had,
like, a fascination with Gavin.

Like, not in just a friend way.
In like a creepy way.

- [Tiffany as Frank] Lick it. Lick it.
- I'm not gonna lick it.

It's good. Lick it.

I'm not gonna lick it.

[Heather] Tiffany would flirt with him.
That was very weird.

She would say, "Do you have a b*ner
from looking at me?" to Gavin.

At this time, he's probably 12, 13.

[Frank] Let me clean that up for you.

Yeah, come here. Let me get that for you.

No, wait. No, I do want it.

Gavin would try to laugh about it,
brush it off,

'cause he didn't really understand
what she was saying.

I had no idea what she was saying,

but she wouldn't do this around parents.

[Steevy] Corinne cries
when she comes home.

She started revealing
more and more things to me

that were going on at Tiffany's house.

[tense music playing]

When people ask me about it,
and like here, I don't talk about it.

I was at the end of my rope
with some of the things that I'd heard,

some of the things that were transpiring.

That was it. We were done. We left.

[tense music continues]

And I get these angry texts.

[Angela] Corinne got kicked from the group
in a group text.

I had never seen anything like that.
It did make me feel a little like, "What?"

[Sawyer] It wasn't our idea to do that.

It was completely controlled by Tiffany,
out of spite.

[message whooshes]

[Steevy] Corinne's trying to text them
and, like, ask what's going on.

And Sawyer said, "I'm so sorry, Corinne."

"I love you, but if I don't,
I can't be in videos."

[whoosh]

[Corinne] She had people
on social media hate on me too.

[Steevy] Calling Corinne a piece of sh*t
on the bottom of their shoe,

and, like, Corinne was a backstabber,
and Corinne was a bad friend.

I basically got blacklisted after leaving.

[Sophie] Nobody said anything
'cause we were, like, really scared.

Like, "Well, what if she does that to me?"

[tense music continues]

[Steevy] Tiffany finds people
who want to be famous.

She knows who to find.

She knows who to talk to.

She knows how to talk to you.

She takes advantage of them.

[unsettling music playing]

[Raegan] We hung out a lot,
Hunter, Piper, and Tiffany.

There were some occasions
where Tiffany was drinking,

and she just has no filter.

She would say things to me,
especially around Piper.

She's like, "You're gonna be so sexy,
like, when you're a little bit older."

So we were on my livestream,
having a good time.

[unsettling music continues]

And then it really took
a really unexpected turn.

She forced herself on me.

[music builds]

I was shocked.

[unsettling music continues]

[music fades]

[poignant piano music playing]

[music fades]