This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ashley Smith and Patience Rock Smith, the parents of Claire Smith and the subjects of a recent Netflix docu-series, “Bad Influence.”
Recently, my wife, Patience, and I have been getting a lot of backlash after a documentary about our daughter’s time as a kid influencer aired on Netflix. I get it — the documentary shows abuse, questionable decision-making, and chaos. If I knew what I was getting into, I would never have let it happen.
But I was ignorant about the world of kid influencers. My wife’s niece, Piper Rockelle, is a YouTuber with more than 12 million subscribers. My daughter, Claire, was excited about the opportunity to film with Piper. Patience thought that working with her sister, Tiffany, might help rebuild their troubled relationship. I just thought we were filming with family, and that sounded fun.
My daughter travelled to LA to film 3 days a week
I’ve thought a lot about trust in recent years. We’re often told not to trust strangers. When family is involved, however, it’s easy to ignore those little gut feelings telling you that something is off. Looking back, I can see I had some reservations about Tiffany.
At the time, I didn’t hear those internal warnings — or maybe I tried not to. Each week, Claire and Patience would drive from our home in Las Vegas to LA, where Claire would film YouTube videos under Tiffany’s direction.
They’d be in LA for three days, usually Sunday through Tuesday, and then come home for four days. Since Claire wasn’t always in LA, having the split schedule helped us maintain some normalcy in our lives.
I wanted my daughter to know her income wasn’t normal
Eventually, Claire got her own YouTube channel. Compared to other kids in Piper’s “squad,” she wasn’t a high earner, but she still made nearly $30,000 during her most lucrative month.
I have a background in finance and encouraged Claire to save her money and invest for her future. I couldn’t stand the frivolous spending I saw in LA, like the girls getting their nails done constantly. I wanted her to save for needs, like a car and college, not just on wants.
We’re a pretty middle-of-the-road family income-wise. I had a lot of conversations with Claire about how her income and lifestyle weren’t normal for a 14-year-old. I tried to do it in a way that didn’t scare her.
I want other parents to be informed
Patience was the first one to realize that the environment around filming for the squad was becoming unhealthy. It was causing a lot of chaos in our family. Patience felt guilty — if I had never fallen in love with her, Claire wouldn’t have been exposed to this world.
Patience stopped taking Claire to LA, so I went instead. It didn’t take long for me to realize I wanted my child out. When Tiffany insulted Claire, we left. Claire still does occasional content on social media, but there’s no pressure.
We’ve decided to keep sharing our story because we were so oblivious going in. Social media is here to stay, and I don’t think it’s all bad. Any child with an account could go viral or have a filming opportunity with an influencer, like Claire did. I’m creating courses for parents that have all the information I wish I’d known.
Our story is about more than that, though. It’s about recognizing abuse and gaslighting, and the impact that a dysfunctional family can have. We want to heal trauma, but sometimes you can’t see how bad it is until it’s all taken away.
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