Sad five-word admission YouTube 'kidfluencer' Piper Rockelle made to friend amid disturbing ‘momager' abuse claims

Back in 2018, single mother Tiffany Smith moved from Georgia to Los Angeles in a bid to sky-rocket her daughter Piper Rockelle into stardom.

The move followed a successful child pageanting career for the youngster, after which Tiffany began sharing video of her nine-year-old daughter online. Immediately, the numbers came rolling in, giving Tiffany the idea to launch a YouTube channel.

In the years that followed, however, the 'momager's' drive reportedly went from encouraging to coercive - and eventually, she'd find herself at the receiving end of abuse accusations, and a million-dollar civil lawsuit.

Early success

When Piper was 11, she began appearing on a number of low-budget television series - most notably, the kids' comedy series Mani.

While filming the show, along with a number of other age-appropriate projects, she and her mother Tiffany came across a number of other child stars. As opposed to seeing the youngsters as future friends for her daughter, however, Tiffany is said to have viewed them as cast-mates.

Over the period of a few months, she'd forged an idea to launch an online series starring Piper, where videos would show the highs, lows and realities of being a pre-teen living in LA.

And soon, The Squad was formed.

The Squad

Tiffany invited child stars Sophie Fergi, Gavin Magnus, Symonne Harrison, Sawyer Sharbino, Hayden Haas, Jentzen Ramirez, Corinne Joy, and Piper's own cousin, Claire RockSmith, to appear on the online series.

She also hired her considerably younger boyfriend Hunter Hill to film their content.

The Squad's videos consisted of the group - who posed as real-life best friends - taking on challenges, pranking one another and enjoying days out. As the group got older, Tiffany reportedly started focusing on 'crush content'.

This saw a number of supporting child stars to pose as on-screen love interests for the girls and the guys of the group.

As the channel's views soared in numbers, so did Tiffany's pay cheques, and driven by fame and fortune, former friends and family members claim she began to lose sight of her daughter's livelihood.

The group soon amassed a large number of members (Netflix)

According to a number of former members of the group - many of whom have spoken out in a startling new Netflix docu-series, Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing - she had the children film content all day and throughout the night.

The group allege that Tiffany and Hunter would also berate them for making mistakes whilst recording, and force them to clean her house in between takes.

A number of parents of The Squad's members also speak out in the horrifying new show, claiming Tiffany would inflict hell onto them and their children if they ever spoke out against her strict means of parenting, or voiced their desire to leave the production.

Piper's plea

It was around this time, in 2019, that Piper is said to have approached her friend Sophie's mother, Heather Nichole, both of whom believe she was becoming aware of her mother's deteriorating stability.

Heather and Sophie had temporarily moved in with Piper and Tiffany in the months prior, due to their joint aims to see their daughters fulfil their dreams, and the high cost of living in Los Angeles.

Tiffany's behaviour became increasingly more erratic (Netflix)

"[Tiffany was] somebody who understood the same situation I was in. You're a single mom trying to make it," Heather initially explained.

Picking up on some increasingly concerning behaviour, however, Heather's daughter Sophie explains in the documentary: "I stayed filming, and it took a toll on our friendship. So, Piper and I essentially stopped being friends.

She continued: "I realised Tiffany was unstable and that you had to be careful in what you were doing around her."

When members of The Squad that rubbed Tiffany up the wrong way started being axed from the group's video, however, Piper feared what this could do to the friendships she'd formed.

According to Sophie, Piper one day turned to her own mother, Heather, and implored with them never to leave with a gut-wrenching five-word confession.

"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,'" the teen recalled. "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 [to moving in]."

Sophie says Piper asked her mum, Heather [pictured], not to leave (Netflix)

By 2020, however, Tiffany had kicked the pair out of the property, having stumbled across a text from Heather to one of the other moms, that allegedly expressed how they wished they could 'adopt Piper and leave'.

Eventually, as more and more members clocked onto Tiffany's allegedly unpredictable and somewhat vindictive nature, The Squad got smaller.

Some mothers - including that of Gavin Magnus, Piper's first YouTube 'crush' - also pulled their children from the cast in fear of the boss' malice.

This was also around the time that some of the younger children felt mature enough to discuss their experiences with one another.

It was during these conversations that an unexpected, heartbreaking truth emerged - almost all of the members of the group claimed to have been sexually abused by Tiffany whilst under her care at one point.

Abuse accusations

Sophie alleged that, on a number of occasions, Tiffany had entered the children's bedroom at night and had pinned them down, touching them all over. She says one of these instances saw the deranged mother attempt to dangle spit above them.

One of the youngest members of the group, Reese - who is now only 13 - claimed that Tiffany threatened to expose herself to her, to such an extent that the youngster was forced to lock herself in the bathroom.

The group claim Tiffany would orchestrate sexualised child content (Netflix)

The documentary also touches on Tiffany's assault of then 17-year-old transgender teenager Raegan Fingles, forcing herself upon him and kissing him twice during an Instagram livestream.

The group also allege in the documentary that Tiffany paid particular attention to Gavin, asking him inappropriate questions like, 'Do you have a boner?', whilst the cameras weren't rolling.

They also claimed that Tiffany would encourage them to do 'more than kissing' on camera, to as to sell her crush content.

Heather - who claims she was appointed the kids' stylist - added that she was often berated by Tiffany for not purchasing 'slutty' enough clothes.

She also went on to claim that particularly attention was shown to giving the female stars 'bigger boobs' and the male stars more accentuated muscles.

Sophie's mother also claims Tiffany admitted to her once that Piper has an adult male stalker, who followed the group under an account posing as a teenage girl named 'Meghan'. Tiffany reportedly told Heather that 'Meghan' often sends The Squad gifts and money.

Heather alleged that, during the same conversation, Tiffany admitted to posting some of her daughter's worn underwear to adult males on the internet with a pervasion for child content.

They accused Tiffany of acting inappropriately to a number of male child stars (Netflix)

Corrine - another Squad member - also recalls Tiffany asking her as a child if she knew what 'b**wj**s' are, before offering to demonstrate for her on Hunter.

A colossal emotional, physical and sexual abuse lawsuit ensued, throughout which Tiffany denied each allegation.

Eventually, she settled for $1.85 million last October - significantly less than the $22 million originally sought by the plaintiffs.

"This lawsuit was never about money — it was to make sure she couldn’t do what she did to me to another kid," Sophie says in the doc.

No criminal charges have ever been brought against Tiffany Smith.

Where are Piper and Tiffany now?

Any fan of Piper Rockelle will know that the now 17-year-old is still creating content under the management and direction of her mother and Hunter. Her YouTube channel was demonetised following the lawsuit, however.

Sadly, however, the documentary's director believes Tiffany is sexualising her daughter in a bid for clicks.

"You can certainly see with Piper that as she's gotten older — she's 17 now — the photos have become very risque," director Kief Davidson said.

"Since the demonetization happened, there's been paid subscription-type services for Piper to post pictures for people that want to see personalized photos, which you have to actually be 18 or over for.

Piper is still a full time content creator (YouTube/@piperockelle)

"It opens up the doors obviously to all sorts of people who you don't want looking at a teen that way."

Neither Piper nor Tiffany took part in the documentary, though the former has since spoken out against in.

In conversation with USA Today, Piper shut down the allegations made against her mother, slamming them as 'mean, untrue, and honestly all about money'.

She added: "Honestly, I just want to move on from all of this because it’s really painful to deal with every day.

"And not surprisingly, my mental health has suffered more than anyone knows.

Piper continued: "My mom did not do any of those things that they said. And I’ll stand by my mom to the end."