When teen kidfluencer Piper Rockelle joined YouTube in 2016, she was a young actor hoping to make it big in Hollywood. Years, billions of views, and millions of dollars later, she found herself embroiled in a controversial scheme run by her momager, Tiffany Smith, that allegedly took advantage of minors, including Rockelle herself.
Rockelle’s complicated rise to fame is the subject of Netflix‘s docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. The three-part series chronicles Rockelle’s career and the creation of her “Squad,” many of whom later filed a $22 million lawsuit against Smith — as well as 28-year-old Hunter Hill, Smith’s boyfriend who was an influential figure behind the camera — citing several alarming accusations, including an array of workplace violations and sexual harassment in 2022, Netflix’s Tudum reported.
Does Piper Rockelle still create content, and are Smith and Hill managing her?
Rockelle is now 17 years old and continues to pump out regular content for social media. After the allegations against Smith surfaced, YouTube demonetized her channel on the platform. She now has over 6.1 million Instagram followers, 14.7 million followers on TikTok, and 12.1 million subscribers on her current YouTube channel, NME reported. Though she appears in her content alone or with her boyfriend, Hill and Smith still seem to call the shots behind the scenes.
The teen recently made headlines for collaborating with members of the Bop House, a collective of adult content influencers who live together and create content. The public deemed the partnership inappropriate, as Rockelle is still a minor.
She shared a statement with People magazine regarding the backlash and said she was “so grateful for the opportunity to collab with the Bop House creators.”
“No matter what we do as humans we will get judged and people will have opinions,” she added. “I have been in this business for eight years and I’ve never met such a kind, warmhearted group of people. Social media is supposed to be entertainment so if we’re not entertaining you something must be wrong. You only know so much about a person from the internet we show you what we want you to see.”
While Rockelle didn’t participate in the docuseries, she has alluded to having a story to tell on social media. In February, she posted a TikTok video that suggested she’s gearing up to tell her side when she turns 18 in August, NME reported.
Rockelle describes herself as an actress, dancer and singer.
The docuseries co-director Kief Davidson claimed Rockelle should also be considered a “victim.”
“I think it’s really important to know that Piper is a victim here,” he told Tudum. “Universally, every single one of the families that we spoke with looks at [it that way].”
Tiffany Smith and Hunter Hill
Smith and Hill denied the varied allegations made against them. In October 2024, the lawsuit reached a $1.85 million settlement just a few months after it was filed, Tudum reported.
According to the Los Angeles Times, attorney Matthew Sarelson, who represented the Squad, said that the settlement was the preferred outcome, as it would have taken months to go to trial and would have “required the kids and their parents and their friends and their doctors to testify about things that the kids have put behind them.”
“I’m happy and relieved for my clients,” Sarelson wrote in an email to the outlet, “11 kids who endured an abusive environment and had the courage to speak out publicly.”
One of them, Sophie Fergi, said the lawsuit was about so much more than the $22 million in damages they asked for.
“This lawsuit was never about money — it was to make sure she couldn’t do what she did to me to another kid,” she said in the documentary.
Neither Smith nor Hill participated in Netflix’s show.
Other members of the Squad are making content and pursuing new ventures
The rest of Piper’s Squad has gone on to pursue creative endeavors. Per NME, Fergi now runs Girl Talk, a YouTube series and podcast. Gavin Magnus has ventured into the world of rap music, releasing songs like “Psycho” and “Just Me.” He also continues to make content on social media, TV Insider reported.
Sawyer Sharbino is now a singer, actor and model and, like Magnus, continues to pursue content creation, per NME. Corinne Joy has pivoted and is now training to be a professional wrestler. She also starred in the web series Chicken Girls and appeared in a 2024 episode of the CBS show Matlock, according to TV Insider. Emily Dobson still regularly posts on social media, and Symone Harrison, like Fergi, has launched a podcast, The Friendzone.
Jentzen Ramirez is an actor who stars in the web series Junior’s Cafe, and Claire RockSmith acted in the web series Snowbound. Hayden Haas seems to have stepped away from social media, and now describes himself as an actor, artist, creator and athlete.
Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing is available on Netflix.
