About this episode

Sophie Fergi discusses her experiences as a child influencer and the dark side of YouTube in this episode.

This week is part one with Sophie Fergi, former child influencer who told her story in the Netflix docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. In this episode, she explains how she first met YouTube kidfluencer Piper Rockelle, and how Piper’s mom Tiffany formed the “Squad,” a group of children making content together for their YouTube channels. Sophie will share what it was like to film the videos, which included fake challenges, fake crushes and relationships, and carefully curated drama that blurred the line between reality and performance, and how she began to see red flags with Tiffany, who created characters - based on family animals - which she used to speak inappropriately to the kids. Next week, she’ll talk about moving in with Tiffany and Piper, and how everything began to escalate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Guest: Sophie Fergi

Topics covered

• kidfluencing
• YouTube
• child influencers
• social media
• manipulation
• content creation

Keywords

• Sophie Fergi
• Piper Rockelle
• YouTube
• kidfluencing
• Tiffany
• Squad
• content creation
• manipulation
• Bad Influence

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Netflix

Books & works: Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing

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• Anke Richter, Part 2 - Harem Culture, Leaving ISTA, and DeCult · August 12, 2026 · 43 min
• Anke Richter, Part 1 - Ecstatic Dancing, Tantric Sex, and Joining ISTA · August 5, 2026 · 59 min
• Sophie Fergi, Part 2 - Living with Piper, Constant Control, and Being Shunned by the Squad · July 29, 2026 · 1h 0m

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