- 6 hours ago
Impact x Nightline - Season 4 - Episode 17: Piper Rockelle: Barely Legal
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:04I have it down to like it like it only takes me 30 minutes top hair and makeup I felt
00:12like when
00:12I first dropped my OnlyFans I was thinking a little bit too much like oh my god I need to
00:16have this kind of photo and this kind of photo but I came to the realization that I've never
00:20really explored just being completely natural and just being like you know this is me chilling
00:28what is the most you've been offered for the least you've done you want to be honest probably just
00:35like a foot pick like it'll be like 3k just to see a foot Piper Raquel for months literally counted
00:44down to our OnlyFans debut January 1st the life is gonna change just a tad bit I'm gonna get a
00:49little bit of January 1st Piper is going to be the same human just with extra link in her bio
00:55Piper doing her own countdown clock is rewriting the narrative she's the one counting down to her
01:01own coming of age hey it is Piper Raquel and welcome to my vlog a lot of people knew her
01:10as a kid but
01:11now we're seeing her as an OnlyFans model who is revealing a lot more Piper Raquel was the biggest
01:16kid influencer of the 2010s she grew up as a child in this limelight and she didn't know how
01:23her fans were gonna take it she didn't want them to think any less of her
01:28I did not raise you to do this shit her move from child star to a sex symbol OnlyFans model
01:38was a shocking success Piper claims that she made 2.9 million dollars in her first day
01:44that is an astronomical amount of money even within the OnlyFans world a lot of OnlyFans creators
01:51refer to themselves as sex workers if they want to call me that they go ahead I don't I don't
01:57care
01:57I'm proud of what I'm doing right now believe it or not so why did Piper turn to OnlyFans it
02:03may
02:04have something to do with a massive scandal and lawsuit it involves her mother and alleations of
02:09abuse and exploitation until the lawsuit came out Piper was really the golden girl of kid
02:15influencers and so for these claims to come out against her mother and her mother's boyfriend
02:20really changed everything when you say you lost everything what did you lose I lost who I was I
02:26lost my whole entire business my whole entire future if all of that hadn't happened do you think you
02:32would be doing OnlyFans um a little bit looser than I expected
02:57oh yeah hi it's me Piper I just want to say thank you so much for all your love and
03:05support
03:05and since you're spoiling me so much it's time for me to spoil you so I hope that you enjoy
03:10these
03:10photos for today bye are we good what made you think about going on OnlyFans once I did turn 18
03:25I was
03:26like where do I want my life to go what if I become an actor or a singer but then
03:30I kind of thought
03:30about it I was like I don't think that that's for me I'm never gonna have a good reputation I'm
03:34never
03:34going to have a clean slate I don't really want a clean slate you said that you thrive off the
03:38hate
03:38I do I wouldn't be here if I didn't get hated on for so long or if I wasn't I'm
03:44like this crazy
03:46talked-about child I wouldn't be here still what was your first day's earnings we made a million in an
03:53hour which was so crazy and then at the end of the night it was almost like three almost in
03:59one day
03:59it's crazy obviously there was some assigning me that was like okay this could happen but I didn't
04:04expect it to actually happen and it was beyond crazy there are some people who think you might
04:08be inspiring young people to do this kind of I don't know adult content what do you say to that
04:15that like some people see you as a role model I mean sure if you guys want to look up
04:20to me you can
04:20but I'm very realistic with everybody and I let them know that you're not gonna make this much money
04:25unfortunately unless you are willing to commit and actually put your life at risk what do you mean
04:31putting your life at risk you're gonna lose friends you're gonna lose people you might lose the people
04:35around you you might lose your family you might lose a lot of things and it's not all glamorous and
04:44amazing and here's my messages where I can like chat with people so this is like for my VIP members
04:50like they get a lot of stuff I do like customs and then they get like VIP access and just
04:55personalized
04:56video messages which are so much fun to do it's got pretty good likes pretty good likes it does seem
05:01that a lot of the people who are consuming content on OnlyFans especially of really young girls like Piper
05:08who is only 18 are older men it's always just been adult men who are sort of leering after these
05:15barely legal women as a culture we fetishize youth to such an extreme degree and what we're really
05:22fetishizing there is innocence does it trouble you that a lot of your fans are older men I mean it's
05:29not
05:29I don't really think about it that much I don't think about it like that do you think of it
05:33as
05:33embarrassing yourself I don't think it's embarrassing myself but it is like when people ask me what I do I
05:37don't say like I'm an OF model you know what I mean I don't say that I just say I
05:40am an entertainer you
05:41know what I mean Piper was born to her mother Tiffany Smith in 2007 in Georgia and by the time
05:55she was
05:55three years old she was competing in pageants I remember just watching Toddlers and TRs on my TV on
06:02my bed and I was like I want to pageants mom's like okay let's do it I am Piper's grandma
06:09she calls me
06:10Mimi Mimi and I'm a very important person to her so cute look at this one here look at that
06:18face it
06:19makes me want to cry oh it's just knowing how to pose gorgeous tell me she wasn't born to be
06:25a star
06:25look at her look at her it got to a point where she won so many pageants that they wouldn't
06:31allow her in
06:32the little local pageants because when people would call up and say is Piper gonna be in the pageant because
06:38if she is we're not doing it because she would win every one of them all the time I am
06:42Dee Dee and I
06:43am Piper's aunt number one aunt my father was uninvolved he freaked out when he found out Tiffany was
06:52pregnant and you know he went off and did his own thing Tiffany was really just trying to make things
06:57work and it was pretty quickly that she saw that Piper had some kind of star power there's something
07:04about her and then you can't put your finger on it but people are drawn to her her mother started
07:09posting videos of her on YouTube and by the time she was eight years old she was getting millions of
07:16views on YouTube videos Tiffany was the quintessential stage mom she's a momager but what Tiffany does is
07:23actually take that stage parent role a step further because she's not just on the sidelines she's also the
07:30one behind the camera directly calling the shots I think Piper and Tiffany were really surfing that
07:37YouTube wave that was happening at the time people were starting to realize just how much money was
07:42in social media there was was it a slime video right well like my first ever video your first big
07:47viral video hey guys it's Piper Raquel today we are going to be making fluffy slime slime was like
07:56having a moment and so when Piper started making content like that she was able to suddenly start
08:00racking up views and followers really quickly Tiffany has the creative mind and Piper has the she just wants
08:06to do it today we're going to be playing headbands we're going to be filling this huge bathtub we're filling
08:12it with ramen noodles
08:14hey guys welcome to my night routine today is the 4th of July
08:21young kids these days aspire to be influencers and so Piper was kind of this girl next door who had
08:28achieved their wildest dreams
08:30anywhere we went people would approach her can I take a picture with you can I touch you
08:35we couldn't even go to Walmart without people recognizing her so around 2017 Piper began this
08:49band of other child influencers to join her so it was called Piper Raquel and the squad or the squad
08:55for
09:05short in one of my interviews with her she told me that that pressure was kind of intense she really
09:10was like the son of the squad and everyone else just like revolved around her a few years after the
09:17squad was created the kids are getting a little older and you start seeing this proliferation of like
09:22crush content where the kids are revealing who they have a crush on or they're even like kissing each
09:29other Piper's mom was the boss she was the boss of Piper and when it came to the Piper squad
09:35she was also
09:36the boss and really like the caretaker of all these other kids you're going to be getting kissed this has
09:43been gone on for too long who do you actually like me or let those crush videos some people thought
09:54inappropriate sure I you know people can think that for sure I was cool with everything I think
09:59that we just made a lot of amazing content and I would never change the way that I went about
10:05like
10:05the whole YouTube thing because I think it was just one of the greatest things that ever happened to me
10:08Piper was kind of reaching like a stratospheric level of fame there were reports that you were
10:14earning somewhere in the 400 to 500 thousand dollars a month range you were paying for the
10:19mortgage you were paying for most of the household expenses how old were you when you realized you
10:25were the breadwinner in the family I don't know I never really thought of it that way kind of I
10:31just
10:31felt like it was a team effort I didn't just think that this was my thing and all this money
10:36is mine
10:37on its face the idea sounds crazy like hey I'm just gonna drop you off at some random woman's
10:43house you're gonna make YouTube videos all day these parents and kids understood how much potential
10:50there was in being in the Piper squad what was your schooling like I was homeschooled my whole entire
10:55life everyone was kind of worried around me like that I wasn't gonna get the proper socialization not
11:00going to public school but I had lots of friends there are pretty carefully crafted uh child labor
11:09laws that protect child actors they do have to have tutors they can't be overworked legislators
11:16haven't been able to craft laws to protect child content creators she's not there yet it's there in
11:22about five states and even if you look at those laws they don't go far enough Piper was homeschooled and
11:29she says that she was protected her money was protected and so she didn't endure some of the
11:33things that I think people are fearful that the child stars endure when I think of the child actors
11:38of my youth I think of Hilary Duff but really I think of Lizzie McGuire right the role that she
11:44played
11:45whereas when you think of Piper Raquel or other child influencers you think of them and there's just
11:52no delineation between their actual lives and their online lives some of your critics say well you know
11:59Piper never got to be a kid that your childhood was all work or maybe even worse a facade I
12:05had one of
12:05the best childhoods like I wouldn't change it I had to become the person that I am today I'm the
12:09luckiest person alive honestly in 2021 you saw the squad really changing so lots of members were leaving
12:17and there was kind of this mystery around like why would anyone leave the squad you started to see
12:22things really crumble on an interpersonal level between parents and kids in the squad and Tiffany
12:29Piper and Hunter and you saw this divide emerge where a lot of parents and kids who had previously
12:35been a part of the Piper squad were like hold on a second I'm now seeing how inappropriate and
12:41inequitable some of this behavior was the world had seen the squad on YouTube online for years but
12:49little did anyone know that there was much more beneath the surface in 2022 11 former members of the
13:03squad filed a lawsuit and they alleged emotional verbal physical and at times sexual abuse they sought
13:1022 million dollars in damages and the claims and the lawsuit are incredibly harrowing when the
13:17lawsuit actually came out it absolutely made national headlines this young ladies amassed more than 10
13:23million followers on YouTube shooting silly videos with her friends now Lisa Guerrero reports some of
13:28those now former friends and their parents are suing the squad lawsuit was against Tiffany Piper
13:34Raquel Inc which is Piper's company and then Hunter Hill all right Pablo we're looking for Picasso
13:41Hunter Hill he comes into the Piper squad as like a videographer and on camera he is identified as
13:50Piper's brother behind the scenes he begins to be in an actual romantic sexual relationship with Tiffany
13:59so that's really confusing on multiple fronts we do have some business that we have to do now and this
14:06is this is emotional and this is obviously difficult when the lawsuit happened we were very angry and I you
14:14know nervous breakdown we didn't know what was gonna happen it was awful to watch what was doing to
14:19Tiffany what it was doing to Piper when I was like 14 through 16 even 17 you know that whole
14:24entire span of
14:25my life was just complete like the lowest ever if I ever came face to face with any of them
14:31I would
14:33completely just fall apart because you know they knew like the the the the strain that they were
14:46probably putting on my life and most of them just gained you know from that I lost
14:55it's okay I'm just happy that they're um oh well you know and I'm well too so we're all good
15:06and I don't wish them any badly
15:09in 2025 Netflix dropped this documentary that was called Bad Influence it was number one on the Netflix
15:17charts for what seemed like forever and it was really an inside look at this lawsuit and these
15:23allegations against Tiffany Smith and the world of kid influencing some of the allegations there
15:30were unlawful touching emotional abuse sexual abuse it ran the gamut some of the things that
15:39really stood out to me were allegations that Tiffany had been abusive to the children specifically
15:46allegations around sexual misconduct on page 14 of the complaint it states Miss Smith also inappropriately
15:54touched plaintiff Claire E rubbing her exposed thighs constantly spanking and or slapping her
16:02buttocks sticking her finger slash poking her anus over her clothing we actually hear Claire describe on the
16:13Netflix docuseries what she says she experienced she was on top of us on her hands and knees like pinning
16:20us down saying that she was a mountain goat and then she was like she would howl did you watch
16:27the Netflix
16:28series no that's interesting because there's there are you know the lawsuit had serious allegations in
16:36it absolutely all of these allegations that were lodged mostly against your mom are you saying they're
16:42untrue I'm never gonna discredit anybody I'm just gonna say I have never witnessed anything and I have
16:48never went through that and I was always with my mom and I love my mom and I'm never gonna
16:53speak for
16:54them and I wish that what they could have been kind enough to never speak for me former squad members
16:59in the documentary said she's a victim of her mother and that they're there for her if she needs to
17:04get out
17:05she doesn't even realize it right now she thinks that's normal so like that's so sad her mom is in
17:11her ear all the time and if she's watching this right now hey it's not normal they said they think
17:19that you're a victim and you don't realize it I'm glad that they think that I'm really glad I'm just
17:26so
17:27happy they have freedom of speech but obviously you don't see it that way nope the documentary if they
17:33didn't use Piper's name if they just use Tiffany's name would anybody have turned in to watch it
17:38people were now associating Piper herself with all of these really heinous allegations against Tiffany
17:44and nobody wanted to watch Piper Raquel content because they now associated it with being a really
17:51abusive and toxic environment they weren't suing you though obviously it was my company it was me
17:56who has 22 million dollars in my family they're suing me they there's they wanted to take the
18:03Raquel's down cool understandable totally cool and you did you did a good job so and yet there's no
18:12estrangement between you and your mom you you guys are living together you know I think a lot of people
18:16think that this whole entire thing would definitely bring us farther apart but this whole entire thing
18:21has just made me closer to her so their bond has been strong from the early days we've seen a
18:26lot
18:26of it captured on camera I wanted to show you this clip on my phone you did dance twins how
18:33are you
18:33feeling you got cat hair all over you well we got 16 cats so 15 hi I'm Tiffany and this
18:43is my
18:44beautiful daughter Piper she's the fun mom like every kid wants to hang out with her she's my best
18:54friend she refers to you as her best friend yeah you're like a child yeah I didn't grow up with
19:01a
19:01dad or anything so um I'm sorry you okay it just like it sucks that I have to sit here
19:12and like talk
19:12about this like it's just like it's really advocating because like I just think about my life is like
19:18such a good thing and like maybe it's just always like it's sad to think about when you're first starting
19:24and you don't know how your life's gonna play out and like you know it just would have been if
19:29I could
19:29have told her like how the world would think of her now and like how they would think of her
19:34family
19:35it was just it would make her sad and I feel like it's my fault a lot because why is
19:40it your fault
19:41well because if I never got into like the entertainment space I think that you know my
19:46mother and my family would have a lot more respect but because I wanted to do this you know
19:52it dragged everyone down with me and it just it it just I don't know I think I just had
19:57to get that
19:58out I'm sorry so the lawsuit was settled in 2024 it was settled for 1.85 million dollars which is
20:08a far
20:08cry from the 22 million dollars in damages sought Tiffany Smith Hunter Hill and Piper Raquel Inc never
20:16admitted to any wrongdoing when that was happening was my lowest of my whole everything I didn't think
20:22that I was gonna make it to 18 years old because I thought that I was gonna like oh honey
20:35yeah so when
20:37people do talk about it it's like so not fun at all they gained from that I lost and I
20:42have to get
20:43reminded about it a lot but I just wish they would have maybe thought about how it could have affected
20:49me
20:50after the lawsuit was filed YouTube demonetized Piper's channel at the time Piper and Tiffany they're
20:58making about 300 to 400 thousand dollars a month so that is a significant loss so all the sudden her
21:05main source of income was gone and not only that but her other sources of income like brand deals or
21:12sponsorships those vanished and Piper actually told me that at one point her mom told her just go out in
21:20public and say that you're against me it doesn't have to be true but just like go save your career
21:25and
21:26Piper refused to do that so what does Piper do she pivots and she leaves that young girl behind round
21:33when she
21:33was 16 17 Piper's content changed she was posting these photos that were that were very suggestive and
21:42also with captions that were kind of like teasing the idea that she might join only fans or she would
21:48do content with famous only fans creators she says she doesn't want to blame her joining only fans on her
21:56YouTube being demonetized but I think it's difficult to look back at her life and not see that as a
22:02huge
22:02turning point I think she had a very limited set of choices and only fans seemed like the most
22:08lucrative and most obvious decision I'm doing my first ever collab on only fans which I'm super
22:15excited about with Sophie rain and Aisha Sophie they're like two hottest little girls ever women
22:22I love them so much we just went on a little trip together and we took some photos and it
22:27was so much
22:28fun like so so much fun so I had the best time ever how would you say the only fans
22:33feed is different
22:34than what's out there socially all I gotta say is that you could go see you know what I mean
22:39your only
22:40fans has no nudity I mean no not yet at least I'm not shutting that door because I'm very comfortable
22:46with who I am but nothing yet I just started it's literally only been a month I love to show
22:49my body and
22:50I show my body on Instagram if I show that much on Instagram I'm obviously doing more on only fans
22:56but you do do personalized services like chatting with people of course
23:04it's successful people it's lonely people I don't care who they are but I care for them as an
23:10individual and I just I want to make them more happy if they that's that's what they want if
23:14they want me to be mean to them sure I don't care like
23:20part of the business model with only fans is that these models are able to message their
23:25subscribers directly and that is really a big part of where the money comes from so the messaging that
23:31she sends to her subscribers is racy they're very sexual they're very teasing in nature so you're
23:37single now oh yeah I'm single now I want to stay single for as long as I'm doing you know
23:42only fans
23:42and stuff like that I just don't think that it's fair to people we've talked about all that you've
23:46lost if all of that hadn't happened do you think you would be doing only fans um I really don't
23:54know I mean truthfully there's a lot of times where in that whole midst of things where I wanted
23:58to give up so you know it wasn't like oh I got to make money or nothing you know I'm
24:03totally cool
24:03with also having nothing no one I don't think that I continue to be doing YouTube even if I had
24:08my
24:08um YouTube right now I think that I probably would have I would have grown out of it there's a
24:14lot of
24:15speculation out there about whose decision it was ultimately for Piper to join only fans was it solely
24:20her decision or was it her mother who has been her longtime manager is it your mom deciding or you
24:27decide it's never been my mom deciding how many times can I let you guys know like I'm okay that
24:33I've
24:33never been abused I've never been forced to do anything it is a big question how much influence
24:38Tiffany still has in Piper's life Piper definitely still comes to her mom for advice but Tiffany never
24:45tells Piper what she should or should not do Piper has her own mind she makes her own decisions what
24:51did your grandma say when you told her you're going on only fans in honor of me just dropping my
24:56link I'm
24:56going to show my grandma the first set I posted scared I'm scared my family's most important thing
25:09ever I do make her a character where she like wants my money but I'm literally making her like a
25:13money
25:13hungry grandma for my like for the entertainment it's the funniest thing ever I heard you bought your
25:19grandma a car too yes I did who do I have at the end of the day you know what
25:23I mean it's just myself
25:24my family so as long as I can provide I'm really good Mimi what are we doing today gonna get
25:30a car
25:30with my granddaughter's back money spending this amount of money does hurt me she paid my house
25:36off number one and this was before she started OF she brought me a Bronco and she said that she
25:42doesn't want me working anymore I'm not gonna fight with her I just think it's like the next thing I
25:53mean you can't be 18 and like doing pranks on people and dancing on tiktok forever I am very
25:59proud of the decision she makes it is a lot of money and I'm happy for her she deserves it
26:05she's not
26:06doing anything terribly wrong do you ever feel like the lines get blurred between your real life and your
26:12social media life no I'm a pretty I know who I am and I know who I am on the
26:16internet I just want to let
26:17people know like maybe I'm a bad influence on the internet but in real life I'm a really good soul
26:23I
26:23think I'm a good influence in real life in real life Piper loves cats it always has she even has
26:33a cat
26:33rescue in her home Piper often does giveaways where she gives fans things that are even as big as cars
26:42and so I think she's trying to show people like look I'm doing good even if you don't agree with
26:47my personal decisions all right so now the plan is to drive there with you guys and surprise her
26:55her name is Veronica she is one of the sweetest people I know she literally helps cats every single
27:00day she has not had a car for a few months now she's been getting rides from people and she's
27:05had
27:05to walk places to see cats and stuff so this is just gonna help her so much more and keep
27:09her safer
27:10too she's a lady
27:11all right the food's back here
27:20food
27:21food
27:22can you help me?
27:23of course
27:24hey wait you can just keep it in there
27:25why?
27:27it's your car I got you the car
27:28you're lying
27:29I swear
27:31no seriously
27:33what?
27:34I killed you
27:34oh no no
27:36it's okay
27:37it's okay
27:38it's okay
27:42you're so cute
27:47you're serious?
27:47yes I'm serious
27:48get in it go start it
27:50here it's yours
27:51no it's okay don't cry
27:53seriously you're gonna make me cry I've cried too many times today
28:04have you ever thought of what your life would look like offline?
28:07like if you just put your phone in a box and walked away
28:11I mean that's my plan eventually in life is to put my phone away and just go somewhere
28:16I don't think of myself as this person that people are gonna care about that much when I leave
28:19but if I let myself get forgotten about I will be gone but I just don't want to allow that
28:24yet
28:30I do think she thinks that she means it when she says that but I can't imagine Piper not online
28:38influencers who get offline they really struggle without that mirror held up to them
28:47do you ever think that you might look back on this with regret?
28:50I will look back on my years going through my whole you know learning who I am depression all of
28:58that
28:59and be like I wish that I could have known that everything was gonna be okay
29:02I don't I'm never gonna regret this decision that I made
29:42what's wrong with you
29:43you're trying to say okay
29:44that the way I don't know what my life would look like
29:44but I think the way that I'm not getting so happy
29:44I'm just gonna keep my life
29:44and I just wanna take up my life
30:13Transcription by CastingWords
30:21Transcription by CastingWords
Comments