Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Piper Rockelle is one of the youngest — and most talked-about — social media influencers today, but she’s been in the spotlight for most of her life. Now, with the release of Netflix’s Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, even those who haven’t followed Piper are starting to take notice. How did a teenager rise to such massive success? And how did she end up at the center of this controversy?
Learn more about Piper — and her mom-turned-manager — below.
Who Is Piper Rockelle?
Piper is a successful influencer, actress, and writer, according to her IMDb profile. With over 6 million followers on Instagram and 14 million on TikTok, the Georgia native has built a powerful online presence.
She began creating short-form content at just 8 years old, starting with Musical.ly in May 2016, where she quickly became one of the platform’s top creators. At a Musical.ly meet-and-greet in Los Angeles that November, a social media manager approached Piper and her mom and encouraged them to launch a YouTube channel.
How Old Is Piper Rockelle?
Piper is currently 17 years old, born on August 21, 2007. Back in February, she marked the milestone by posting on Instagram with gold balloons shaped like the numbers 1 and 7.
What Does the Netflix Documentary Bad Influence Reveal?
According to Netflix’s official logline, the three-part docuseries Bad Influence is an “eye-opening documentary exposé,” in which “teens and parents reveal disturbing accounts of abuse and exploitation within the world of child influencers.”
At the height of Piper’s fame, she was surrounded by a rotating group of friends known as “The Squad”—a collective of young teen content creators who frequently appeared in her videos between 2017 and 2020. Some members even lived with Piper and her mother, Tiffany Smith, in order to produce content more consistently.
In January 2022, Tiffany was sued by 11 former Squad members for alleged “emotional, verbal, physical, and at times, sexual abuse.” Several of those former Squad members later appeared in Bad Influence, where they shared troubling accounts of their experiences and accused Tiffany of abuse and manipulation.
Who Is Piper Rockelle’s Mom?
Tiffany is a single mother who raised her only daughter, Piper, in Canton, Georgia, where they lived with Tiffany’s parents, according to the Los Angeles Times.
While running her own pet grooming business, Tiffany also devoted herself to managing Piper’s early pageant career, which lasted until Piper was around 7 years old — just before she shifted her focus to the app Musical.ly.
“A lot of people think that she’s living her life that she didn’t have and pursuing it through me,” Piper told the Los Angeles Times in 2022. “Absolutely not. She’s making this so perfect for me.”
In October 2024, Tiffany settled with the 11 plaintiffs for $1.85 million. She denied any wrongdoing, and the settlement was reached with all parties expressly disclaiming any admission of liability.
Where Is Piper Rockelle’s Mom Now?
The mother and daughter took an immediate financial hit following the 2022 lawsuit. While Tiffany has since stepped out of the public eye, Piper remains active online.
