Piper Rockell, OnlyFans, and why the internet is furious with her
The 18-year-old YouTube child star turned influencer recently joined the adult content production platform and made nearly $3 million on her first day.
Piper Rockel has never been able to escape the spotlight, and she doesn’t want to do so anytime soon.
However, she wants to set the record straight as she has faced criticism for joining OnlyFans, a subscription-based adult content site. On January 1, the YouTube child star-turned-influencer, who recently turned 18, earned nearly $3 million in her first day on the platform, according to her management team, Ruthless Media Partners.
Rockel said joining an adult platform was not a decision taken lightly, and she is aware that her sensitive fan base may be influenced by her choices. That’s a risk that weighs on her, she says.
Rockel sometimes took this action to take control of her own story. She’s tired of commenters dissecting the snippets of her life seen online, and she wants her young fans and critics alike to know that that’s all they really see. Snippet.
Piper Rockel is ‘grateful’ despite controversy
Zoomed in from her high-rise apartment in Los Angeles, she’s wearing a shirt that reads “Hating Me Won’t Make You Pretty.” Rockel is not at home. She’s in one of the vacation rentals she uses to create content. This has been happening a lot lately.
A tattoo on her right wrist reads “Be grateful.” She is, she says.
Rockelle read comments that were derogatory to her and others that told her she would regret having OnlyFans. She has heard a theory online that her mother is controlling her. But being in the public eye is all she “ever wanted,” she says.
“If people are going to write my story and say I’ve been exploited my whole life, go ahead, I’m exploiting myself,” Rockel says.
“I enjoy what I do,” she added. “I really don’t care what people say.”
Wearing a simple T-shirt and wearing light makeup through a laptop camera, Rockel looks and sounds like any other 18-year-old. But she doesn’t and admits it. She frequently tells her fans that she is where she is because of the insane fame she experienced throughout her life and was able to gain traction.
Coming-of-age ceremony attracting attention
After a brief appearance on the Lifetime reality show “Dancing Twins,” Rockel rose to fame as a child star on YouTube, where her content was managed by her mother, Tiffany Smith. In 2018, Rockel began appearing in videos with a group of other tweens. Deemed “The Squad,” the group posts videos of organized relationships, pranks, and 24-hour challenges. Smith served as the group’s manager and producer.
They experienced the height of a massive virus. According to data shared in the 2025 Netflix documentary “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing,” Rockel had amassed more than 10 million subscribers at the time, and as of 2026, he had 12.2 million subscribers. At its peak, his monthly income reached $500,000.
But in January 2022, Rockel’s world came crashing down.
Eleven members of The Squad have filed a lawsuit against Smith and her boyfriend, Hunter Hill, seeking $22 million in damages. They accused Smith of “mental, verbal, physical, and sometimes sexual abuse” and claimed that some members of the group were not adequately compensated for their work.
Mr. Smith and Mr. Hill denied these allegations in interviews.
In response to the lawsuit, YouTube demonetized Rockel’s channel, cutting off her main source of income.
“At the time, I was working with some of my best friends, who were literally my best friends, who I considered family,” Rockel says. “It was really difficult.”
“It was only when I lost everything that I realized I was making money,” Rockel said, explaining that the legal process took a toll on her mental health.
The lawsuit was settled for $1.85 billion in 2024, but the attention didn’t stop there. In April 2025, Netflix released a documentary that followed the lead up to the lawsuit, drawing a closer look at the safety of the influencer industry.
What followed was an onslaught from Rockel’s supporters, many of whom viewed her as a victim of her mother. Many times, Child Protective Services would arrive on her doorstep after followers called her about her.
As the public’s perception of her changed, Rockel says she turned to what she could control: her image. She suffered from an eating disorder from the ages of 15 to 17, but she says it was difficult to overcome the illness because of comments about her body on the internet.
“I felt very stressed because so much had been taken away from me,” Rockel said.
For years before she turned 18, Rockel’s fans and critics speculated that she would join OnlyFans. Many onlookers flooded her page with comments asking about it. She caused controversy when she collaborated with members of Bop House on TikTok when she was still a minor, and officially joined the content house in December 2025, later launching on OnlyFans.
Many content creators on OnlyFans feel that their lifestyle provides them with financial security and freedom. But teenagers, especially young girls, who watch TikToks showcasing the lifestyles of these stars may get the impression that becoming an OnlyFans star is aspirational. This gap between online reality and their backstories creates a disconnect for viewers who don’t understand the challenges that lead women to pursue careers in adult entertainment, child psychiatrist and Yale School of Medicine professor Yang Pongsin previously told USA TODAY.
“I think that creates a sense of unrealistic reality,” Ponsin said. “This just comes across as an exciting lifestyle. They seem to be doing it well. They have stuff, they have money, they have shiny things.”
Ponsin added that the teenage years are a critical time when girls begin to establish their identities and decide who they are within their larger peer group. Influencers and celebrities now play a role in shaping how teenagers perceive themselves.
“This is the time of year when you try on clothes that are essentially different identities: ‘Who am I? What am I? What am I going to be?'” Ponsin said.
Rockel says she knows her life isn’t what it seems online, and she’s not trying to be a role model.
“That was a big idea for me,” Rockel says. “I thought that if I decided to do this, a lot of girls would be disappointed and a lot of girls would probably want to follow this path in life that I’m doing.”
She works to separate her public life from her private persona. She hopes the money from OnlyFans will help her build a house and start a cat rescue.
But what makes Rockel so appealing is her perceived “realness.” She spends nearly 40 minutes answering interview questions, but her answers seem organic and unfiltered, even though they are clearly well-planned. Still, her youthfulness shows up from time to time.
“I’ve never wanted another boyfriend. I just want to be alone for the rest of my life with my family and my small farm with horses,” Rockel said. “I’m very happy alone.”
She knows she’s made a big decision and has a message for her followers. “I don’t have to tell you what I do, because I know,” Rockel says. “I don’t like when people write their own stories.”
Rachel Hale’s role covering youth mental health for USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Contact her at rhale@usatoday.com. @rachleighhale With X.
