Children of Family Influencers, what was life like?

The Family Channel Facade

My parents forced us to be the stars of their family channel and made us fake having cancer for donations. This is how it turned out. Ever since my younger sister and I were old enough to clothe ourselves, my parents expected us to dedicate every ounce of free time into helping the family YouTube channel.

At first, it was just staying up till 2:00 a.m. to edit and post. But then it got worse. Mom started wailing on us off camera to get the perfect take of us crying.

Dad began denying us food until we recorded videos for our solo channels. Our teachers questioned why we looked so tired and were getting skinnier.

And that’s when my parents lied to them that we were chronically ill. The amount of special attention, kindness, and even money that they received because of this one lie planted a seed in their head.

Because not even a month later, we were packing up and moving across the country. Mom said it was for a simple change of scenery.

But then on the first night, she taped me to a chair. She pulled out a razor and shaved my head completely bald.

I screamed and cried, but she just kept buzzing. The next morning, she made me sit in front of the camera and announce on our channel that I had melanoma.

I tried to tell her no at first that I wasn’t comfortable lying. But she just took out her belt and started using it until I agreed.

I filmed the video in genuine tears. I think that’s why mom liked it so much.

The GoFundMe went live that afternoon. And unfortunately, that was just the start.

By nighttime, I was already forced to practice this shuffle walk where I’d hold on to walls like I was weak from chemo. I wasn’t given a full portion of dinner either.

Dad said I needed to become skinnier so it would look more convincing. The very next morning, mom spent an hour putting makeup onto me to create dark circles and make my skin look pale and sick.

I remember my sister standing in the corner shaking, too afraid to speak in case they forced her to. And one month later, they did.

They announced my six-year-old sister had musculardrophe. They made me and my sister record the video, just us two, and had us cry on each other’s shoulders.

My parents specifically chose that disease because they said its progression would be easy to see over time. My sister just needed to get noticeably weaker and more frail.

And so they instantly bought her leg braces she didn’t need and made her wear them constantly. Even screwed them into her leg at night while she slept, piercing the screw into her calf.

She’d cry and scream in pain all night, begging my parents to take it off. But they just put in their noiseancelling earphones and drift to sleep on their duck feathered king-sized mattress.

Before I even knew it, the brace had done so much damage my sister stopped being able to actually walk properly. She’d limp everywhere and wse in pain.

and mom and dad loved it. Now, their videos of her struggling to walk wouldn’t even have to be fake.