Shari Franke

Shari Franke is an American author, advocate, and survivor of one of the most widely publicized cases of child abuse in the social media era. Born in 2003 in Utah as the eldest of six children, she spent her teenage years featured in 8 Passengers, the YouTube channel her mother Ruby Franke turned into a major commercial brand. After her mother's 2023 arrest on aggravated child abuse charges and subsequent imprisonment, Shari emerged as a leading voice against the family vlogging industry. Her memoir The House of My Mother, published by Simon & Schuster, became a bestseller and helped reframe the public conversation about parental exploitation of child influencers.

Beyond the book, Shari has become an active advocate for legislative protection of children featured in social media content. She testified before the Utah State Legislature in support of new safeguards for child influencers, which passed into law in 2025 and established financial and privacy rights for minors who have been featured in online content. She has spoken publicly in interviews and documentaries about the long-term psychological costs of growing up under the constant scrutiny of strangers, and she continues to work on building a relationship with her father, Kevin, who regained custody of her younger siblings after Ruby and Jodi Hildebrandt were imprisoned. Shari is open about her ongoing healing journey and credits a combination of therapy, distance from her mother, and the chosen family she has built as the foundations of the steadier life she now leads.