Shari Franke’s memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, begins with a striking and unforgettable image: the moment police forced open the front door of her family’s home with a battering ram. Shari, the eldest daughter of the once-popular family vloggers behind the 8 Passengers YouTube channel, captured the moment on her phone and shared it on Instagram, writing, “This moment, this climax of my family’s descent into madness, needed to be documented, preserved, and shared on social media.” It was an act of reclamation—an attempt to wrest back control of her narrative from a life shaped by forced smiles and staged perfection. Today, with the release of her memoir through Gallery Books, Shari pulls back the curtain on the tabloid nightmare her family became.

Ruby Franke, Shari’s mother and the matriarch of the 8 Passengers channel, was arrested in 2023 along with her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. The two women were charged with multiple counts of aggravated child abuse after Shari’s younger brother escaped from Hildebrandt’s home and begged a neighbor for help. The boy, visibly malnourished and injured, revealed a harrowing story of being tied up with ropes and deprived of food. Inside Hildebrandt’s home, police discovered Shari’s younger sister in a similarly emaciated and injured state. The public’s collective gasp over these revelations was only the beginning. In The House of My Mother, Shari details how the Franke family’s carefully curated image of wholesomeness and faith unraveled behind the scenes, exposing the dark underbelly of a household where control, manipulation, and emotional abuse reigned.

Before the arrests, the Frankes had amassed nearly 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, drawn to their idyllic portrayal of life as a large Mormon family. But Shari’s memoir reveals a far different reality. The transformation, she writes, began when Hildebrandt, a counselor with controversial methods, entered their lives. Hildebrandt’s influence over Ruby grew rapidly, shifting the family dynamics in alarming ways. “She was our family’s very own cult leader,” Shari writes. “She turned my mother into a fawning, starstruck acolyte who lapped up her every demented word like it was holy water.” Kevin Franke, Ruby’s husband and Shari’s father, was gradually pushed out of the household. According to Shari, Hildebrandt became the puppet master, dictating the family’s every move under the guise of therapy and spiritual guidance.

In a particularly disturbing episode, Hildebrandt took over Shari’s bedroom, filling it with candles and massage oils. Shari’s suspicions about a deeper relationship between her mother and Hildebrandt were confirmed one night when she saw Ruby sneaking out of her former room. “It was equal parts fascinating and horrific,” Shari recalls. “Two women who publicly condemned queerness in their ConneXions Classroom videos, while embodying it privately.” Hildebrandt’s teachings, presented as strict moral guidelines, included extreme punishments and bizarre rituals. Shari writes that these teachings justified the alienation of Kevin, who was sent away to “work on his shortcomings” while the children’s welfare deteriorated.

The memoir’s most heart-wrenching moments recount Shari’s growing concern for her siblings. Isolated from her family while attending Brigham Young University, Shari made repeated calls to the Department of Child and Family Services, desperate to have someone intervene. But it wasn’t until her brother’s dramatic escape that authorities finally acted. Ruby and Hildebrandt’s subsequent arrest and guilty pleas to four counts of aggravated child abuse brought an end to their reign of terror. Each woman was sentenced to four to thirty years in prison—a grim chapter in a story that continues to haunt the public consciousness.

Shari, now 21, has emerged as an advocate against the exploitation of children in family vlogging. Her experiences growing up in front of a camera have shaped her into a vocal critic of the practice, which she believes inherently violates children’s privacy and well-being. In her memoir and public statements, Shari argues there is no ethical way to monetize a child’s life online. “Making money off your kids with no oversight as to how much the kids are getting paid—there’s no way to do that well,” she asserts. Shari has taken her advocacy to the legislative level, supporting bills that protect underage influencers by guaranteeing them a share of their earnings. “It should be 100 percent,” she insists, though she adds that even financial compensation cannot undo the psychological damage inflicted by growing up with one’s life broadcast to millions.

The memoir also sheds light on Shari’s personal struggles, from suicidal ideation to a damaging relationship with a married church elder. She writes candidly about feeling unloved as a child and grappling with the immense pressure to perform for the camera. Her journals and old family vlogs, which she reviewed while writing the book, offer a painful juxtaposition: moments of apparent happiness on screen contrasted with behind-the-scenes misery. “It felt like it wasn’t my life,” Shari reflects. “The vlogs show smiling faces, but all I remember is the yelling between takes.”

Shari’s relationship with her father has begun to heal in the wake of the arrests. Kevin Franke, who describes his “invitation to leave” the family as “a hellish and abusive experience,” has acknowledged his role in the family’s exploitation. Shari appreciates his willingness to take responsibility, even as she remains critical of his past inaction. Her relationship with Ruby, however, is irreparable. In a letter sent from prison, Ruby reminisced about Shari’s childhood but failed to address the abuse. Shari’s response was resolute: “I don’t feel an emotional tie to her anymore.”

With the release of The House of My Mother, Shari hopes to close a painful chapter of her life while advocating for change. She’s on track to graduate from BYU with a degree in political science and plans to work in data analytics—far from the spotlight she once lived under. Her engagement, announced on Instagram, marks a new beginning. Yet, Shari’s mission to protect children from the harms of family vlogging continues. “I hope that by sharing my story, other child influencers will see that their voices matter,” she writes. “And that it’s worth whatever bridges they might burn.”

Shari’s memoir serves as both a personal catharsis and a rallying cry against a billion-dollar industry that thrives on the commodification of childhood. The question remains: will her story be the wake-up call needed to spark meaningful change, or will the cycle of exploitation continue? The public, it seems, is just beginning to reckon with the consequences of a life lived online.

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