When Your Childhood Is the Family Business with Fortesa Latifi
Disclaimer: This episode discusses allegations of childhood physical and emotional abuse.
Before family vloggers invited millions of strangers into their homes, reality TV families did it on television. We watched their kids grow up but how much did we really know about the childhoods we were watching?
On Parents Uncharted, Sarah Adams, the creator of Mom.Uncharted, welcomes back journalist Fortesa Latifi, author of Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online. They revisit Fortesa’s Teen Vogue interview with Hannah Gosselin, who remembered cameras following her and her siblings to the school bus stop, and talk about how kids on reality TV tried to keep parts of their lives private.
They also discuss Collin Gosselin’s memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood. Collin alleges that his mother, Kate Gosselin, hit him and, on one occasion, bound his wrists and ankles with zip ties and locked him in his room. Kate Gosselin, through her attorney, has previously denied the abuse allegations. Hear Collin discuss the allegations and read about Kate’s response in this NPR interview.
From Jon & Kate Plus 8 to today’s family channels, Sarah and Fortesa ask what happens when a child feels responsible for the family’s income, gets cast as “the difficult one,” or grows up to tell a story that challenges the one audiences remember. They also talk about what financial protections can cover, what they leave unresolved about privacy, and what responsibility viewers have when their attention keeps family content profitable.
If a child’s life is the story, when do they get a say in how it’s told, or whether it’s told at all?
If this conversation made you think of someone who grew up watching reality TV or watches family content today, share it with them. Follow Parents Uncharted and leave a rating or review to help more listeners find these conversations.
Because there’s no map for modern parenting, but together we can chart a better path.
Chapters
(00:00) From reality TV to family vlogging
(01:03) What Hannah Gosselin remembers about growing up on TV
(05:17) How the kids kept moments off camera
(07:55) Collin Gosselin’s memoir and the family’s public responses
(11:27) The pressure to perform for the family business
(13:20) Getting cast as “the difficult one”
(14:43) Reporting on siblings with different stories
(21:43) Are family vloggers the new reality TV families?
(22:29) Child labour protections, pay, and privacy
(26:37) What responsibility do viewers have?
(28:38) Why Fortesa keeps her own kids’ lives private
(31:09) Will more former reality TV kids and kidfluencers tell their stories?
(33:47) What parents should ask before making family life a business
More About Fortesa Latifi
Fortesa Latifi is a journalist based in Los Angeles. She is the author of LIKE, FOLLOW, SUBSCRIBE: Influencer Kids & The Cost of A Childhood Online; a searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame, Like, Follow, Subscribe is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the costs of internet fame, and the ethics of online content. She has also been published in Rolling Stone, The Cut, The New York TImes, and more.
Connect with Fortesa Latifi:
Website: https://www.fortesalatifi.com/
Substack: https://hifortesa.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hifortesa/
Connect w/ Sarah Adams
Website: https://momuncharted.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mom.uncharted/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mom.uncharted
Podcast Website: http://parentsuncharted.com/
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parents.uncharted/
Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@parents.uncharted
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