Shari Franke, the daughter of convicted American family vlogger Ruby Franke, has given DR an interview as her memoir about her childhood is published in Danish.
The book, released in Danish on September 25, 2026, describes a childhood lived in front of a camera. DR reports that it was the only Danish outlet to interview the 23-year-old author, who replied by email. She says telling her story at her own pace has been freeing and healing.
Her mother, Ruby Franke, was a mother of six from Utah who ran the YouTube channel “8 Passengers”. According to DR, the channel had up to 2.5 million followers at its height and offered parenting advice alongside scenes from family life. It was deactivated in 2023.
Ruby Franke was arrested on August 30, 2023, after her 12-year-old son escaped from a house through a window and rang a neighbor’s doorbell. DR reports the boy was malnourished, had tape around his wrists and ankles, and had numerous wounds. Police then entered the house and found one of his sisters confined inside.
Arrested the same day was Ruby Franke’s business partner, the relationship therapist Jodi Hildebrandt. BBC reported that a Utah court found Ruby Franke guilty of aggravated child abuse in 2024. Both women pleaded guilty and each received four consecutive prison terms of one to 15 years.
Utah’s parole board will decide when they are released. Shari Franke had already moved out when the arrests took place and says she did not know how bad conditions had become. Her father, Kevin Franke, was no longer living with her mother at the time.
Campaign against family vlogging
Shari Franke tells DR that the violence began before her mother launched the channel in 2015. She believes the platform made Ruby Franke bolder about continuing that behavior. She adds that filming children online is exploitative even when no abuse is involved.
She now campaigns for a ban on family vlogging and has spoken at a hearing in a committee of the Utah state senate, as reported by ABC News. Protection of children on social media is her central cause. She argues that children who become the reason for a family’s success will not feel safe objecting.
In an earlier interview with The Guardian in January 2025, she said her mother was at her kindest while filming. She now works as a data analyst and lives with her fiance.
Shari Franke has no contact with her mother and does not want any. She has resumed contact with her father, and DR reports that the two wrote a joint opinion piece this year. It supported a bill making it easier for authorities to detect children subjected to abuse.
