The Truths and Distortions of Ruby Franke -The Mormon mother of six built a devoted following by broadcasting her family's wholesome life on YouTube. How did she end up abusing her children?

In 2015, Ruby Franke, a 32-year-old Mormon woman in Utah, became another parent sharing her family’s life on YouTube. The first video on her now-defunct channel, 8 Passengers, begins with old footage of her standing in a modest kitchen, her five children gathered around in anticipation as she cuts into a cake to reveal the gender of her sixth child. The video jumps to a scene at the hospital shortly after her new daughter’s birth. Resting in bed, Ruby cradles the baby and her youngest son, a serious-faced 3-year-old boy in blue overalls. “Can you show me where her nose is?” she asks him as he points. “Where’s her eyes?” When an elder son reports that the camera is almost out of battery, Ruby replies softly, “Go ahead, turn it off. That’s okay.”

- By Caitlin Moscatello

In 2015, Ruby Franke, a 32-year-old Mormon woman in Utah, became another parent sharing her family’s life on YouTube. The first video on her now-defunct channel, 8 Passengers, begins with old footage of her standing in a modest kitchen, her five children gathered around in anticipation as she cuts into a cake to reveal the gender of her sixth child. The video jumps to a scene at the hospital shortly after her new daughter’s birth. Resting in bed, Ruby cradles the baby and her youngest son, a serious-faced 3-year-old boy in blue overalls. “Can you show me where her nose is?” she asks him as he points. “Where’s her eyes?” When an elder son reports that the camera is almost out of battery, Ruby replies softly, “Go ahead, turn it off. That’s okay.”

Over the next six years, 8 Passengers would grow into one of the most-watched family YouTube channels of all time, amassing, at its peak, roughly 2.5 million subscribers and more than a billion views. Ruby and her husband, Kevin, distinguished themselves as a messy-butwholesome alternative to the polished, world-traveling, Montessori-practicing parenting influencers taking over feeds. Instead of bringing their children to Disney World, which was initially out of budget, Kevin and Ruby took them hiking; in place of elaborate home-cooked dinners, they ordered Chick-fil-A. Kevin and Ruby were also strict. When one daughter snuck into Ruby’s bathroom and spilled nail polish on the floor, Ruby took away dessert and nailpainting privileges for a month. In another video, their eldest son was allowed to go play in a ball pit—but only after helping to clean the house. The Franke children “had chores and rules to follow, which a lot of family channels didn’t,” one viewer told me. “They weren’t the stereotypical spoiledbrat YouTube kids. It was refreshing.”