Madam Youtube
Fictional series inspired by real events
A 9-episode dramatized limited series
Black Comedy/Psychological Thriller
Created by Saxon Sharbino
© 2025 Saxon Sharbino. All rights reserved. This is a fictional work inspired by real events. Characters and events have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Premise:
Madam Youtube is a fictional series following the lives of young moms as they unknowingly give their preteens to a YouTube cult. They watch their children become influencer stars as we watch them become increasingly dependent on a sociopathic controller. From making $60k - $585k a month, and millions of fans to failing to escape a controlling and abusive YouTube house and not seeing their children for years, audiences are brought into the hidden and egregiously exploitative world of young children YouTube stars.. and their moms.
This show is based on real events — fictionalized for legal protection, but grounded in first-hand experience. It's The Act meets Good Girls meets Maid — with ring lights and a RICO case.
What the Show Is About
A group of moms move their kids into a YouTube house chasing success - and an escape from what each of them are running from. Instead, they get trapped under the rule of a woman who plays god with their lives.
But this isn’t a show about influencers. It’s a story about how perception controls reality. About the illusion of safety. About what happens when the call is coming from inside the house — and it’s your mom, your best friend, the way you escaped an abusive relationship, or your only way to pay rent.
It’s about the need to believe in a dream blinding you to the truth. And what happens when you refuse to face the skeletons in someone’s closet... and end up buried with them.
It’s not about viral videos. It’s about psychological warfare, modern cults, and what happens when a parent’s dream turns into their child’s nightmare.
Because when fame and money are on the line, and you can rewrite public opinion in real-time... truth becomes negotiable.
Why People Will Care
Because it’s already happening. Quietly. Behind thumbnails. Inside DMs. On the For You page.
This story reflects the new predator: not a cult leader in robes, but a mom in yoga pants saying "don’t forget to like and subscribe.”
Piper Rockelle already has over 1 billion views and gets more views than Disney and Nickelodeon combined in any given week
People will care because they’ve already watched this story.
They just didn’t realize what they were looking at. — and they’re still watching now. This show taps into everything we’re already seeing:
The rise of family channels that blur the line between home and set. (New law about influencers needing a Koogan account in CA just got passed the last few weeks - so families started moving)
AI and bot armies that distort what’s real and what’s popular.
Documentaries exposing family channels and kid influencers.
We already know there’s millions of viewers and a built in audience. There was a bidding war for the documentary. The TikToks telling this story / reviewing the doc have millions of views — even with bots trying to take them down. They need someone to tell the interesting parts of the story that weren’t included in the doc, the parts of the story we don’t want to be true - but that we already know, is.
.
TONE
Genre: Black comedy meets psychological thriller (9 episode limited series). We juxtapose the glossy, vibrant influencer world with the eerie undercurrent of cult dynamics.
Visual style includes:
Tiktok logs, house tour videos and livestreams that slowly unravel
Ring lights reflected in kids’ eyes like halos or interrogation lamps
Harsh lighting, screen recordings, eerie soundscapes
Heartbeats, glitchy audio, DM overlays, drone shots of the influencer mansnion
Color Contrast: Bright, saturdated thumbnails against muted, grimy real moments
Influences: The Act, Midsommar, Baby Reindeer, Night Crawler, Good Girls
THE WORLD
The World
Even the word influencer seems to have a cringey/negitive connotation to it. In my experience the ones that want fame, are not the most successful, the ones that have no ego are. Instead of sacrificing their time to a 9-5 they’re sacrificing their name and public identity to do what is needed to be done to provide the life they want.
The cartel is a drug business, selling, supplying, dealing with problems with the supplying and selling, but that’s the core business and drugs is not what makes the cartel interesting, the inner workings and the how and why is what gets us watching shows like Narcos.. The business of Kimberly’s is children’s YouTube videos, but it is the control, the manipulation, the having no empathy and seeking a thrill…and the moms trying to survive it that is the core of this story.. YouTube/Influnceing is a vehicle..a vehicle that is a hot topic with stories like 8 passengers etc, coming out, but the focus of this series is on the characters and th different strategies that lead them all to where they got.
Highlight the pressure to conform and the blurred lines between personal relationships and business transactions especially with pre-teens. If Kimberly sees any 2 kids getting along too much, even her own daughter, she will orchestrate a video where one has to betray the other. These kids and their moms are pawns in her game. Madam YouTube isn’t your typical portrayal of the influencer world. This is not a cringy, fame-hungry, ego-driven circus of kids desperate for validation. This is a sharp, strategic, cutthroat world run by people who understand the algorithm better than studio executives — and exploit it ruthlessly.
Encouraging if not deliberately forcing “crushes” together and watching them blossom just for the fun of crushing them as she rips them apart.
This is a world of influence as warfare, where emotional manipulation is currency, and innocence is the first casualty.
Most of the series is set inside Kimberly’s YouTube content house in LA: an LED-lit mansion full of contradictions.
• Aesthetic: Glamorous in thumbnails, lifeless in person. Ikea modern furniture in an old-world house. Posters of the girls, but no picture frames. Nothing feels like home.
• Moms in the parking lot, kids in pastel uniforms. Moms have no power, no privacy. Everything is surveillance. Think there’s livestream cameras going on they don’t see.
• Control: Kids are homeschooled, isolated, emotionally manipulated. Moms are too scared to speak up. If you say something, your kid gets punished.
Influencer culture here is warfare. Follower counts = power. Clout = survival. Friendships = commodities. Betrayal = content.
If we’re can fall in love with these moms-with their naivety and pride and desire - if we can recognize why it’s so intoxicating despite this worlds subtle cruelty, contrivedness, and revolting strangeness, and still find ourselves wanting a shot to be part of it too, then that creates the right world these moms are living in.
This isn’t a story of fame-hungry teens. It’s Narcos, but the drug is attention. And Kimberly is the kingpin.
Characters
The characters depicted in Madam YouTube are fictional and, in many cases, composites inspired by multiple real-life individuals. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental and dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Alex
(25–30 yrs) — Our protagonist and the audience’s window into the Influencer/YouTube world.
A flirty, naive mom who had her daughter young. She leads with her sexuality because it's the only power she's ever had. She's loud, sweet, and clueless. She doesn’t understand manipulation. She doesn’t strategize. In many ways, her teenage daughter is more emotionally mature. Their roles are reversed — the daughter is the mom, and Alex is the girl chasing love and validation. This innocence makes her vulnerable. She’s pulled into Kimberly’s twisted web as a willing — but unknowing — accomplice.It’s not until she sees her daughter slipping deeper into Kimberly’s world — losing herself — that Alex begins to wake up. She realizes she’s not just risking her own soul. She’s risking the only person who’s ever truly loved her. Her daughter.
Kimberly slowly ramps up control over Alex and her daughter’s lives.
Alex becomes trapped in a cycle of emotional abuse and financial dependency.
When she tries to leave, Kimberly blackmails her.
Alex’s past makes getting out—and staying out—a constant struggle.
Kimberly
(30–40 yrs) — The antagonist and the defendant in the legal case.
Kimberly begins as a savior, bringing in (mostly) single moms and their kids to help them rise in the YouTube influencer world.
A strategic, cold, seemingly savvy mom running the content house. At first, she seems smarter than stage moms — giving her daughter "loser" roles for the algorithm. She seems like a hero and she is!..for a while, then the cracks start to show. Kimberly doesn’t just lack ego — she lacks empathy. She’s not emotionally connected to her daughter or anyone around her. She doesn’t love; she uses. She exploits every emotional bond she sees — between mothers and children, friends and crushes, fans and idols — and weaponizes them for control. Like the mastermind in Saltburn, Kimberly orchestrates every relationship, every narrative beat. Only she’s doing it in sweats, with a YouTube dashboard open, and a burner phone in her hand.
Cunning, calculating, and sociopathic, her ruthlessness is shocking—even with her own daughter. A wolf in yoga pants and a messy bun.
As the story unfolds, Kimberly’s mask slips, revealing a pattern of manipulation, emotional abuse, and sexual misconduct.
Ayden (20-25yrs) - Ayden is Kimberly’s much younger, hot, hacker boyfriend. He is hopeful, innocent, self-conscious, and shy. He starts out being introduced to others as Kimberly’s step son.. and we watch as he is put to work all day and night and uses his intelligence to play with algorithms to boost or tank YT channels. He doesn’t have a car, phone or money outside of Kimberly’s control and is entirely dependent on Kimberly, even though he is the technical brains behind this multi million dollar operation.
He’s half the kid’s friends (he is closer to their age) and half their enemy, since he’s the one actually pushing the button to torment them online once they’re out of Kimberly’s good graces.
As the episodes progress, Ayden becomes weathered and worn, a shell of himself, and he leaves his ambitions and morals behind to support Kimberly 110%. We feel for him at first as he’s one of her victims as well- and start to hate him later because he’s the one that’s handing her all the ammo..
Lea (10yrs) - Alex’s daughter. Lea is overjoyed to be part of the YouTube house and is happily playing the role of Katie’s sidekick in videos, as that’s her real life best friend anyways. As Lea’s channel grows, she starts to develop a bigger personality which makes her become a target for Kimberly. She struggles to support her mom and convince her everything is fine while simultaneously being hurt herself.
Katie (10yrs) - Kimberly’s daughter. Katie begins the series as an innocent kid who works hard and wants to succeed. She is unaware of her mom’s sexualization of her in her videos and enjoys spending time with the other kids. Kimberly separates Katie from the other children by inflating her ego and disrupting any bonds she tries to form. As her mom deliberately ruins any real connections with the other kids Katie has, she starts to revel in her higher-status role within the YouTube group and becomes a insecure bully. She has no real attachment to her peers and ultimately will do whatever Kimberly tells her to do.
Additional characters include: Mom Ramona and son James, Mom Sydney and
son Max, Mom Valerie and son Garret, Mom Jasmin and daughter Nicole,
and tertiary characters such as the legal team, other YouTubers, and
background characters.
© 2025 Saxon Sharbino. All rights reserved. This is a fictional work inspired by real events. Characters and events have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Romana (35-40yrs)
Romana start this journey as a normal midwestern mom who has done everything right. She is a professional as her son was ‘cast” in one of Katie’s YT videos as Lea’s love interest. She lets her son join because she sees how much he loves his new friends and hoping she’s helping him pursue his dreams. Quickly she sees some oddly sexual behavior towards James and tries to pull him from the squad. She ends up divorced, isolated, and alone as Kimberly convinces her husband to let James stay in the squad for the money. She starts the lawsuit pursuit to get her kid back, but can’t actually join with the other families because her son stays in the squad. At the end of the season she hasn’t seen her son in two years.
Interest
Multiple videos with millions of views
Multiple videos with millions of views
LA TIMES and The Atavist Articles
LA TIMES and The Atavist Articles
Each kid mentioned has millions of fans
Each kid mentioned has millions of fans
Link to The Lawsuit That Sparked It All
This real-life lawsuit—filed by parents of several underage influencers—alleged exploitation, harassment, and abuse within a YouTube content house. The case became the foundation for national media coverage and inspired key elements of Madam YouTube’s fictionalized storyline.
stopmadamofyoutube.com
This independently run site documents public concern and media coverage around the real-life events that inspired the Bad Influence documentary and contributed to the themes explored in Madam YouTube.
While Madam YouTube is a fictionalized drama, this resource offers further insight into the cultural climate that shaped the story’s world.
© 2025 Saxon Sharbino. All rights reserved. This is a fictional work inspired by real events. Characters and events have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Themes
This show has -
the heart racing moment in Saltburn when you’re screaming at the girl in the bath not to tell him she’s figured out he’s a psychopath,
the twisted pain and (almost relief?) you feel when the guy in Night Crawler finally pushes it as far as you think he might when he gets his employee killed, you really weren’t crazy after all -
all the fun/ interesting aspects of good girls - suburban moms playing the real gangsters,
the grief of Maid, when youre trying to crawl your way out of a hole when it seems all hope is gone,
and the obsession of baby reindeer, once she has her eye set on you, she wont let go. If only you hadn’t smiled at her when she walked into the bar!
Maternal control
The illusion of safety
Exploitation disguised as empowerment
Learned helplessness
The cost of virality
Mothers sacrificing children in pursuit of a dream
Target Audience
*Primary:**
Females 16–34**
Drawn to true crime, toxic relationships, influencer drama, and psychological thrillers. These viewers live on TikTok and YouTube, follow creators, and have likely already seen viral clips about the story. They are craving a *scripted*, elevated version that dives deeper than short-form gossip content.
True Crime / Docuseries Fans (18–45)**
Viewers of *The Vow*, *The Act*, *Dancing for the Devil*, . They love uncovering manipulative power dynamics, modern cults, and stories based on true events.
-Young Adults & Gen Z (13–25)**
Kids who grew up watching YouTube, idolizing influencers, or dreaming of being famous online. This group will identify deeply with the kid characters — especially those who now see the dark side of creator culture.
Secondary:**
- **Parents (35–55)**
Especially moms — viewers who are increasingly worried about social media’s grip on their kids. This group was captivated by *Mai
9 Episode Summary
Episode One: Introduction to the characters. Follow Alex and her daughter as they move in to Kimberly’s house, that is in the begging stages of becoming a “Content House”
. We see Kimberly and Alex strategize over the kid’s channels and future video content. Show a clip from one of the kid’s YouTube videos, very “relationship goals” oriented. We get a glimpse of whats to come as we see another mom going live on Instagram bashing Kimberly and accusing her of sexually assaulting her son, but she is written off as crazy. Mom meeting with all the moms to discuss channels.
Episode Two: Grant the Cat is introduced..(who is a character Kimberly plays around the children, where she speaks in a baby voice and says funny but inappropriate things) Sugar factory tour with the kids and moms, they are starting to see some fans come up to them and get excited. Ayden’s position as Kimberly’s IT guy (and boyfriend) in the group revealed, working nonstop to please Kimberly with channel views. Kids gain 1000s of followers. Katie and James are locked in the closet by Kimberly to encourage “connection” for their Youtube videos.:. Alex tries to create more autonomy for herself, but Kimberly won’t allow it.
Episode Three: Bombay trip.. where Kimberly brings all the kids and some parents to the middle of no where and were introduced to a old man who lives out there that she “helps.” Although we are not sure why, drugs, dark web and selling pictures of the kids to unknown men are speculated. Both the control and the money all the kids are making are heating up. Showcases the way Kimberly runs trips. Weird sexual conversations start to take place between Kimberly and the kids. Lea’s ignored on her birthday for a video. Ayden digs deeper into the online world of the dark web. Whispers of a charge against Kimberly are heard.
Episode Four: A mom over hears her son talking to a 20yr old friend of Ayden’s and a “ball-tapping” incident is discussed on the speakerphone call. Ramona takes her son out of the group. A manager is introduced to help Kimberly legally. Hunter reveals he is suicidal. The kids crushes are mixed around causing jealousy.
Episode Five: Ramona is kicked out of her son’s life after her husband finds out how much money he is making and brings him back. Ramona starts the lawsuit. CPS visits Kimberly. Cringey relationship videos are created for the kids and Ayden learns how to tank channels. Ayden attaches videos to porn sites. This is very bad news for the kids who thought we were just hanging on long enough to build up their channels, now they are stuck. Ayden’s laptop is stolen by Alex.
Episode Six: Garret is dealing with the fallout from being kicked out and having lost all of his friends. The manager offers Alex and Lea a brand deal but Kimberly isn’t supposed to find out - she does, which causes Alex to be kicked out of the house. Grant the Cat makes another appearance. Valerie joins the lawsuit. Alex tries to leave with Lea, and Kimberly tries to take Lea away by turning off her phone where she cant get in contact with her mom and calling Alex’s abusive ex, it’s up in the air if Lea will stay.
Episode Seven: Alex and Lea finally leave Kimberly and the squad, but Lea wants her cat Muffins. The two sneak back into Kimberly’s place to grab her. Kimberly is sent over the edge when she discovers that the cat was taken and hunts Alex and Lea down, banging on their door. The mom Ramona was counting on to help from episode 1, comes back into the squad despite her former accusations and rescinds all of them. This sets the lawsuit back significantly. Kimberly and Katie fight over a YouTube video idea. We see the toll this lifestyle takes on Katie as she is forced back in an online “crush” relationship to prevent the previous lawsuit from going through. A fake text message is created and fake accounts trying to ruin the former squad members reputation.
Episode Eight: Alex finds a thumb drive and feels like she’s being watched.. Alex withholds information from the lawyers and the other moms wonder if she’s a spy or if she’s done something wrong with Kimberly. Kimberly’s dirty secrets come to light including that she sold her daughter’s used panties online. Kimberly is SERVED. Katie’s channel is demonetized. Kimberly creates a fake pregnancy and fake miscarriage. Kimberly counter-files for $30M and attempts to get the moms on a racketeering charge.
Episode Nine: YouTube clips change from “My crush did X” to “Why I left the squad” People start making videos “Why all these moms should be in prison.” LAWSUIT. Lawyers believe it will be easy to break Ayden when he takes the stand. Lawyers then decide it would be easier to settle and not dispose Ayden, we wonder if Kimberly had gotten to them. Kimberly pillow talks Ayden and tells him it would be easier if he killed himself so he wouldn’t be around to testify. Kimberly invites the kids back into the squad and says she will give the moms $1 million if they drop the deposition. All the moms in the lawsuit are stressed and scared and divided.
© 2025 Saxon Sharbino. All rights reserved. This is a fictional work inspired by real events. Characters and events have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Additional Notes
The story is centered on a group of moms (primary characters) and their children (secondary characters). This is not a story about influencers, it has the social media aspect, which will provide some comedic relief (when the children’s “relationship goals” content isn’t completely weirding us out) - but we will mainly explore the underbelly of this multi million dollar empire. A unmatched powerful mom who somehow becomes able to control everything from Youtube’s algorithm to if the children can speak to their own parent, and the women who stand against or with her.
This story is based on the real lives and events of those involved in the soon-to-be highly publicized YouTube sexual assault scandal. This is an ongoing legal battle. My access to this story without being directly involved lends itself to an objective yet intimately connected and detailed fictionalized story.
Legal Case Details.
© 2025 Saxon Sharbino. All rights reserved. This is a fictional work inspired by real events. Characters and events have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.