Redeem now

• 14-year-old YouTuber Piper Rockelle said singer Pink "hurt her feelings" with recent comments.
• Responding to bikini photos Rockelle posted, Pink said her parents were "exploiting" her.
• In a YouTube interview, Rockelle said she was "just having fun." 

Piper Rockelle, a 14-year-old YouTuber, has responded publicly to singer Pink criticizing Rockelle's parents for allowing her to pose in swimwear on Instagram.

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.

In a new interview, Rockelle, who has been an active YouTuber since she was 11 years old, said Pink's suggestion that her mother was exploiting her "really hurt my feelings."

"I can wear a bathing suit. I'm young, I'm having fun," Rockelle said in the video, which was posted on Wednesday by YouTube channel The Paparazzi Gamer, a celebrity news outlet with 213,000 subscribers.

 

Rockelle's comments come after Pink, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore, shared a divisive tweet about Rockelle and her mother on Sunday.

"How many kids like Piper Rockelle are being exploited by their parents?" Moore asked her 31 million Twitter followers. "And at what point do the rest of us say … 'this isn't okay for a 13 yr old to be posing in a bikini whilst her MOTHER takes the photo?!?!'"

—P!nk (@Pink) August 29, 2021

The tweet followed images of Rockelle in a pool wearing a bikini that were posted on her Instagram account on August 14. The account, which has nearly 5 million followers, is described in the bio as being "managed by Family."

In an email to Insider at the time, Rockelle said in a statement provided by a representative, "My mom doesn't make me do anything. In terms of me in swimsuits, it's summer! My friends and I live in the water."

She added, "Pictures of teenagers in bikinis having fun are not sexual. They're only sexual if you view us that way."

In the YouTube interview, Rockelle said the photos were taken when she had COVID-19 and "couldn't go anywhere." She said, "I was in my pool every single day and I was wearing my favorite bathing suit. And I wanted to take a photo like I think everyone does. I mean, a lot of people do. A lot of kids my age take photos of bathing suits, which I think is totally fine. Also I really like style and I really like bathing suits, and I like two-pieces also."

Rockelle added that the statement Moore made is "100% not true."

"My mom asks me almost every single day, 'Are you happy? Do you want to like keep doing this?' And I always say, like, 'Yes, I love this' because I love making people happy and it makes me happy," she said.

Piper's mother, Tiffany Rockelle, also told Insider in an emailed statement provided by a representative earlier this week that she wanted to "protect" her daughter and support her in her passions.

"I'm just a mom like any other who loves her daughter and would do anything for her," Tiffany said.

Representatives for Pink have not responded to Insider's prior requests for comment.

Kieran Press-Reynolds contributed to this reporting.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications

Watch:

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyxtc%2BeqWaqn5i4prjLnmSpoZ6geqnB0a1kn52Vobavs9JmmquhpJ6wqsbIp55mmpmgtq%2B1jKmgnKylp7K0ec%2BaqZ6mpKh6c3yRamRy