When Zach’s mother, Apryll Priest, first discovered that her teenage son was broadcasting live from his bedroom, “I kind of freaked out a little bit,” she told me. “I was like any typical parent. I was scared that, like, pedophiles were watching him.” Then she started watching the broadcasts for herself. “For most of his life, Zach struggled with being, you know, not liked well,” Priest says. He was “severely ADHD”—energetic on the soccer field but unfocused at school and easy to push around the halls. But on YouNow, “people liked him for who he was. They liked him for being spastic and wild and funny and talking all the time.” And even when the broadcast ended, “Zach had way better self-esteem. His whole outlook on life changed. He just turned into this totally different kid.”