The air in the Late Night with Callum Hart studio hummed with electric, impossible possibility. Nineteen-year-old Elara sat on the plush velvet sofa, bathed in the blinding white light of a hundred cameras, the very picture of overnight success. Her...

I had no idea that when I started live streaming, it would lead to this. Just a month ago, I was a girl with a webcam and a growing audience, taking silly dares for laughs--things like balancing random objects on my head or eating crackers while tryi...