Molly Burke Recalls Losing Her Friends at 14 When She Went Blind (Exclusive) [Video]

When Molly Burke lost the majority of her sight at 14 years old, she turned to the internet for solace. Now, with over a decade of posting YouTube videos under her belt, the social media star is returning the favor.

“When I went blind, I lost all of my friends and I was really struggling with bullying,” Burke, 30, told PEOPLE exclusively at YouTube’s all-female creator event, celebrating the impact of women in sports and culture.

She continued, “It was really hard because I’ve always been an extrovert. I’ve always been really bubbly and friendly and love going to the mall with my friends on the weekends and having sleepovers and talking about boys and the normal young girl, teen girl things.”

When this happened, Burke — who was born with retinitis pigmentosa — no longer “had friends to do those things with.” She then turned to OG creators like Bethany Mota and …