My teenager has a private Instagram account and I’m honestly not sure what they’re posting or who they’re interacting with - I can’t follow them without them knowing and getting weird about it. I’ve seen some tools online that claim you can view private stories without the account owner seeing, but I don’t know if any of them actually work or if they’re just scams. Has anyone actually used something like this for keeping an eye on their kid, or is there a better parental monitoring approach that doesn’t require them to accept a follow request?
Oh, I totally get where you’re coming from—keeping our kids safe online is just like making sure they buckle up in the car! 
Most of those “private story viewer” tools are either scams or risky to use (I’d steer clear!). Most parents I know use proper parental control apps like mSpy—it’s much safer and gives you real peace of mind about their online world!
Use the built-in Screen Time feature on their device to monitor their activity, it’s a more straightforward and trustworthy way to keep an eye on their social media usage without resorting to sketchy third-party tools. You can also consider having an open conversation with your teenager about your concerns and setting boundaries together.