When the Instagram account belonging to the kid influencer Lil Tay introduced her dying at age 16 on Wednesday, August 9, it’s telling that the rapid response from a lot of her followers was, “This appears suspicious.”
For a three-month interval in early 2018, the then-10-year-old Lil Tay took over the web. She and her mom even went on Good Morning America to elucidate her recognition, which principally centered round the truth that she was a cherubic-faced child bragging about cash, vehicles, and “haters” and beginning drama with extra well-known influencers.
Then, that summer season, her account went darkish. It didn’t publish till yesterday, when a press release saying that each she and her older half-brother Jason had handed away unexpectedly and that their deaths are “underneath investigation.” Many information shops ran with the story, receiving affirmation from her “administration” that it was true.
However for many who had an inkling of what was happening behind the scenes throughout that point, the information nonetheless appeared fishy. And a day later, Lil Tay herself informed TMZ she was alive.
A New York Journal function from 2019 describes Lil Tay’s origin story based on Lil Tay thusly: “She grew up ‘broke as hell’ in Atlanta however labored actually onerous ‘transferring bricks.’ Finally she bought into Harvard after which dropped out. At one level, like her good friend [Woah] Vicky, she claimed to be ‘partially Black.’ Now she lives in ‘the hills’ (which of them? She hasn’t specified).” The true story, because the piece particulars, is completely different. She was born Claire Eileen Qi Hope on July 29, 2007; her mother and father by no means married and shared custody. (As of 2023, Tay tells TMZ that her authorized title is Tay Tian, though that is in any other case unconfirmed.) She grew up in Canada along with her half-brother Jason Tian and their mom, a Vancouver-area realtor named Angela, who allowed the youngsters to movie inside the flamboyant properties she confirmed, in addition to in a co-worker’s Mercedes 550 SL, and faux they owned them.
There’s at all times been an absence of readability round Lil Tay’s age. When she first hit the scene, she was 10, however her camp claimed she was 9; after her obvious passing, media stories extensively cited her age as 14, but when her beforehand reported birthday is correct, she can be 16. It’s all a part of the dogged confusion across the younger influencer, who by no means appeared to wield management over her picture or identification.
This wasn’t fairly the basic story of a stage mother, although; as a substitute, Lil Tay had a stage brother. Jason, then 16, was the one one who had entry to her Instagram account. He was the one who coached Lil Tay on what to say and learn how to say it, having studied well-known YouTubers in earlier makes an attempt to get well-known himself. In keeping with stories, he was typically harsh and merciless, and on at the least one occasion prompted her to say racial slurs. One one that labored carefully with Lil Tay informed the Atlantic in 2018, “I’ve seen her brother shout at her. As soon as Jason was yelling at her, saying, ‘You’re no good, it’s no good.’ She was crying onerous.”
After Lil Tay had had minor viral moments mocking well-known YouTubers, her mom and brother linked her with a handful of LA-based expertise managers; at one level they moved in with the controversial then-18-year-old influencer Woah Vicky who spoke in a blaccent and claimed to be Black. In April 2018, Lil Tay and Vicky staged a combat with fellow teen meme star Bhad Bhabie on the Americana Mall in Glendale, and TMZ caught the footage. In a single day, Lil Tay grew to become a sensation. Two months later, she gave the impression to be gone from the web.
Her father, a Canadian lawyer named Chris Hope, had gotten a court docket order requiring Lil Tay to return to Vancouver and shut down her Instagram. In keeping with the New York journal story, he needed to professionalize Lil Tay’s profession: to trademark her title, to get a visa and an American work allow in order that she may become profitable within the US, to place her earnings in a belief, to realize expertise in an inventive subject and attend faculty. However that October, Lil Tay’s Instagram account printed a collection of posts claiming that Hope and his spouse have been abusing her, posting suspicious screenshots of supposed authorized paperwork and releasing the telephone quantity for Hope’s regulation agency. Angela described this as a “hack;” Hope informed Insider, “I do know who deliberate and carried out the harassment” and that he was getting ready a defamation swimsuit.
When Lil Tay’s dying was reported, Hope didn’t reply to Vox’s request for remark, however based on each Insider and the New York Put up, he couldn’t touch upon the Instagram publish claiming his daughter had died, and wouldn’t reply whether or not she had actually handed away. One other former supervisor of Lil Tay’s stated that he couldn’t affirm or deny the information. Neither the Los Angeles nor the Vancouver police departments stated that they had any info on her dying.
On August 10, in an interview with the celeb information website TMZ, Lil Tay claimed that her account had been hacked. “I need to make it clear that my brother and I are secure and alive, however I’m fully heartbroken, and struggling to even discover the precise phrases to say. It’s been a really traumatizing 24 hours,” she stated. “All day yesterday, I used to be bombarded with infinite heartbreaking and tearful telephone calls from family members all whereas attempting to type out this mess. My Instagram account was compromised by a third social gathering and used to unfold jarring misinformation and rumors concerning me, to the purpose that even my title was flawed. My authorized title is Tay Tian, not ‘Claire Hope.’”
On the night of August 9, somebody claiming to be Jason underneath the Instagram account @termanii_ posted an image of Lil Tay and a caption that stated, “To be clear I’m not lifeless,” including that he now not had entry to the Lil Tay account. “MY SISTER AND I WERE WINNING OUR CASE. IT WAS JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE WE GOT IT ALL BACK, ALL HER SOCIAL MEDIA AND COME OUT ABOUT THE TRUTH,” it continued.
In a follow-up publish, the account wrote, seemingly from Lil Tay’s perspective:
For the reason that finish of 2021 me and my brother have been planning on coming again to social media and begin streaming we didn’t inform anybody different then [sic] our mother and father and as soon as we did they bought mad and known as us ignorant as a result of we weren’t going to do the identical factor that i used to be doing when i used to be 9-10 and so they locked us out of each social media we had as a result of they nonetheless wouldn’t allow us to have full entry of it thag [sic] began an enormous argument then she bought mad and for just a few weeks we agreed to dwell with our grandparents and ever since then they principally lower contact with us so about 4 months in the past i texted my mother for the primary time in years and we have been speaking about getting our account again and he or she agreed at first after which switched up randomly and now this occurs out of no the place i haven’t talked to her since might.
The account additionally posted an Instagram story saying that they needed to “go dwell as quickly as we hit 25k followers” and requested folks to comply with their YouTube channel as nicely. Many noticed this as a cynical seize for clout, although it’s nonetheless unclear whether or not both Lil Tay or Jason are literally behind it (many different copycat accounts are actually posting the identical issues). As one Redditor wrote of the continuing scenario, “If this a hoax it’s extraordinarily fucked up however I wouldn’t it somewhat be that then her truly being deceased.”
Replace, August 10, 2 pm ET: This piece has been up to date to mirror that Lil Tay has been confirmed alive.
