18 year old popular TikTok content creator, Dazhariaa Quint Noyes,aged 18, known as Dee on the platform, died on Monday after posting a final video to social media.
Dazhariaa has over a million followers on TikTok and over a lakh on Instagram. On Monday, she had posted videos to her Instagram story which she tagged as her last post. The videos showed the teen singing and dancing before writing: ‘Ok, I know I’m annoying y’all, this is my last post’.
The TikTok sensation originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last posted on TikTok on Monday – the day of her death – where she warned that she was shadow banned and would be posting from another account.
Her father confirmed her death was by suicide, with her mother adding in a Facebook post that she hanged herself in her closet.
Her father, Raheem Alla shared a montage of pictures of Dazhariaa to TikTok as he thanked everyone for their ‘love and support’. “Unfortunately, she is no longer with us and has gone to a better place, I only wish she would have spoken to me about her stress and the thoughts of suicide” he said.
“I only want to hold you again, my little jellybean. Now I come home and you’re no longer going to be there waiting for me. I have to let you fly with the angels, she was my little best friend and I wasn’t prepared in no way to bury my child. She was so happy and would be so excited to see me when I come home from being on the road” he added.
Dazhariaa’s mother ,Jennifer Shaffer paid tribute writing: “I’m so heartbroken I really can’t believe you’re going. I wish I was waiting on you to say it was a prank but it’s not”.
On his own TikTok account, her boyfriend Mike posted a video tribute to Dazhariaa captioned: ‘God bless her and her next’. “ I think it’s time for me to let go, thank you for the memories we made together”.
On his TikTok profile, Raheem Alla, her father, promoted a GoFundMe page to support the family. The GoFundMe was organized by Rodney Andry, who was a friend and a relative of the family. The memorial fundraiser had raised $6,935 as of Friday morning.
Dazhariaa’s TikTok account which gained around 200,000 new followers after the news of her death as well as her Instagram account was flooded with messages from her fans mourning over her untimely demise. Some comments read “this is heart-breaking”, “we lost an angel”, “rest easy baby girl”.
While the world grieves for the young life lost, the trend of rising suicides is a big worry and brings back the focus onto mental health. While it is estimated that suicide takes 1 life every 40 seconds, it remains to be a largely preventable cause of death.
Although there is no one specific cause for rising suicide rates across the globe, experts say that a spike in bullying, isolation and the existing taboo circling around mental illness is contributing to the worrying cause, especially in young people. Considering the scary times we are living in and the grave effect the pandemic carries for our mental health, some even worry that COVID-19 might be fueling suicide rates.
