“Cooking with Lynja” star Lyn Yamada Davis, the TikTok creator known as the “internet’s grandmother” and beloved for her quirky cooking tutorials, has died. She was 67 years old.
Her daughter, Hannah Mariko Chauvet, told The The New York Times Davis died of esophageal cancer on January 1. Her youngest son and co-founder of her social media channels, Tim Davis, announced the death of his mother in… The videos were posted online on Friday.
“I regret to inform you that my mother, Linda, has sadly passed away,” Tim Davis said. “Her final moments were very peaceful, and fortunately she was surrounded by the people she loved most: her friends and family.”
A mother of four and grandmother of two, Davis’ cheerful demeanor and quirky editing style have won over viewers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. At first glance, Davis may have appeared as just another mom’s cooking show host, but her enthusiasm and bright visuals in her content captured a younger audience. like said one TikTok commenter“From the outside, this grandmother looks like she’s from the boom generation, but on the inside she looks like she’s from the boom generation.”
Before her death, she had amassed 17.8 million followers on TikTok and nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube.
Although she was the face of the channel, Davis credited her son Tim, 27, for her online success. The channel started as a pandemic project – in 2020, her son asked her to record a video every day so he could keep his editing skills polished during the lockdown. Davis said earlier the people She had “no idea” what TikTok was until Tim started posting her videos online.
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Lynn Yamada Davis and her son Tim Davis attend the 2023 Streamy Awards. Image credits: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
“He’s the one who writes the script. He’s the one who shoots the video. He does all the editing,” Davis said. “So, he’s really the genius behind ‘Cooking with Lynja.’ I’m just showing up.”
The duo first went viral through a video in June 2020 about Bacon, egg and cheese sandwichesWhich received more than 313,000 likes. As viewership increased with each viral recipe video and travel vlog, Davis also documented her battle with cancer. She was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019 and esophageal cancer in 2021. In a Video 2021 About making cookies to thank health care workers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she told viewers, “I’m doing an amazing job, and I love making these videos for you.”
In 2022, Cooking with Lynja won Streamy Awards in the Food and Editorial categories. She was also honored as a Forbes 50 over 50 creative people That year.
Before becoming a content creator, Davis was an accomplished engineer — an accomplishment for women of color at the time. She graduated from MIT in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, then earned a master’s degree in business administration and public health from Columbia University. She worked in telecommunications for Bell Labs (now AT&T), her daughter told the New York Times.
But for many online, it was the grandmother of the Internet. Tim Davis told the New York Times that his mother asked him to continue posting unreleased content after her death, which is why her account remained active this month. In his latest video, Tim Davis showed viewers photos of his mother throughout her life.
“She’s so smart and elegant in this photo,” Tim Davis said. “And when I think of my mom, that’s what I think of. The grandma of the internet. She was the best. So happy that you all got to experience what a wonderful person she was, and how well you guys treated her. So, thank you for the last two years. We’ve had so much fun making the videos.”