December 30, 2025 • 22 mins
This year it felt like there were weekly, sometimes daily headlines about social media influencer deaths. Dozens and dozens of young men and women trying to gain subscribers and get likes were either murdered, died while attempting content, or more commonly, died by suicide. Amy and T.J. go over what experts say is the root cause to most of these sad stories. There’s a lot of pressure and competition to get the most views and likes, which leads influencers to do riskier things, even risking their own mental health.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey, that folks. It is Tuesday, December thirtieth, and as
we wind down this twenty twenty five, it seemed that
this year was a year that being an influencer became
a deadly occupation. And with that, welcome to this episode
of Amy and TJ Robes. We have been talking about
(00:33):
this and doing an episode about this for probably months,
but you and I keep our eyes on a lot
of news, and it seems like there was a great
frequency of influencer deaths for various reasons.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Correct, and it felt like we were seeing an influencer death,
a tragic death, and a lot of them, younger folks
dying once a week.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And we just started noticing it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And once we started noticing it, it actually became a
pattern that was hard to ignore.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And I started.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Googling and researching, and yeah, people are taking note this
was happening.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Then, you know, it's a good way to put it.
We weren't paying enough attention to until it became something
you couldn't ignore. It has become that, and so we're
here and we're talking about it, and actually, roll this
is such an important thing to point out. We have
actually been sitting on this full disclosure waiting to do
this story, and we didn't want to because, wow, it's
the end of the year, it's the holidays. It feels
(01:32):
like a dud. It feels like a downer of a story.
But the more we talked about it, this is such
an important thing to point out. This was a significant
year for death a deaths among influencers, and the reasons
for it of something we should all pay attention.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
To, absolutely, because when you start thinking about it, when
you make your living trying to get attention and get
likes and get advertisers to then sponsor, you your constantly seeking validation.
You're constantly pushing the ball. You're trying to do things
maybe that you wouldn't normally do. You might be a
(02:08):
little bit more reckless in a sense to do something
that would get attention. You're also letting people know where
you are all the time, where you're not, you're live streaming.
And then people become obsessed with some of these influencers
of the debts we saw baby. It's sad, but many
of them were murdered because they had obsessive fans. But
(02:30):
people have these that's part of what their job is
to get connected to others, make people feel like you're
their friend. You're their cool friend that is going to
tell them how to eat, what to shop, where to go,
all of this. So there's just so much pressure. And
then the mental health aspect of it. You're constantly living
and breathing and you're paying your bills based on who
(02:50):
likes you. That can mess with a lot of folks.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I mean it should mess with I think most of us.
What you just described, I thinking down in my seat.
To have that weight, that life that you have to man.
The way you put it, you have to be validated daily,
constantly in order to make a living. That is scary
(03:15):
as hell. And so when you put in those terms right,
it looks all fun. Anybody can be an influencer now
and it looks like a good time. But roabes every
single person who is doing that, who was out there,
And that doesn't matter how successful. It takes a toll.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It has to it does. Even celebrities talk about it.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
People who are at the top of their game and
the biggest names in Hollywood will tell you when they
read negative reviews, when they see the awful comments, it
affects them.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It affects all of us. We're human beings.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
It doesn't matter if you do this for a living,
if you put yourself in the spotlight for a living,
you still have feelings that can get hurt easily, even
by strangers. And especially when you're an influencer. You're seeking
that attention, You're seeking it likes. You need people to
like you.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Man. So yeah, I'm actually pausing road because we are.
And again, we were doing this in real time. We
didn't record this earlier. There's a big story going on
right now with Cardi B. You just mentioned even celebrities
talking about the toll that takes on them. She just
put out a whole video with it yesterday on Instagram,
really going on about you all. It's getting a little much,
(04:23):
it's getting too mean, and she did in her Cardi
B way, but she took a moment to say, you all,
I'm reading, I'm seeing it, I'm feeling it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Please stop it. Yeah, please stop that. It's too much.
That mean is mean.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so yes, some of these notable deaths we're talking
about our suicides because a lot of these folks, we
don't know all the answers, but they had loving a
lot of them were in loving relationships.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Some of them were mothers.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Some of them were you know, they had full lives
and just constantly putting yourself out there to be talked about, ridiculed,
commented on, you know. And the worst is you start
to build this following and you start to feel really good,
and you love the likes, and you love the good comments,
and you believe them and they make you they give
(05:13):
you your value, and then when all of the mean
ones come or you did something people didn't like, that
the opposite effect of that is devastating.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Where I learned that that you can't put too much
into the good comments you get, because then you have
to put so much value into the negative ones because
you're saying that the good people they're strangers to me too,
but they're validating me. They make me feel good, so
I believe them. But then you end up you have
(05:43):
to believe the negative and that's not a good way
to be bro. This is you know what you're describing
in waves now that I want to go take Sabine's
phone from her right now you're describe it in such
a way and she's about to turn thirteen where all
bets are off. Now, see she passes the tests on
all these these apps and whatnot, so it's it's terrifying,
(06:05):
but oh yes you have. And again we're not talking
about a handful necessarily of deaths, and it's hard to
keep an accurate count.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I actually don't have a full count because also some
of these were pretty notable deaths and.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
They were international. It's not just here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
This is obviously you know, people know folks who are
influencers in countries all around the world, which is really
cool in a lot of ways. But it just shows
you how widespread this is. But I was just looking
at the different deaths. These are the notable ones. There
are so many more than this, babe. I think it
probably was more than one a week because we were
seeing the headlines. But I was just able to collect
some of the notable ones. One they really stood out,
(06:43):
and this actually was just sad I wanted to point
out because this one, I don't know, it touched me.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Haley Okola.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
She was known as known as Nurse Haley. She was
a nursing influencer. She died at thirty three after giving birth.
You know, it's just, you know, you it's just and
people were along for it, and they were there and
in fertility issues, and she talked about it and everyone
followed her. So that's also devastating for the people who
are looking to her as someone who's encouraging them and
(07:08):
an inspiration to them. And then you see something tragic
like this that affects all of her followers. But then
you even had Alicia Bernie, she was a YouTuber. She
died at twenty four from a fatal asthma attack.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So it's like you start to see just I think.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
In some moments when you have medical emergencies or medical issues,
it does raise awareness, but it's also scary as hell.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
She was in Mexico on vacation.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
She was actually a food influencer, and she dies of
an asthma attack. So it's just you start to see,
I don't know if she put herself into harm's way,
if she put herself in a situation where she could have.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Those are random, those are incident, those which are awful
for people who have these huge followings. But again to
your point, it does raise awareness that these people are
people pay attention correct right to these folks, but you
know those are that can happen anywhere. But man, it's
that that's as tragic as that is. I don't know, Robes,
(08:10):
it's I'm thinking about some of these others right that
we're talking about that you're about to get into. And
is it dangerous now to be an influencer because we
talked about think of all the professions we know about,
is it that are that many people dying in other professions?
(08:34):
Suicide and other professions. I don't know what the rate
could be. Are these just high profile, but it seems
there's a there's something going on in this community that
we need to pay attention.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
No, because if this many journalists were dying doing their job,
If this many doctors or lawyers, or celebrities, even actors,
if this many people were dying.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know, for varying reasons, but because.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Of the job generally speaking, that would raise eyebrows. And
so you start to look at this and say, what
is the threat?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
What is tying this all together?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Here are a few that will actually make a lot
of sense, and these are certainly tied together. So you've
got Valeria Masqua Marquez. She was a Mexican beauty girro.
She was shot and killed while she was doing a
TikTok live stream. So she accepted a package and it
was someone posing as a delivery man and he was
actually a gunman and he targeted her and killed her
(09:31):
on her live stream. Something happened very similarly in Colombia
with an influencer model on her live stream. Then you
also had Rodney Finley and his wife Tanisha. This made
a lot of headlines in Las Vegas. They were YouTubers.
They were fatally.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Shot by a fellow streamer who had a feud with him.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So it's just this, right, they're competing for likes, they're
competing for followers. There was a Venezuelan TikToker this year,
Jesus Sarmiento. He was on a live stream because he
denounced a gang a drug game, and so they found him.
They knew exactly where he was because he was live streaming.
He had said something negative about them, and he was
(10:11):
murdered there in New Jersey. This was a big one.
Christopher White, a New Jersey TikTok influencer, was tracked from
his live stream and murdered.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I mean this, I'm telling you, I have chills right now.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I just kept reading all of these folks who were
found by their assassins by their killers because they were
on a live stream. Bruna di Castro was stabbed to
death for rejecting romantic advances and he was on a
live stream.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It's just I mean she was on a live stream.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Where was that one?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I don't know where that was.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
This was Bruna di Castro, so I think it was
somewhere in South America. Pakistani TikToker Sana Yusov killed by
a fan turned stalker for rejecting his friendship attempts and
he found her because she was live stream.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Wait a minute, o' say that again. Who was the
one that was killed? Was a man or woman?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
It was a woman, sona.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
She was killed by a fan turned stalker because she
rejected his friendship attempts, so he knew exactly where to
find them. So anyway, there are sadly and there are
some here in the States. This isn't just in a
scary country. This was New Jersey. This was Las Vegas.
So a lot of these folks unknowingly put themselves in
(11:22):
harm's way and put a target on their back because
they are live streaming, and anyone who they might have
rejected or who they might have upset, unknowingly by not
responding to them. They know exactly where to find them,
they know exactly where to target.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What should we understand now? This is the risk you
take in doing this job. And it seems bizarre to
think that something you can literally do by just sitting
on your couch is now a threat to your health.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, and I think this needs to be heard. Parents
need to hear these numbers and these stories and these names,
and kids need to recognize. I think, yes, the kids
feel invincible. Isn't that what kids always feel like? Oh,
no one's gonna hurt me, No one's gonna it's not
gonna You always think it's crazy to see my daughter's
friends all know exactly where they are, they track them.
(12:12):
That we look at that as a potential threat or
as something scary.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Why do you want so many people knowing exactly where
you are?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
But I don't think kids, and certainly these younger influencers,
understand how dangerous it is to let the world know
exactly where you are all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
As you're talking ish about some of those people, as
you're rejecting some of those people, right as you're engaging
sometimes with some of those people you are, it shouldn't
be right. I guess we should understand now it comes
with the territory, but it shouldn't be the case we
(12:54):
all understand. But I don't robes. I don't know this
is one I we talk about the stalker kind of
aspect of it. There the other side of it, the
other side, And I don't know. You've looked at more
of the cases than I have, And I don't know
if you have some kind of a breakdown or a
feeling that the majority of the deaths came from those
(13:15):
types of incidents of murder or suicide.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Suicides and a couple of them we can go over
are also just from folks taking massive risks, climbing things,
dangling off to get a picture and literally fell to
their deaths.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And you highlighted some of the homicides there. But I
would have to assume overwhelmingly the deaths we're seeing are
suicide and not how much that I say those be rare,
There was a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There were a lot of murders, babe, and I didn't
even get to all the oh this year, this is
this year only, and it didn't take long to hunt
for this. And yes, the suicides are significant, and and
they range in ages thirty seven, twenty seven, thirty one,
thirty one.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, it's just all.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Young twenty nine, and I was reading all of these
stories of these folks who were loved and who people
did not recognize.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
They did not see the science until it was too late.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right, we'll stay here, folks. When we come back,
we'll go through some of what is really probably the
most concerning aspect of some of the deaths we've seen
among influencers in twenty twenty five, sty.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hear, Welcome back, everyone.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We are talking about something that I bet a lot
of you might have noticed. If you read the news
like we do, if you pick up your phone, you're
looking at headlines, even on social media. It seemed like
I was constantly we were both looking at headlines of
social media influencers dying, and a lot of them dying young,
and a lot of them dying at the hands of
(15:03):
a stalker, and unfortunately sometimes dying by suicide.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's the one I think I saw most, I mean,
asked suicide. That's the one. I swear it felt like
one a week it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Did, it did in March. This was a big one.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
TikToker Joshua of Blackledge he died by suicide at the
age of sixteen. That one was really sad. YouTuber Mikiela
Rains this was a big one. She took her life
at twenty nine. There was a Oh, yes, there was
a Tucker Janelle. I don't know if I'm saying his
name right, but this is really this was just in December,
this was a big story. Social media influencer died by
(15:39):
suicide at age thirty one. So many folks did not
did not see that one coming at all, and it
was just one thing after another, and everyone said they
did not recognize that those influencers were in pain, that
they were even suicidal or having any sort of Who have?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Who would have? Because isn't the point of this to
social media? Or are we trying to put our best
face forward all the time? I know we talk about
there are moments when people are vulnerable, and those moments
get a lot of attention, But babe, aren't we I don't, Oh,
are we missing signs because there are none if we're
(16:19):
only looking at them through social media.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We want people to think if you're an influence, an
influencer especially, you want people to think your life.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I would think for.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The most part is special or cool or good, a
reason to follow, right, something that's different than the than
the rest. And so you're trying to put your best
foot forward and show what's great and what you're learning
and what you're doing and where you're going and who
you're with. But the pressure of that, if it's not
all real, and of course it probably isn't, you feel
like a fraud and those feelings just unfortunately, but it
(16:48):
is incredibly, incredibly said. I was reading from studies that
show correlations between screen time and feelings of depress anxiety.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
We see that with everybody, right our kids.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
But think about that, that's not just true for the fans,
it's true for the creators as well. And if they're
spending that much time creating the content, then they also
have to go on the screens to then upload the content.
Then they have to read the comments, then they have
to react to the comments. So they are literally on
their phones or on their devices the entire day. That
(17:23):
is what they are doing for a living. So it's
on steroids from what we even see from our kids.
And I saw this quote from a psychologist who was
weighing in on this epidemic of social media influencer suicides,
and she said humans are not built to absorb daily
criticism from strangers at scale.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And I just thought that was such a powerful quote.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yo, what is wrong with us? We have lost it robes,
we have lost our minds. This is who we are now?
Are worth is in likes? This is not who in
God's name. It's like a daily roast ye that you're
(18:07):
volunteering for.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And if you have other influencers, influencers who are competing
against you. I mentioned meek Kayla Rains, that's one of
the women who young women who died by suicide. Her
husband said this after his wife's suicide, and this kind
of just hits it. He said his wife had been
dealing with ridiculous claims and rumors and she felt as
if the entire world.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Had turned against her.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, that's what they feel like when suddenly they get
a bad something, a comment, and then it goes off
or someone tries to say you did or didn't do something.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
All of a sudden, the world's turned against you and
you can't.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
See a way out. Oh my god, isn't that just
so sad? But it makes so much sense, It makes
so much sense. And then I did mention some of
the behavior that people engage in because they're trying to
make the content has led to several deaths. In twenty
twenty five, Hannah Moody thirty one years old, big Instagram
(19:07):
content curator, and she did her She had big hiking adventures.
So in May she went for a solo hike in Scottsdale.
She was later found dead. They said it was a
heat exposure that she died. So she's putting herself out
there doing these hiking videos. She goes on solo hikes,
that's what she's known for, and it ended up killing her.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Influencer Andreas Tonelli.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
He's forty eight years old, uploaded a video of himself
biking solo in the Dolomites and then he never returned.
They found out later he died falling six hundred and
fifty plus feet while he was creating content on his bike.
There are a couple influencers who died from during a
complications from cosmetic procedures to try and look different, look better.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That was a couple of sad ones right there. And
there was another one.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Mary, her name was okay, that's a screen name, Mary Magdalen.
That's just what she went by, but she was also
known for her cosmetic procedure. She died falling from a
high rise apartment building. So it's just getting a picture.
So it's just you see this risky behavior, you see
this this need for validation, and once that goes away,
(20:13):
and if you feel like all of a sudden people
have turned on you, you feel like you have nothing
to live for. There's just a it's extremes. You're living
in extremes, and unfortunately in all of these you're giving
away your power because you're letting other people dictate how
you're received, how well you're liked, and how much money
you're making in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, this was tough. I'm you know what, I just
I don't know, because there's so much value in it
in social media, right, there's so much value, that's so
much fun, and that's so much money there is.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
There's a lot of money to be made.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
That I think some of these things, I don't think
we consider it the health hazard that it is.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yet you're the one who said to me earlier before
we started, can you think of a more dangerous profession
in terms of what we've seen this year with influencer
deaths as a whole, as an industry, and I actually
cannot think of.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Just collectively.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I cannot think of a deadlier choice of profession given
these headlines and given all these stories, and again I
just touched on it. There are so many more than
what I mentioned. It wasn't hard to find it all
when you googled, and I thought, wow, we all need
to talk about this, and at least for ourselves, for
our children, and hopefully anyone out listening who is a
social media influencer, just to know that it is risky
(21:38):
for a lot of reasons, and some of it just
has to be based on I guess, staying grounded if
that's possible, and keeping that face to face communication as
the most important part of your day in terms of your.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well who your relationships are with. You need actual people.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Right, well, all, thank you as always spending some time
here with us. Yeah, as we wrap up twenty twenty five,
this how many we've had this prepared for? How long?
A week?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Maybe two, a couple of weeks actually that we've.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Had this thing prepped and ready to go, and every
time we sat down and wanted to do we need
to know what people in a good mood right now.
It's the holidays. Why bring people down with something? So
I'm glad we got it in.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, I am too.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I think it's it's a way to reflect and maybe
a way to correct our behaviors and how we our
relationship with social media period for twenty twenty six. So
that is the hope and we hope you enjoyed listening everyone.
Thank you as always, I made me Robock alongside TJ.
Holmes and we will talk to you soon.
Hey, that folks. It is Tuesday, December thirtieth, and as
we wind down this twenty twenty five, it seemed that
this year was a year that being an influencer became
a deadly occupation. And with that, welcome to this episode
of Amy and TJ Robes. We have been talking about
(00:33):
this and doing an episode about this for probably months,
but you and I keep our eyes on a lot
of news, and it seems like there was a great
frequency of influencer deaths for various reasons.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Correct, and it felt like we were seeing an influencer death,
a tragic death, and a lot of them, younger folks
dying once a week.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And we just started noticing it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And once we started noticing it, it actually became a
pattern that was hard to ignore.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And I started.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Googling and researching, and yeah, people are taking note this
was happening.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Then, you know, it's a good way to put it.
We weren't paying enough attention to until it became something
you couldn't ignore. It has become that, and so we're
here and we're talking about it, and actually, roll this
is such an important thing to point out. We have
actually been sitting on this full disclosure waiting to do
this story, and we didn't want to because, wow, it's
the end of the year, it's the holidays. It feels
(01:32):
like a dud. It feels like a downer of a story.
But the more we talked about it, this is such
an important thing to point out. This was a significant
year for death a deaths among influencers, and the reasons
for it of something we should all pay attention.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
To, absolutely, because when you start thinking about it, when
you make your living trying to get attention and get
likes and get advertisers to then sponsor, you your constantly seeking validation.
You're constantly pushing the ball. You're trying to do things
maybe that you wouldn't normally do. You might be a
(02:08):
little bit more reckless in a sense to do something
that would get attention. You're also letting people know where
you are all the time, where you're not, you're live streaming.
And then people become obsessed with some of these influencers
of the debts we saw baby. It's sad, but many
of them were murdered because they had obsessive fans. But
(02:30):
people have these that's part of what their job is
to get connected to others, make people feel like you're
their friend. You're their cool friend that is going to
tell them how to eat, what to shop, where to go,
all of this. So there's just so much pressure. And
then the mental health aspect of it. You're constantly living
and breathing and you're paying your bills based on who
(02:50):
likes you. That can mess with a lot of folks.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I mean it should mess with I think most of us.
What you just described, I thinking down in my seat.
To have that weight, that life that you have to man.
The way you put it, you have to be validated daily,
constantly in order to make a living. That is scary
(03:15):
as hell. And so when you put in those terms right,
it looks all fun. Anybody can be an influencer now
and it looks like a good time. But roabes every
single person who is doing that, who was out there,
And that doesn't matter how successful. It takes a toll.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It has to it does. Even celebrities talk about it.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
People who are at the top of their game and
the biggest names in Hollywood will tell you when they
read negative reviews, when they see the awful comments, it
affects them.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It affects all of us. We're human beings.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
It doesn't matter if you do this for a living,
if you put yourself in the spotlight for a living,
you still have feelings that can get hurt easily, even
by strangers. And especially when you're an influencer. You're seeking
that attention, You're seeking it likes. You need people to
like you.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Man. So yeah, I'm actually pausing road because we are.
And again, we were doing this in real time. We
didn't record this earlier. There's a big story going on
right now with Cardi B. You just mentioned even celebrities
talking about the toll that takes on them. She just
put out a whole video with it yesterday on Instagram,
really going on about you all. It's getting a little much,
(04:23):
it's getting too mean, and she did in her Cardi
B way, but she took a moment to say, you all,
I'm reading, I'm seeing it, I'm feeling it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Please stop it. Yeah, please stop that. It's too much.
That mean is mean.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so yes, some of these notable deaths we're talking
about our suicides because a lot of these folks, we
don't know all the answers, but they had loving a
lot of them were in loving relationships.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Some of them were mothers.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Some of them were you know, they had full lives
and just constantly putting yourself out there to be talked about, ridiculed,
commented on, you know. And the worst is you start
to build this following and you start to feel really good,
and you love the likes, and you love the good comments,
and you believe them and they make you they give
(05:13):
you your value, and then when all of the mean
ones come or you did something people didn't like, that
the opposite effect of that is devastating.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Where I learned that that you can't put too much
into the good comments you get, because then you have
to put so much value into the negative ones because
you're saying that the good people they're strangers to me too,
but they're validating me. They make me feel good, so
I believe them. But then you end up you have
(05:43):
to believe the negative and that's not a good way
to be bro. This is you know what you're describing
in waves now that I want to go take Sabine's
phone from her right now you're describe it in such
a way and she's about to turn thirteen where all
bets are off. Now, see she passes the tests on
all these these apps and whatnot, so it's it's terrifying,
(06:05):
but oh yes you have. And again we're not talking
about a handful necessarily of deaths, and it's hard to
keep an accurate count.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I actually don't have a full count because also some
of these were pretty notable deaths and.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
They were international. It's not just here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
This is obviously you know, people know folks who are
influencers in countries all around the world, which is really
cool in a lot of ways. But it just shows
you how widespread this is. But I was just looking
at the different deaths. These are the notable ones. There
are so many more than this, babe. I think it
probably was more than one a week because we were
seeing the headlines. But I was just able to collect
some of the notable ones. One they really stood out,
(06:43):
and this actually was just sad I wanted to point
out because this one, I don't know, it touched me.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Haley Okola.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
She was known as known as Nurse Haley. She was
a nursing influencer. She died at thirty three after giving birth.
You know, it's just, you know, you it's just and
people were along for it, and they were there and
in fertility issues, and she talked about it and everyone
followed her. So that's also devastating for the people who
are looking to her as someone who's encouraging them and
(07:08):
an inspiration to them. And then you see something tragic
like this that affects all of her followers. But then
you even had Alicia Bernie, she was a YouTuber. She
died at twenty four from a fatal asthma attack.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So it's like you start to see just I think.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
In some moments when you have medical emergencies or medical issues,
it does raise awareness, but it's also scary as hell.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
She was in Mexico on vacation.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
She was actually a food influencer, and she dies of
an asthma attack. So it's just you start to see,
I don't know if she put herself into harm's way,
if she put herself in a situation where she could have.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Those are random, those are incident, those which are awful
for people who have these huge followings. But again to
your point, it does raise awareness that these people are
people pay attention correct right to these folks, but you
know those are that can happen anywhere. But man, it's
that that's as tragic as that is. I don't know, Robes,
(08:10):
it's I'm thinking about some of these others right that
we're talking about that you're about to get into. And
is it dangerous now to be an influencer because we
talked about think of all the professions we know about,
is it that are that many people dying in other professions?
(08:34):
Suicide and other professions. I don't know what the rate
could be. Are these just high profile, but it seems
there's a there's something going on in this community that
we need to pay attention.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
No, because if this many journalists were dying doing their job,
If this many doctors or lawyers, or celebrities, even actors,
if this many people were dying.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know, for varying reasons, but because.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Of the job generally speaking, that would raise eyebrows. And
so you start to look at this and say, what
is the threat?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
What is tying this all together?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Here are a few that will actually make a lot
of sense, and these are certainly tied together. So you've
got Valeria Masqua Marquez. She was a Mexican beauty girro.
She was shot and killed while she was doing a
TikTok live stream. So she accepted a package and it
was someone posing as a delivery man and he was
actually a gunman and he targeted her and killed her
(09:31):
on her live stream. Something happened very similarly in Colombia
with an influencer model on her live stream. Then you
also had Rodney Finley and his wife Tanisha. This made
a lot of headlines in Las Vegas. They were YouTubers.
They were fatally.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Shot by a fellow streamer who had a feud with him.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So it's just this, right, they're competing for likes, they're
competing for followers. There was a Venezuelan TikToker this year,
Jesus Sarmiento. He was on a live stream because he
denounced a gang a drug game, and so they found him.
They knew exactly where he was because he was live streaming.
He had said something negative about them, and he was
(10:11):
murdered there in New Jersey. This was a big one.
Christopher White, a New Jersey TikTok influencer, was tracked from
his live stream and murdered.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I mean this, I'm telling you, I have chills right now.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I just kept reading all of these folks who were
found by their assassins by their killers because they were
on a live stream. Bruna di Castro was stabbed to
death for rejecting romantic advances and he was on a
live stream.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It's just I mean she was on a live stream.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Where was that one?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I don't know where that was.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
This was Bruna di Castro, so I think it was
somewhere in South America. Pakistani TikToker Sana Yusov killed by
a fan turned stalker for rejecting his friendship attempts and
he found her because she was live stream.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Wait a minute, o' say that again. Who was the
one that was killed? Was a man or woman?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
It was a woman, sona.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
She was killed by a fan turned stalker because she
rejected his friendship attempts, so he knew exactly where to
find them. So anyway, there are sadly and there are
some here in the States. This isn't just in a
scary country. This was New Jersey. This was Las Vegas.
So a lot of these folks unknowingly put themselves in
(11:22):
harm's way and put a target on their back because
they are live streaming, and anyone who they might have
rejected or who they might have upset, unknowingly by not
responding to them. They know exactly where to find them,
they know exactly where to target.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What should we understand now? This is the risk you
take in doing this job. And it seems bizarre to
think that something you can literally do by just sitting
on your couch is now a threat to your health.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, and I think this needs to be heard. Parents
need to hear these numbers and these stories and these names,
and kids need to recognize. I think, yes, the kids
feel invincible. Isn't that what kids always feel like? Oh,
no one's gonna hurt me, No one's gonna it's not
gonna You always think it's crazy to see my daughter's
friends all know exactly where they are, they track them.
(12:12):
That we look at that as a potential threat or
as something scary.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Why do you want so many people knowing exactly where
you are?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
But I don't think kids, and certainly these younger influencers,
understand how dangerous it is to let the world know
exactly where you are all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
As you're talking ish about some of those people, as
you're rejecting some of those people, right as you're engaging
sometimes with some of those people you are, it shouldn't
be right. I guess we should understand now it comes
with the territory, but it shouldn't be the case we
(12:54):
all understand. But I don't robes. I don't know this
is one I we talk about the stalker kind of
aspect of it. There the other side of it, the
other side, And I don't know. You've looked at more
of the cases than I have, And I don't know
if you have some kind of a breakdown or a
feeling that the majority of the deaths came from those
(13:15):
types of incidents of murder or suicide.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Suicides and a couple of them we can go over
are also just from folks taking massive risks, climbing things,
dangling off to get a picture and literally fell to
their deaths.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And you highlighted some of the homicides there. But I
would have to assume overwhelmingly the deaths we're seeing are
suicide and not how much that I say those be rare,
There was a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There were a lot of murders, babe, and I didn't
even get to all the oh this year, this is
this year only, and it didn't take long to hunt
for this. And yes, the suicides are significant, and and
they range in ages thirty seven, twenty seven, thirty one,
thirty one.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, it's just all.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Young twenty nine, and I was reading all of these
stories of these folks who were loved and who people
did not recognize.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
They did not see the science until it was too late.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right, we'll stay here, folks. When we come back,
we'll go through some of what is really probably the
most concerning aspect of some of the deaths we've seen
among influencers in twenty twenty five, sty.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hear, Welcome back, everyone.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We are talking about something that I bet a lot
of you might have noticed. If you read the news
like we do, if you pick up your phone, you're
looking at headlines, even on social media. It seemed like
I was constantly we were both looking at headlines of
social media influencers dying, and a lot of them dying young,
and a lot of them dying at the hands of
(15:03):
a stalker, and unfortunately sometimes dying by suicide.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's the one I think I saw most, I mean,
asked suicide. That's the one. I swear it felt like
one a week it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Did, it did in March. This was a big one.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
TikToker Joshua of Blackledge he died by suicide at the
age of sixteen. That one was really sad. YouTuber Mikiela
Rains this was a big one. She took her life
at twenty nine. There was a Oh, yes, there was
a Tucker Janelle. I don't know if I'm saying his
name right, but this is really this was just in December,
this was a big story. Social media influencer died by
(15:39):
suicide at age thirty one. So many folks did not
did not see that one coming at all, and it
was just one thing after another, and everyone said they
did not recognize that those influencers were in pain, that
they were even suicidal or having any sort of Who have?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Who would have? Because isn't the point of this to
social media? Or are we trying to put our best
face forward all the time? I know we talk about
there are moments when people are vulnerable, and those moments
get a lot of attention, But babe, aren't we I don't, Oh,
are we missing signs because there are none if we're
(16:19):
only looking at them through social media.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We want people to think if you're an influence, an
influencer especially, you want people to think your life.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I would think for.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The most part is special or cool or good, a
reason to follow, right, something that's different than the than
the rest. And so you're trying to put your best
foot forward and show what's great and what you're learning
and what you're doing and where you're going and who
you're with. But the pressure of that, if it's not
all real, and of course it probably isn't, you feel
like a fraud and those feelings just unfortunately, but it
(16:48):
is incredibly, incredibly said. I was reading from studies that
show correlations between screen time and feelings of depress anxiety.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
We see that with everybody, right our kids.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
But think about that, that's not just true for the fans,
it's true for the creators as well. And if they're
spending that much time creating the content, then they also
have to go on the screens to then upload the content.
Then they have to read the comments, then they have
to react to the comments. So they are literally on
their phones or on their devices the entire day. That
(17:23):
is what they are doing for a living. So it's
on steroids from what we even see from our kids.
And I saw this quote from a psychologist who was
weighing in on this epidemic of social media influencer suicides,
and she said humans are not built to absorb daily
criticism from strangers at scale.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And I just thought that was such a powerful quote.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yo, what is wrong with us? We have lost it robes,
we have lost our minds. This is who we are now?
Are worth is in likes? This is not who in
God's name. It's like a daily roast ye that you're
(18:07):
volunteering for.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And if you have other influencers, influencers who are competing
against you. I mentioned meek Kayla Rains, that's one of
the women who young women who died by suicide. Her
husband said this after his wife's suicide, and this kind
of just hits it. He said his wife had been
dealing with ridiculous claims and rumors and she felt as
if the entire world.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Had turned against her.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, that's what they feel like when suddenly they get
a bad something, a comment, and then it goes off
or someone tries to say you did or didn't do something.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
All of a sudden, the world's turned against you and
you can't.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
See a way out. Oh my god, isn't that just
so sad? But it makes so much sense, It makes
so much sense. And then I did mention some of
the behavior that people engage in because they're trying to
make the content has led to several deaths. In twenty
twenty five, Hannah Moody thirty one years old, big Instagram
(19:07):
content curator, and she did her She had big hiking adventures.
So in May she went for a solo hike in Scottsdale.
She was later found dead. They said it was a
heat exposure that she died. So she's putting herself out
there doing these hiking videos. She goes on solo hikes,
that's what she's known for, and it ended up killing her.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Influencer Andreas Tonelli.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
He's forty eight years old, uploaded a video of himself
biking solo in the Dolomites and then he never returned.
They found out later he died falling six hundred and
fifty plus feet while he was creating content on his bike.
There are a couple influencers who died from during a
complications from cosmetic procedures to try and look different, look better.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That was a couple of sad ones right there. And
there was another one.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Mary, her name was okay, that's a screen name, Mary Magdalen.
That's just what she went by, but she was also
known for her cosmetic procedure. She died falling from a
high rise apartment building. So it's just getting a picture.
So it's just you see this risky behavior, you see
this this need for validation, and once that goes away,
(20:13):
and if you feel like all of a sudden people
have turned on you, you feel like you have nothing
to live for. There's just a it's extremes. You're living
in extremes, and unfortunately in all of these you're giving
away your power because you're letting other people dictate how
you're received, how well you're liked, and how much money
you're making in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, this was tough. I'm you know what, I just
I don't know, because there's so much value in it
in social media, right, there's so much value, that's so
much fun, and that's so much money there is.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
There's a lot of money to be made.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
That I think some of these things, I don't think
we consider it the health hazard that it is.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yet you're the one who said to me earlier before
we started, can you think of a more dangerous profession
in terms of what we've seen this year with influencer
deaths as a whole, as an industry, and I actually
cannot think of.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Just collectively.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I cannot think of a deadlier choice of profession given
these headlines and given all these stories, and again I
just touched on it. There are so many more than
what I mentioned. It wasn't hard to find it all
when you googled, and I thought, wow, we all need
to talk about this, and at least for ourselves, for
our children, and hopefully anyone out listening who is a
social media influencer, just to know that it is risky
(21:38):
for a lot of reasons, and some of it just
has to be based on I guess, staying grounded if
that's possible, and keeping that face to face communication as
the most important part of your day in terms of your.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well who your relationships are with. You need actual people.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Right, well, all, thank you as always spending some time
here with us. Yeah, as we wrap up twenty twenty five,
this how many we've had this prepared for? How long?
A week?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Maybe two, a couple of weeks actually that we've.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Had this thing prepped and ready to go, and every
time we sat down and wanted to do we need
to know what people in a good mood right now.
It's the holidays. Why bring people down with something? So
I'm glad we got it in.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, I am too.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I think it's it's a way to reflect and maybe
a way to correct our behaviors and how we our
relationship with social media period for twenty twenty six. So
that is the hope and we hope you enjoyed listening everyone.
Thank you as always, I made me Robock alongside TJ.
Holmes and we will talk to you soon.
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