'Cooking with Lynja' TikTok star passes away at 67
The much-loved food TikTok star behind Cooking with Lynja has died. She was 67.
Her daughter, Hannah Mariko Shofet, revealed the death of content creator Lynn Yamada Davis to The New York Times, saying it was due to esophageal cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2021. Davis passed away on Jan. 1 at Riverview Medical Center in New Jersey.
Davis started her social media pages at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with the help of her son, Tim, who was in charge of posting her videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Tim recorded and uploaded cooking clips of her every day for a project that lasted for a month.
Her video featuring bacon, egg, and cheese went viral online, which marked the beginning of her social media fame as it helped increase her engagement on her digital platforms.
As of writing, she has garnered 17.5 million followers on TikTok, nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube, and over 2 million followers on Instagram.
NYT reported that Tim will post the remaining cooking videos he has of Davis, but her pages will no longer be active when all of them are shared.
Davis was an engineer before she entered the social media scene. Armed with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PEOPLE Magazine reported that she worked for the federal government "to make federal buildings accessible." She pursued her MBA and MPH at the Columbia University and went on to work at AT&T Labs as a systems engineer and project manager for almost three decades.
Davis is survived by her four children and two grandkids.
Rest in peace.