Lil Tay's rise to cringe: How a little rosy-cheeked 9-year-old flexer became Internet's 'worst enemy'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: On August 9, Lil Tay was reported dead via a statement posted on her official Instagram page. The statement revealed that the young YouTuber suddenly died at the age of 14 and further mentioned that her brother, Jason Tian, has also reportedly passed away.
It also said that the circumstances surrounding the death of the siblings “are still under investigation.” Despite the statement, Tay's father, Christopher Hope, allegedly refrained from confirming the passing of his daughter and sparked a major speculation surrounding the circumstances of her death.
Media reports revealed that Hope allegedly said "he could not comment on the Instagram post" about Tay's death and that he "declined to answer whether his daughter was still alive."
After her death, many have expressed grief online. But before that, she was the Internet's 'worst enemy'. Dimunitive, foul-mouthed and brash were all part of Lil Tay's 'charm'.
Picture this: An expensive Rolls Royce, a braggy driver in the front seat, flashing stacks of dollars with a Blaccent so vivid it's beyond cringe-worthy.
To top it off, these outrageous, devil-may-care profanities and 'lighting up' carrots like joints is all being done by a nine-year-old.
If there's one thing that riles up people more than influencers is influencers who are all about 'flexing' on the internet. They talk big money, bigger games, and constantly diss other people for not living life at their level.
Now imagine all of these clustered into a tiny, blonde-headed, rosy-cheeked little girl, who instead of attending middle school was busy picking fights with other aspiring celebrities. No wonder the Internet hated Li'l Tay. The distaste has transformed into distrust in the wake of her parental abuse controversy.
Li'l Tay's journey begins in the rosy paradise of Los Angeles, 2017, where, armed with her fierce mother Angela Tian and allegedly coached by her clout-hungry brother Jason, she rose to the ranks of some of the most hated celebrities. It began with her bragging on the internet about just anything.
Her toilet cost more than "your mama's rent", but so does her wardrobe and jewelry, she would brag on her Instagram account.
With a kitchen that she claimed was bigger than her audience's living room, and flashing Gucci belts on her chest like sashes, Li'l Tay's entire personality was something crafted out of an outrageous nightmare. Her fame-mongering tactics, even more ridiculous.
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One of the earliest Li'l Tay moments in pop culture — the incident that initiated her rise towards some 2.5 million Instagram followers — was the Woah Vicky-Bhad Bhabie fight. Like many things pop and influencer culture related, this too was a staged incident.
It was scheduled to mellow the feud between Bhad Bhabie and Woah Vicky which had erupted with the latter allegedly dropping a racial slur on the other's friend on a video.
Meeting at the Americana Mall in Glendale, Bhab Bhabie told Woah Vicky “put your bag down, tough stuff.” This was as good an invitation for a fistfight could get, but instead of the awkwardly smiling Vicky, it was a bubblegum pink hoodie-clad tiny little thing that immediately prompted "You tryna fight?"
It was almost caricaturish but ended up solidifying the thus-far tiny source of spitfires and profanity as an internet sensation. Looking up from an escalator to a departing Bhad Bhabie, Li'l Tay screamed "B***h", and that was it.
Perhaps it was the oddly-placed words coming from that cherubic face or that immediate shock of an alleged nine-year-old swearing on the Internet — the likes of feuding Instagram and Soundcloud rappers had a new young face and not in a positive way.
Li'l Tay was all about a rags-to-riches story told in the most demeaning manner possible. She had allegedly grown up “broke as hell” in Atlanta, her success a result of hard work “moving bricks.”
She also went to Harvard apparently but dropped out. And by the time everyone on Google was searching just who this little fireball is, Li'l Tay was already bragging about finally living in “the hills”.
It was still fine in the early phases, with Li'l Tay trying to attract an audience based on attacking other celebrities and fellow bloggers with diss tracks aimed at them.
The Internet, however, couldn't handle the outrageous nature of her claims, even though she had garnered quite the audience. Maybe there's only so much of “B***h, I just bought a Lamborghini! Y’all b***hes can’t afford this s**t, OK? I’m only nine years old, but I’m the youngest flexer of the century!” that one can take.
At this point, it seemed a bit extreme to hate on a little kid bragging about being rich on the Internet. But there's a difference between Stormi Webster hoping for a Birkin for her birthday, and a budding rapper constantly rubbing in her audience's face how they couldn't reach her level.
This spurred the Internet to dig in further and deeper into the origin story of their growing nemesis. And the Internet found sufficient respite in knowing that Lil Tay was just an avatar meticulously crafter for clout by yet another fame-hungry teenager — her brother, Jason Tian.
Jason, it was alleged, used to be in the diss track subculture of YouTube, where his videos never really found an audience or any moiety of fame. So he allegedly went dark, took his YouTube account down, and was never heard from again for a significant period of time.
Jason's brand of entertainment had nothing shocking to showcase; everybody was picking fights and challenging everybody and a 16-year-old addition to the culture was not going to stand out. That's when Jason hatched the perfect plan. He created a persona filled with all the sharp profanity he wanted to scream at celebrities, packaged into the body of a little girl. Now that's brand new — you don't just hear little kids cursing on the camera everyday. That she was doing it to just flex only made the commodity more profitable.
Videos of Lil Tay being coached by a male voice — allegedly Jason's — to curse and swear on camera soon went viral. People found it even more repelling than the whole little kid bragging about riches narrative.
Things got even better when it was revealed that the toilet Lil Tay bragged about was from the various homes her ex-real estate agent mom had on the market. The car Lil Tay would ride was also revealed to be a vehicle her mother had borrowed from a coworker that ultimately led to her resigning from the company.
The apparent fraud was accepted with both outrage and glee by the Internet. Everybody was thrilled that this little kid was nowhere near the riches she bragged of, but in the years to come, this happiness would turn into questionable distrust towards the family.
In late 2018, Lil Tay suddenly disappeared as quickly as she had found Internet fame. People grew worried, but by then, Jason had already alleged abuse from Lil Tay's father, who shared joint custody privilege over his daughter. Lil Tay's father allegedly wanted her to have some structure — or a field of talent to focus on, should she want to live in Los Angeles.
Speaking with The Cut, Christopher J Hope had sounded hopeless about his daughter being known for "flexing on the internet". Born as Claire Eileen Qi Hope, Lil Tay was soon brought back to Vancouver, Canada under a court order that also demanded deactivating the Instagram account that Jason had expertly controlled, managed, and curated over these years.
Feeling jilted, Jason attempted starting a #FreeLilTay T-shirt campaign, the girl's former manager told the outlet. By mid-2018, the Instagram account he ran under her name started alleging photo evidence of Hope and his current girlfriend's abuse that his daughter had to endure.
These claims recently made rounds on the Internet once again, with a video shared from the account showing Li'l Tay looking at a phone and immediately breaking down into tears. Her brother Jason writes in the caption that this was Li'l Tay's reaction, almost three years ago, when she learned her father had filed for primary custody over her, her money and her assets.
The narrative spins Hope as fame and money-hungry negligent parent who had also allegedly been dragged to court several times for being abusive towards his child. Jason also alleged that all of Li'l Tay's money has been used up in her legal fees and prompted her fans to donate on a GoFundMe account under her name as the custody battle begins.
The Internet however hasn't forgotten the way the facade Li'l Tay and her brother tricked them into buying. Sufficiently suspicious about the credibility of Jason's claims, social media wants to hear from Li'l Tay herself.
There's no second testimony legitimizing the reasons behind the GoFundMe, and the Internet has clearly had enough of this family. The Internet also hasn't forgotten how Li'l Tay told live audience on 'Good Morning America' that she wasn't being coached as speculations claimed; "It's all me," she had said. Looks like the Internet remembers that all too well to not fund more than $7000 out of their $150k plea from them.