Rumours of Lil Tay’s death were greatly exaggerated

As it turns out, Lil Tay is not dead. Which is great, anyone who isn’t extremely young or Extremely Online, might respond, but I had no idea this person was alive in the first place. What on earth is a Lil Tay?

That was certainly what I thought a couple of days ago when Lil Tay’s death and subsequent not-death made headlines. For anyone in a similar state of bewilderment: Lil Tay, who also goes by the names Clare Hope and Tay Tian, is a 15-year-old internet personality and rapper who shot to fame in 2018. What made her famous? Videos in which the baby-faced rapper flaunted large wads of cash and went on outrageous foul-mouthed rants. Shock value, basically. After her 15 minutes of fame, during which she amassed millions of followers, Lil Tay disappeared from the internet and spotlight.

On Wednesday, after five years of silence, Lil Tay returned in the most disturbing way possible: an unsigned statement posted on her Instagram account announced that she had died a “sudden and tragic” death. It also added, in what seemed like an afterthought, that her older brother had died.

Since Lil Tay’s entire online persona was based on shock value, some people immediately wondered whether the announcement of her death might be a hoax. It was. On Thursday, TMZ reported that the viral star was alive and, according to a statement from her family, her Instagram account was “compromised by a third party”. Interestingly, her father and former manager, Christopher Hope, hadn’t said anything about a hack the day before. Instead he’d refused to confirm or deny her death. It’s impossible to say what exactly happened but you can certainly see why there is rampant speculation that this was an attention-seeking stunt rather than a third-party hack.

Did Lil Tay want to be famous? Did she want to be thrust into the spotlight when she was just nine years old? It’s unclear. The rapper went dark in 2018 for a number of reasons including the fact that a video was leaked in which her older brother, Jason – who was 16 at the time – seemed to be coaching her on what to say. Questions about how much Lil Tay was being strong-armed into making content began to swirl – allegations which the family vehemently denied. “No one’s forcing me to do this,” the young star said in a 2018 Nightline interview.

No one might have been holding a gun to Lil Tay’s head demanding that she make videos, but her family certainly didn’t seem shy about monetizing her newfound fame. In 2018, for example, “‘Lil Tay’” was trademarked by the “parent and legal guardian of Claire Eileen Qi Hope” for use on everything from meme images to knit face masks. Lil Tay may not have been forced to turn herself into clickable content at the age of ten, but her family enabled it. They certainly didn’t stop it. Nor did anyone who was supposed to be safeguarding Lil Tay seem to really consider the long-term consequences of viral fame on a child. “Lil Tay is homeschooled now because, even though she had 2 million followers for only two months, she’s too famous,” the Cut said in a recent in-depth profile of the influencer.

Lil Tay is far from the only young person dealing with the ramifications of online fame. Teen Vogue recently ran a sad piece profiling a YouTube star who went viral as a toddler and the resentment “Claire” (her pseudonym in the piece) now feels towards the family who treated her childhood as monetizable content and pressured her into performing. “Once, [Claire] told her dad she didn’t want to do YouTube videos anymore,” Teen Vogue notes, “and he told her they would have to move out of their house and her parents would have to go back to work, leaving no money for ‘nice things’”

We’ve now reached the point where the first generation of online kidfluencers are coming of age and starting to speak out about how the monetization of their childhoods has affected them. Lil Tay may be alive, but questions should be asked about her well-being.

Evangelical Christian military vets are snooping on sex workers

The vets-turned-vigilantes are using powerful online surveillance tools in order to help the police get search warrants against sex workers. “They probably really believe that they are going to ‘save someone,’” Kristen DiAngelo, executive director of the advocacy group Sex Workers Outreach Project Sacramento told the Intercept. “And that’s that savior complex. We don’t need saving; we need support and resources.”

Teenage girl dies after being forced to stay in a ‘period hut’ in Nepal

Chhaupadi, the practice of exiling menstruating girls and women to forest shelters, was outlawed in 2005 but still takes place. The last reported death from chhaupadi was in 2019.

The woman telling stories about Palestine through the medium of fashion

Yasmeen Mjalli works with women’s collectives to create the antithesis of fast fashion: sustainable and ethically made clothing that tell stories about the people who have made them. The clothes aren’t just cultural artifacts, they’re acts of resistance. “When the Palestinian flag was banned in 1980, women began embroidering the colours into their dresses in defiance.”

Women chess players fighting back against sexism and sexual harassment

“We are convinced that this harassment and these assaults are still one of the main reasons why women and young girls, especially in their teens, stop playing chess,” an open letter written by a group of female chess players declared.

Ohio voters reject Issue 1 proposal in a win for abortion rights

The proposal would have made it much harder to amend the state constitution. Which, in turn, would have made it harder for Ohio voters to preserve abortion rights through a constitutional amendment in November. This latest vote is yet another reminder that extreme anti-abortion views are not popular in the US but are being pushed by a fanatical minority.

France launches anti-sexism beach patrols

If you’re being bothered on a Marseille beach then you can now use an app, Safer Plage, which dispatches trained mediators to help you. According to a YouGov poll showing 39% of women aged 18 to 34 have suffered some form of harassment on the beach.

The tank tops formerly known as ‘wife beaters’ have now been rebranded as ‘wife pleasers’

TikTok influencers are trying to get the new coinage to stick.

Over 40% of Japanese women born in 2005 may never have children

“[Y]oung people have become less interested in marriage and children amid stagnant wages and deep-seated uncertainty about the future,” the Nikkei reports. “The institute’s National Fertility Survey for 2021 found a surge in the number of unmarried young people who are fine with the idea of staying single for life.”

The week in poisonarchy

A New Zealand supermarket experimenting with an AI-powered meal planning app found that it came out with some unusual concoctions including “bleach-infused rice surprise” and “poison bread sandwiches”. I don’t know if AI is eventually going to kill us all, but this is certainly unappetizing food for thought.