Lynn Yamada Davis, the well-known social media personality behind Cooking with Lynja, has passed away. She was 67 years old. Davis passed away on January 1st, 2024, at Riverview Medical Center in New Jersey. Hannah Mariko Shofet, her daughter, told The New York Times that her mother died of esophageal cancer.
According to The New York Times, Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019 and esophageal cancer in 2021.
The TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube content maker was noted for her over-the-top, comedically edited cookery videos, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before her son, Tim, began uploading videos of her on TikTok, the mother of four and grandmother of two told PEOPLE last summer that she had “no idea” what it was.
Davis’s filmmaker son invited her to take part in a month-long project to capture a video every day during the beginning of the pandemic. However, as the lockdown wore on, the mother-son team continued to produce cooking videos for YouTube and, eventually, TikTok, with Tim behind the camera and Davis taking center stage.
“He’s the one who writes the script. He’s the one who does the videography. He does all the editing. So, he really is the genius behind Cooking with Lynja. I just show up,” Davis explained.
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The former software engineer’s hilarious bacon, egg, and cheese cookery video blew up online a few months after she began sharing the films, and her fame “just started growing after that.”
More than three years later, the Cooking with Lynja TikTok page has 17.5 million followers, her YouTube channel has about 10 million subscribers, and her Instagram account has over two million followers.
Davis worked as an engineer before becoming famous on social media. Following her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she worked for the federal government to make federal facilities more accessible. She then attended Columbia University and received her MBA and MPH before working at AT&T Labs. During her 29 years here, she worked as a systems engineer and project manager.
“She had this whole chapter as a groundbreaking female engineer, and she was very proud of that,” Shofet said to The New York Times.
While fans’ requests for Davis to be their grandmother are kind, Davis told PEOPLE that one of the greatest aspects of her internet celebrity has been the travel chances.
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Last summer, she visited Japan with longtime partner and fellow food TikToker Nick DiGiovanni. Davis attended the Forbes Women’s Summit in the United Arab Emirates in 2022, where she was recognized as one of Forbes’ Top 50 Over 50 Creators and earned a Streamy Award in the editing and cuisine categories.
More than the travel, Davis appreciated the opportunity to spend time with her family while participating in Cooking with Lynja.
“It’s definitely a big family affair for us, and it’s very nice,” she said. “We have lots of family memories from this time. It’s just wonderful.”
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Her social media sites have remained active since her death. According to The New York Times, Davis asked Tim to continue posting modified videos. Tim assured the newspaper that the account would stop posting after the last Cooking with Lynja videos featuring Davis were uploaded.
“It’s a joy to wake up and know you’re going to have a good day,” Davis said of her influencer life. “It is a lovely change in my life, definitely.”
