Goodbye, Lynja

I have some terrible news. Today, we lost the internet’s grandma. Please, if you’re watching this video, play it all the way to the very end: Lynja’s family requested I donate all proceeds to her favorite animal shelter, so this will help donate the most money possible and save more animals in honor of Lynja.

@cookingwithlynja, I miss you already, and I’ll remember you forever. Rest in peace.

Monmouth County Animal Shelter – https://monmouthcountyspca.org/support/donate/

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Lynja’s gone. I wasn’t supposed to post this video. I never even wanted to make this video. As I’m sure you know, Lynja was one of the most popular food creators in the entire world with over 35 million followers. Her videos were fast-paced and youthful, really well edited,

And always had her trademark raspy voice, which, if you didn’t already know, was from her cancer. She passed away on January 1st, 2024. Losing your loved ones sucks. And in just the past year or so, I’ve already lost my amazing hamster, Pesto, and then just

Before the holidays, we lost my family dog, Leo, who was one of my best friends ever since I was a kid. And then it happened with Lynja. And talking about it isn’t fun or easy. But I’m going to do it anyways. I’ve waited a few weeks to make this video

In hopes that I’ll get through it without crying again. And it’s going to start by showing you a screenshot of the very first DM I sent Linja. But first, I need you to listen carefully. Now that you’ve started this video, my only ask is that you let it play through all the

Way to the very end. And there’s a simple reason. Lynja’s family asked that I donate all proceeds from this video to her favorite animal shelter. So whether this video is playing on your TV, your phone, your tablet, your laptop, whatever it may be, just help me out and play it all

The way until you see that black screen at the end so we can donate the most money possible for Lynja. My very first message to Lynja was a DM on Instagram on December 3rd of 2020 at approximately 12:28 in the morning. I wrote, hey, you up? To which she replied, no. I’m kidding.

What it actually said was, hey, would love to collab on something. Saw you on TikTok. Let me know if you’re up for it. She replied, yeah, for sure. Gotta be something simple though. Your skills are far greater. And I said, no way. And that we had to make a video together.

After I got her number and we decided to schedule a phone call, she threw a bit of a curveball at me. By the way, I’m a 24-year-old who shoots, edits, and writes the scripts, and my mom is the cook. So here I am, thinking I’m rizzing up this grandma. And it’s working.

But it turned out I’d been catfished by her son the entire time. Isn’t that right, Tim? Yes, but I don’t know if it was working. Tim now happens to be one of my best friends, which is why I’d sometimes get messages like this, or like this, or like this.

You should see the ones he sends me, guys. This is one of my favorite stories ever. Please, Tim, tell us how Cooking with Lynja started. So I haven’t told many people this story. Before Cooking with Lynja started, I was working as a videographer for US Soccer, and my mom was retired.

She just had a great career at AT&T. 30 years. 30 years. Imagine working somewhere for 30 years. Then in 2019, COVID happened. I think we all remember that. I got fired, I guess, basically, because all soccer was canceled. I had no job, and it was just me and my mom hanging out.

And right around that same time, Lynja got diagnosed with throat cancer. And she was stuck at home, too, because she couldn’t go outside due to health reasons with COVID. She could not risk it. I wanted to keep my skills sharp on shooting and editing. Then one day, I combined my filming and editing

Skills with Lynja’s cooking skills. And we just made a video for fun. And then I posted it on YouTube, since it was the easiest way to share it with our family and friends. And that’s how Cooking with Lynja started. So how many views did that video get?

I think I got a total of eight views. And I think seven of them were me and my mom rewatching it. Me and my mom had so much fun with this video that we just started to make more videos. As we’re shooting Cooking with Lynja, we made over

100 videos before we got our first 100 views. Think about that. But here’s where things got crazy. I posted this breakfast sandwich video, not thinking much of it. Me and my mom went to bed, and when we woke up, it had 300,000 views. And for us, that’s like all-time record.

I thought I was Steven Spielberg. Our first viral video. When I woke up and I saw the numbers, I called my mom immediately. I told her 300,000. She thought it was 3,000. And I keep telling her, 300,000, 300,000. And she just did not believe me. So what’d she say?

She thought I hacked “the TikTok”. Now, at this point in the story, here’s where things got even more insane. Lynja’s videos suddenly started averaging millions of views, some getting more than 200 million views for just a single video. The views were rolling in. The money was rolling in.

Hahah, Tim! I knew you were going to say that. Fans started recognizing her anywhere she went, all over the world and asking her for photos. She partnered with all sorts of brands like Google and McDonald’s, and then the awards started rolling in. She was listed to the Forbes 50 over 50

List, and then won several Streamy awards for the food and editing categories. I think she has one more than you, actually. She’d been unanimously crowned as the internet’s favorite grandma. And behind all the fame, she celebrated her biggest victory of them all, successfully pushing away her throat cancer.

She made a bunch of cookies too for the employees that helped her out. But then things changed. In 2021, she was diagnosed with another, even more rare form of cancer called esophageal cancer. But that still didn’t stop her. In fact, it only seemed to make her want to do even more.

When I think about Lynja, I think of someone who did so many things, did so much. Can you tell us a few of those things that people watching might not know? Yeah, why don’t I just give you guys five fun facts. First, how she got her name.

Most people think it’s a Japanese name because she’s Japanese. Some people think we misspelled Linda. But my mom has four kids. And when we were growing up, we were her Teenage Mutant Lynja Turtles. So that’s how she got the name. Another thing she did in her life was she

Was a volunteer EMT for 20 years. She was the president of the EMT squad up until her last year. Fact number three, when Lynja was in college at MIT, she wanted to donate blood, but she was too light. She weighed under the required 110 pounds limit. So she put on her baggiest clothes.

She put on boots, a backpack. Just so that people wouldn’t even question if she was under the weight. And she went through all that trouble just to donate blood and help people. Fact number four, Lynja has eight marathons under her belt. And during one of them, she broke her knee

At mile seven and still ran the rest of the marathon. Mile seven? Think about that. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you run two miles. And fact number five, Lynja’s the oldest person to have 10 million subscribers on YouTube. Which is insane. In the whole entire world. Yep.

And Nick, you became one of her best friends ever. So I bet you have some crazy stories or facts about her too. I do. I do. In fact, before we get into Lynja’s final days, I want to talk about this top 10 highlight reel that I made of my favorite memories with her.

But I actually kind of want you to be surprised by them. Oh, that’s my cue to get out of here? I’ll start with highlight number 10 and move all the way up to highlight number one. Number 10 being when me and Lynja got our own billboards in Times Square.

I don’t know why I have such a strong memory of this, but I just remember standing there with Lynja in the craziest city in the world. And there we are up on these big giant screens. Lynja was so tiny compared to that screen. And… I’ll never forget it.

Before I move on to number nine, in memory of this, I thought it’d be fun to get her another billboard. So we’ve already created another one that’s going to go up for her sometime in February. Maybe she’ll be able to see it from all the way up above. Number nine is meeting fans.

I loved meeting fans with Lynja. We got to meet people from all over the world. Lynja and I are actually both a little bit quiet and shy, and I think that’s one of the reasons we got along so well. But we always loved meeting all those people that supported us.

Number eight is just all the times you got to hang out. A lot of the time after we would finish filming, we’d go get different meals together and just share a bunch of stories and laughs over some good food. And other times she’d come back to my apartment,

We’d hang out with my hamster, Pesto, or my puppy, Pepper. Lynja loved Pesto so, so much. She always tried to feed Pesto different things, and I said, no, Lynja, Pesto’s gonna get sick if you feed him this stuff, but she didn’t care. She just fed him anyway, because they both had

A sweet tooth. Number seven is the Streamy Awards. And if you don’t know what those are, those are basically the awards for the best creators in all of social media, and they give them out every single year. And when we were at the award show last

Year, I have this distinct memory of Lynja standing there with all these photographers and flashing lights and cameras, and she’s getting lit up by cameras from every single angle, and they all thought she was so cute, because she is. Lynja ended up winning so many awards over the years.

And I just thought it made her really happy to get those. So I always loved being there to see that happen. Number six is this trip that we got to do in Italy together. Lynja loved traveling and this trip was so much fun. She’d never been to Italy before.

We got to go to the Parmesan cheese factory. We rented this beautiful Airbnb by the ocean and the house had all these lemon trees. And at this point in time, Lynja was just really tired, but we were still walking as much as we could, exploring Italy and having so much fun.

Which leads me to number five. We’re in the top five now, our Japan trip. That was probably one of my favorite trips I’ve ever done in my life. And I know Lynja loved it even more. One of the coolest things is we played real-life Mario Kart.

We got to do these go-karts all through Tokyo. And I just remember how much fun Lynja had. And I also know one of her favorite parts of that trip was when we went to this place called Nara, where they have all these deer who bow down to you and ask you for food.

And Lynja always really loved animals. So I think this meant a lot to her. We had so many great dinners, especially this one all-you-can-eat sushi place where we saw how many pieces of sushi Lynja could eat. Then we even went to this knife factory there

And we took this really funny picture that I always laugh about every time I see it. And Lynja loved matcha, so she got to eat a lot of different types of matcha and we had so many great dinners when we were there. So that was just such a great trip.

And that brings me to number four, our Guinness World Records. It all started off when I was at Lynja’s house filming this little cake pop video. We made this big cake pop and we thought it was the biggest cake pop in the world. But Guinness World Records replied and said that actually

It wasn’t. So we ended up deciding to go and actually break that record. And that’s how our whole thing with Guinness World Records actually started. And that ended up leading us to things like visiting the most fast food restaurants in just 24 hours, where we walked around for the entire day.

I think we walked about 10 miles. We just visited as many places as we could and took so many funny photos. We also made the world’s largest sushi roll, which was a crazy, crazy project that made one of the biggest messes I think we ever made making a video.

And we made this huge donut that ended up in the new Guinness World Records book. We spent so much time together breaking all of these records. And I know Linja loved the challenge. She was always so quietly competitive and just, I think loved how difficult these were and loved that

We were able to actually successfully do all of them. Number three is our first ever collab, because without that, nothing would have ever happened. When we met the first time, we actually filmed a few videos that we then released over the next couple of months.

But there’s one video that stands out to me above all the rest that I’m going to play for you right now. It has a little bit of everything that I love about Lynja in there. Let’s make homemade pasta. Get out of my video, Nick! Crack 12 eggs. Keep the yolks.

Then pour out your flour. Make a nice crater. Nice! Pour in your yolks. Mix it into the flour until you have a nice dough. Knead faster! I’m sorry, Lynja! I didn’t mean to yell at you before! Cut the dough into quarters, and they should be nice triangles.

Flour the board and roll out the dough. Make Nick bring in the mixer and make him make pasta sheets. It should be one Lynja length long. Cut it into fettuccine and finally cook it in your sauce. Here’s Henry, my chive plant. Serve and top with chives. Cheers. That’s what I’m talking about.

This now brings us to number two, which is collabs with other creators. Lynja and I sort of ended up becoming known as a package deal. I always like to look at me and Lynja as sort of similar to The Rock and Kevin Hart. We just made such a great pair.

So we ended up doing so many different collabs with people. And I think eventually they just realized that Lynja and I were gonna be together a lot of the time. And it was because we had so much fun together and because we worked so well together.

And that brings me now all the way to number one. Which is the little things. The things that we never caught on camera. Like Lynja laughing, or her yelling at me and scolding me, which she actually did quite a bit. Or just even hugging Lynja, because she was so

Small and I had to kind of bend down a ton, almost go down to my knees to give her a hug. Just the little things. If I had them all, I’d probably share some of them, but I don’t. I just have the memories. And this brings me to the final part of

The video which is Lynja’s last moments. On one of the last days of 2023, right around Christmas time, I got a message from Tim saying she wasn’t doing so well and I didn’t even know what to say. I was traveling internationally for the holidays with my

Family and it was clear that Lynja didn’t have too much time left. So the best thing I could do at the time was say goodbye to her over a video call. It was really hard for me not to be there in person, but our conversation is one that I will never forget.

It’s a conversation that I’ll ultimately keep to myself, but what I can say is that she looked so happy, so proud, so loved. She looked like her normal self. And when I close my eyes, I can still see her in that exact moment. I get shivers just thinking about it.

When I let a couple of her closest friends and creators know, we all decided to come together and try to make her a quick last video that she could watch. Something that showed how much we truly all appreciated her. I asked all those people for permission to share

Some of this, and here’s what some of us wanted to say. Hey, Lynja, Manny here. I just want to say I feel so incredibly lucky that I got to work directly with you while being Nick’s cameraman. Something I’ve always admired about you is that no

Matter how hard a shoot gets, you always have a positive outlook. I love you, and I’m wishing you all the best, Lynja. Hey, Lynja, just want to say hello and thank you for the great memories we shared together, whether that was going on a New York City pizza

Crawl or going to the Brooklyn Chocolate Factory eating chocolate all day. I know how much of a sweet person you are. Hey, Lynja, it’s Q. Ignore my ugly mustache. You guys seriously together created one of the craziest things of all time. So happy to be a part of it.

So happy that we could be friends in the journey, and it’s amazing how the cooking space is so personal, and we’re all happy to be a part of it together. Hey, Lynja. It’s Benny. Just calling to say hey. Well, videoing to say hey. You’re just so special, and you bring a joy

To every room you go into, and anyone I ever come in contact with that knows you says you’re just the best, and you’re like an angel sent from heaven and I don’t know I just thought you should know that you’re the best. She spent the rest of her time peacefully surrounded

By her loving family and when Lynja passed away on New Year’s Day the whole world went silent for a moment. I truly believe that. I remember getting the news and feeling a little piece of myself just fade away. Once Tim broke the news to the public on

Lynja’s accounts, everybody on the internet was heartbroken. I saw the biggest streamers in the world react to her death. I saw so many incredible comments from fans that I actually screenshotted a bunch of them to share with you here. One of them said, cancer always seems to take

The best people the world has to offer. Another talked about how if this person hadn’t found out she had cancer, they would have never known because she kept it so well hidden. And a similar one talked about how she’d been battling cancer for her entire online career, which is incredible and true.

And the last one, for some reason of all the comments out there, made me tear up the most. It talked about how as time went on, her content was more and more about traveling the world because she seemed like she knew something was coming and she wanted to see the world before that

Happened. And I’m so glad we could bring her to so many places. There were a lot of different comments about people around the world crying over Lynja’s death, but the one I want to specifically call out here said, I never thought I would cry over someone that

I’ve never met, but here she is proving me wrong. You really did touch so many hearts, Lynja. We love you so much. Rest in peace. It is crazy to think about the fact that you can get to know somebody so well through just a screen that you’re that hurt by their passing.

And the last section of comments talked about how she was the internet’s favorite grandma. And it made me really happy to see that everybody agreed on this fact. This one comment that said they felt like they lost another grandmother, that one’s pretty real. But I want to finish this comment discussion with

One last final comment that said, she wouldn’t want us to be sad. She’d want us to be happy that she was there for us. I love that comment. I’ll remember Lynja for her fun-loving energy, her selflessness and care for those around her, her constant willingness to explore and travel, and her incredible strength.

She will forever be an inspiration to us all, and we should all feel so lucky that we got to share a small piece of her life with her. She might be gone, but her videos will live on forever. I love you, Lynja. Anything else, mom? Can’t wait to see you.

It’s been a long time.