Heartbroken family reveal teen influencer who documented her 11-year cancer battle has tragically died
The family of 14-year-old influencer Zuza Beine announced her death after battling leukemia for more than a decade.
Zuza documented her final years with cancer on Instagram and TikTok.
She frequently posted updates about her health, get-ready-with-me videos, and dances with her friends.
The Wisconsin based family began documenting her treatment on the Instagram account @Zuzas_Way_To_Healing in 2020 and gained almost two million followers.
Zuza’s family announced her passing on her social media on September 24 and wrote a message to her supporters.
They said: ‘It is with broken hearts that we share that Zuza died yesterday morning.
‘She lived 11 of her 14 years with a relentless cancer, yet lived more fully and gratefully than most. Her being changed us forever, and her dying will too.’
Zuza was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at three years old, which her Instagram bio said she beat five times.
Zuza Beine died at 14 years old after an 11 year battle with acute myeloid leukemia
Zuza documented her life and her treatment on Instagram and TikTok
Acute myeloid leukemia starts in the bone marrow and moves quickly into the blood, according to Cancer.org. Most cases occur in adults.
Throughout the course of her treatment, she’d undergone three bone marrow transplants and multiple rounds of chemotherapy.
She gained an audience of more than two million followers on her TikTok account, positing about her life and treatment as a teen.
In her last videos before her death, Zuza was candid about the ups and downs of her treatment. She talked about how much pain she’d been in because of her illness and even apologized for her absence online due to a seizure.
Zuza said: ‘I’m going to be honest, lately my health has not been the best.
‘Physically and mentally. I have been in so much pain lately. I’m constantly on pain medicine.’
As much as she documented her pain she expressed her gratitude.
Her family took to social media to share the news of her passing with her millions of supporters
Zuza posted about being in immense pain toward the end of her life and even suffered a seizure
In her very last post, she wrote: ‘Being diagnosed with cancer has made me deeply grateful for the everyday things that many people often take for granted.’
She said that her illness had helped her savor food, friendships, family, animals, and even all of the different hairstyles she had thanks to chemotherapy.
Referring to the final video, Zuza’s family explained: ‘It is no coincidence to us that the last video she made captures what she was grateful for—a testament to a life filled with both beauty and suffering.
‘More than anything, she wanted to be a normal, healthy kid. But what made her life so beautiful was how she learned to face the hardest circumstances, like her disease, and still live fully.’
Zuza was also a member of TikTok’s ‘Glow House,’ a content creation group for young women who ‘glow from inside out.’
Her family asked that her supporters donate to a GoFundMe to support the family of her recently deceased uncle.
The page has raised almost $80,000.
