Lynn Yamada Davis. Not everybody knew her by her real name, but everyone remembered her as Lynja. Lynja is an inspiring TikTok creator known for her ridiculous and charismatic cooking videos. Lynja was known by many as ‘that one old lady’ from ‘cookingwithlynja’ on TikTok. Her account has over 21 million followers and 336 million likes on TikTok. Lynja began creating videos on YouTube when one of her two sons, Tim Davis, proposed that they start using this platform to help him improve his editing skills.

Eventually, Tim decided to start posting some of his editing with the help of his mother on TikTok during the pandemic in 2020. At this time, Lynja was around the age of 63. Since then, Lynja has been posting funny and unique videos where she could expand her following and was able to grow an audience of many loving people successfully…that was until January 1st, 2024.

Unfortunately, Lynja was revealed to have passed away on New Year’s Day of 2024 at the young age of 67. Although she passed away at the beginning of the new year, it wasn’t until January 12th that the rest of the world, including most of her followers, were informed of Lynja’s passing. This is because Lynja had asked for her son to continue posting videos they already had of her on her behalf before she passed. After all, she wanted her account to stay active for the viewers she loved to enjoy, even after her untimely death. According to the New York Times, Lynja revealed that she had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019, and in 2021, she was also diagnosed with esophageal cancer. That same year, she was able to finish her cancer treatment and even made a TikTok video in which she decided to bake delicious treats for the doctors who helped her during her cancer treatment journey. But in the end, esophageal cancer turned out to be the cause of her death.

In an interview with Forbes on YouTube called ‘TikTok Famous At 66: How Lynja Got 11 Million Followers In Her Second Career | Forbes’, Lynja expressed: ”I have to say that when we started, I was pretty introverted and very self-conscious, and Tim got me out of that.” Lynja’s first videos started as her making regular recipe videos on how to cook or bake foods; her son’s editing skills were much different than they are now. At first, he used transitions and music solely without showing much of his mother’s personality. After they started posting videos on TikTok, Lynja began to express herself more over the years, and her son changed his editing style to suit his mother’s silly side.

Lynja’s personality and her son’s editing created a TikTok page filled with laughter and joy that stuck in people’s lives worldwide, whether they watched her videos for easy recipes, had a good laugh, or both. Lynja impacted people’s lives with her cooking and the lively energy she provided while on camera.