Zuza Beine, the young Instagram content creator who shared her cancer diagnosis with a massive online audience, died Monday morning, her family said Tuesday. She was 14.
Beine, a Wisconsin native, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) at the age of 3 and had been sharing the details of her treatment with 1.8 million followers on her “zuzas_way_to_healing” Instagram account.
“It is with broken hearts that we share that Zuza died yesterday morning,” her family said in a statement posted to her Instagram account. “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.”
Beine had been sharing her health updates on Instagram for several years. She regularly posted videos detailing different aspects of her cancer journey, often speaking candidly in her popular “GRWM (Get Ready With Me)” videos.
Consistent with her frequent updates regarding the ups and downs of her ALM treatment, Beine posted about struggling with relentless pain in the days leading up to her death.
In a video shared on Thursday, she stated, “I’m constantly on pain medicine because my body hurts so, so, so bad.”
One day later, she posted a video with the caption, “I can barely walk right now I’m in so much pain.”
On Sunday, just one day before she died, Beine posted her last video, which highlighted her gratitude for “the tiny things.”
Her family remembered her for her honesty and bravery.
“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,” their statement on Instagram said. “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.”