Who was Lil Tay? Her age, real name, and claim to fame

Update: Aug. 10, 1:14pm: TMZ has reported that, in an official statement from her family and from the influencer herself, reports of her death and that of her brother were, in fact, a hoax. The Instagram post claiming her death was the result of a cyberattack, and she even further clarified that Tay Tian is her true legal name, not Claire Hope, as the false post stated.

Update: Aug. 10, 10:24am: According to recent reports from Insider and Daily Mail, no member of Lil Tay’s family nor her manager Harry Tsang has agreed to comment on her alleged death, and Vancouver police have stated that they’ve received no reports of her death, nor do they have any active investigations involving anyone named Claire Hope. It’s entirely possible, then, that her death was a hoax.

At the moment, the wide world of the internet is trying to digest the news that Lil Tay, the viral social media sensation and rapper who has been MIA for a long time, has allegedly passed away unexpectedly. But while many are aware that Tay was way more famous for someone who was that young, the simplest facts about her life might be a question mark for some.

What was Lil Tay’s real name and her age?

While the ones familiar with her videos better know her as “Lil Tay,” her social media moniker, the young star’s real name is claimed by many to be Claire Hope. Her age remains largely unconfirmed — as she shot to fame in 2017-18 thanks to her videos on Instagram and YouTube, she should have been around 13 or older. But based on the many reports of her untimely demise, the viral internet celebrity was 14 at the time of her passing, which means she didn’t meet the required age limit for most of the social media platforms when her accounts were created.

Why was Lil Tay famous?

If we go by her plausible age mentioned in news reports — as well as her own admission — Tay was nine when she shot to fame in 2018 after posting videos to Instagram and on her YouTube channel wherein she was seen bragging and swearing about possessing immense wealth, being the owner of luxury sports cars, and how her toilet, for instance, was worth more than your momma’s rent, while also being decked in Louis Vitton belts and almost always flaunting a stack of cash.

As per Tay, she became “the youngest flexer of the century” and soon earned – in less than a year – over two million followers on Instagram. According to Tay, she used to live in poverty but worked really hard to earn her wealth. She even joined Harvard but soon dropped out. 

So, did the then 9-year-old manage her own Instagram handle, a platform that needs its users to be 13 and above to create their profiles? As per a 2019 article by The Cut, it was Jason Tian (16 at the time), her half-brother, who created and handled her profile. Currently, it can’t be said with certainty whether the brother mentioned in the statement on her account, regarding Tay’s passing, is Jason.

“We have no words to express the unbearable loss and indescribable pain. This outcome was entirely unexpected, and has left us all in shock. Her brother’s passing adds an even more unimaginable depth to our grief.”

Though Tay’s videos often mentioned a rags-to-riches life story for her videos, she was the youngest child of Angela Tian (a real-estate broker) and Christopher J. Hope (an author and attorney).