She was one woman with many voices, and they all have sadly fallen silent. Stevie Ryan, 33, has died from what the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has ruled as a suicide by hanging, according to PEOPLE. The office confirmed online that the young woman passed away on July 1, but that was all the information available. How heartbreaking. It’s so sad that Stevie’s life has been cut short, just as she was reaching new peaks of personal and professional success.
Stevie first found fame thanks to her YouTube series, Little Loca. From there, she discovered a talent for imitating famous stars like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Her talent would take her offline and on the air, as she had a show, Stevie TV on VH1 from 2012 to 2013. She also was a co-host of Brody Jenner’s E! series, Sex With Brody, which introduced her skills and wonderful personality to a new range of fans.
This apparent suicide didn’t come out of nowhere, as Stevie was open about her struggles with depression. Before her death, she had begun co-hosting the Mentally Ch(ill) podcast, a show “about depression.” On an episode two days before her death, she revealed that her grandfather had passed away, and she was “worried that this is going to send me into a deeper depression.” Stevie, and her podcast co-host Kristen Carney, also discussed suicide.
She was obviously close with her grandfather, paying tribute to him with a heartfelt tweet. “The man of my dreams will now only be in my dreams,” she wrote before she would apparently take her own life. After hearing the news of Stevie’s death, Kristen offered her own tribute. “RIP [Stevie]. The coolest girl I’ve ever known.”
Stevie Kathleen Ryan was born and raised in Victorville, California. She graduated from Silverado High School in 2002, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. While working in various commercial projects, she began posting videos to YouTube. Suddenly, her career took off. “I had realized that people were putting these videos up themselves and it was so new then that I was like ‘What? This is so weird,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2012. “And then I realized, wait, my boyfriend at the time had a little camera and I realized on my laptop that I had an editing thing and I thought, ‘Oh, I can do a little movie too.’” Her “little movies” gained her a lot of fans, and they are all devastated today.
Our thoughts are with Stevie’s family, friends and fans during this heartbreaking time of loss.