YouTube star Mel Thompson, a makeup artist who created content for her more than 170,000 subscribers in a series of viral video tutorials on the platform, died Sunday. She was 35.
Puffin Thompson confirmed his “beautiful” wife’s death on Monday via an emotional Instagram post, which has racked up tens of thousands of responses in less than 24 hours. The influencer’s spouse revealed the Tennessee native’s passing while sharing a series of 10 happy snaps of the social media star posing with family and friends — but her official cause of death has yet to be revealed.
“Mel sadly passed away yesterday. We lost a beautiful person,” Puffin told her 58,000 Instagram followers, adding that sharing the news was “really hard.”
He continued, “I’ve had to answer so many texts of people just checking in on her without even knowing of her passing. It’s great to see how loved she was. And she loved all you right back. I’ll continue to love her and miss her forever.”
The burgeoning makeup guru’s mourning husband went on to praise Mel “such a pillar for” their family, despite battling still undisclosed health problems that he claimed left her bedridden.
“And no matter how bad she felt, she would still rub my back when I came and jumped on the bed next to her while she was working tirelessly to put out content,” he said.
A commenter claiming to be one of Thompson’s friends commented on the post and revealed that Mel had reportedly been battling multiple health issues, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The latter disorder consists a “group of inherited disorders that affect your connective tissues — primarily your skin, joints and blood vessel walls,” according to the Mayo Clinic. People with Ehlers-Danlos are at a higher risk of injury as their connective tissues fail to provide the support their skin, joints, blood vessels and other organs need to function. There is no cure for the genetic disease, and treatment is usually focused on managing its symptoms.
Highly flexible joints due to a mutation in their collagen production means they can easily dislocate a knee or shoulder while performing everyday activities. In others, degraded connective tissues result in weakened blood vessels, making those patients prone to internal bleeding. And It’s not unusual for sufferers to require extreme intervention at an early age, such as hip-replacement surgery in patients under the age of 20.
Thompson’s YouTube channel was promptly packed with tributes from her many fans, as well as messages from fellow YouTube makeup stars such as James S. Welsh and Lisa Eldridge, the Daily Mail reported.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Hindash, a Dubai-based cosmetics giant with 1.2 million followers, posted in the comments of Puffin’s announcement. “Heartbreaking news.”
Mel’s final video was posted three days ago with a typically upbeat salutation: “Hey Beauties!”