An influencer with soul: Who was Indo-Canadian TikTok celebrity Megha Thakur who died suddenly at 21?

She had model-like features, sculpted abs and dance moves that could put many dancers to shame. But Indo-Canadian Instagram influencer and TikTok celebrity Megha Thakur, 21, who was known to advocate body positivity, was so much more. Her recent yet sudden demise has shocked the world and left social media to once again become a world of just perfect bodies and sponsored posts.

While the parents of the 21-year-old shared the news of her passing away over the weekend, it has been reported that Thakur died on 24 November. In an Instagram post on her account, they wrote: “It is with heavy hearts we announce the light of our life, our kind, caring, and beautiful daughter, Megha Thakur, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on 24 November 2022 in the early morning hours.”

“Megha was a confident and independent young woman. She will be dearly missed. She loved her fans and would have wanted you to know of her passing. At this time, we request your blessings for Megha. Your thoughts and prayers will be with her in her onward journey,” they added.

Who is Megha Thakur?

Born on 17 July 2001 in Indore, Megha’s move to Canada happened as her parents relocated to Brampton when she was just a year old.

After passing out from Mayfield Secondary School in 2019, she joined the Western University. In 2019, the year she joined TikTok, she also walked the ramp at the Canadian Asian International Students Association (CAISA) Fashion Show.

Since joining the famous social media platform, she acquired a mass following — she had more than 930k followers on TikTok and over 100,000 followers on Instagram.

Her posts on social media often included references to popular celebrities like billionaire Kylie Jenner and supermodel Bella Hadid.

Besides her TikTok account, Thakur launched a podcast series called MeghaMind where she spoke openly about mental health and spirituality.

An influencer unlike others

In a world where reels, videos and images of perfect bodies and highly filtered faces is consumed like popcorn, Megha Thakur’s posts helped made her such a hit on social media.

She shared real moments from her life — photographs and videos with smudged makeup and tears rolling down her face to show her vulnerability and to prove that one could never be loved by all and that trolls attacked anyone and everyone.

Her messaging on mental health and body positivity didn’t come across preachy or boring as she delivered her thoughts dressed in the chicest clothes and a fistful of aplomb.

Thakur was courageous; despite the hate she garnered on social media, she didn’t veer from her path of presenting her true self — one of her videos on Instagram show her acne-ridden skins, which she captioned: “Sometimes I forget who I am when I come on here. Consuming an endless amount of opinions, lifestyles, beauty standards, updates, tragedies, promotions, scandals, privilege, and so much more makes me forget my own story and why I came on here in the first place — so I made this to never forget again.”

Outpouring of grief

The news of Thakur’s demise — the reasons for her death are still unknown, though some have reported that anxiety and severe stress caused a heart attack — led to an outpouring of grief on social media.

Fans and netizens were left shell-shocked at the news, with some saying that it was Thakur who showed them how “freeing and beautiful it is to be unapologetically yourself”.

Another follower wrote, “”I know she is dancing and setting trends in heaven. RIP.”

Even though Thakur has passed on, her messaging of self-love and confidence, which she spoke of in her last ever social media post, will live on through the years.

With inputs from agencies

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