Jessica Pettway, the YouTuber who spent over a decade sharing beauty and lifestyle content with her massive following, died on March 13 after a battle with cervical cancer. She was 36.
Her sister, Reyni, whose Instagram account is private, shared the news on Friday, March 15, according to E! News.
“It’s my birthday today, and the only thing I could ever wish for is for God to bring you back on this earth,” she wrote. “I lost my beautiful big sister 2 days ago and my heart has never felt pain like this.”
Pettway first shared that she was battling stage III cervical cancer in July 2023 after doctors had misdiagnosed and treated her for fibroids, which are benign tumors on the uterus. She had privately begun treatment for the cancer five months prior.
In an Instagram post announcing her diagnosis last year, Pettway shared vivid details of her experience in hopes that “at least one person is encouraged” by her story.
It started when Pettway noticed she was experiencing “intense” vaginal bleeding in 2022, which, after consulting some friends, she brushed aside as normal. Then, one month later, her husband found her unresponsive in their bathroom.
“I had literally passed away,” she explained in a post from July 31, 2023. “He called on Jesus to bring me back and I came back. I was rushed to the hospital, where they told me that the extreme blood loss was due to ‘fibroids.’”
Several more hospitalizations followed for similar instances of severe bleeding, then “labor-like pains.” She finally received the correct diagnosis in February 2023.
“I remember hearing that and immediately saying to myself, ‘I refuse to make an agreement with that diagnosis.’ And so I didn’t. Being told I have cancer didn’t devastate me,” she wrote. “It was the reaction of those close to me. I knew that God is my healer and that no weapon formed against me, not even cancer, would prosper. I knew that I am more than a conqueror and that I will get through this.”
The beauty influencer joined YouTube in 2013, posting 450 videos over the past 10 years and amassing more than 225,000 subscribers. Though she had not posted to YouTube in over a year, her fans flocked to her YouTube and Instagram comments to share their thoughts on her passing.
Reyni added that her sister was “amazing, strong, confident” and someone “with so much wisdom, prayed for me, and helped me become a better mother.”
Pettway is survived by her husband of 12 years, Michael, as well as their daughters, Kailee, 10, and Zoi Lee, 3.
